This topic needs a title

Archives Ansible Project
1

Hi,

I’ve been trying to solve this but I truly still have lots to learn… Could somebody help?

Given that a VM “creation_time” snapshot property has this format: “2024-05-26T10:01:21.219280+00:00”.

How could I build a filter for the “community.vmware.vmware_all_snapshots_info” module that would give me VMs whose snapshots were created 2 weeks ago or older?

  • name: Collect snapshots older than 2 weeks
    community.vmware.vmware_all_snapshots_info:
    datacenter: “{{ datacenter_name }}”
    validate_certs: false
    filters:
    creation_time: “”
    match_type: includes
    register: old_snapshots

Thanks…

Alex

The contents of this message and any attachment(s) are confidential, proprietary to the City of Edmonton, and are intended only for the addressed recipient. If you have received this in error, please disregard the contents, inform the sender of the misdirection, and remove it from your system. The copying, dissemination, or distribution of this message, if misdirected, is strictly prohibited.

2

Alex,

Does this wok for you as i’ve previously used something similar.

Regards

  • name: Gather VMs with snapshots older than 2 weeks
    hosts: localhost
    gather_facts: no
    tasks:

  • name: Get all snapshots info
    community.vmware.vmware_all_snapshots_info:
    hostname: “{{ vcenter_hostname }}”
    username: “{{ vcenter_username }}”
    password: “{{ vcenter_password }}”
    validate_certs: no
    register: snapshots_info

  • name: Filter snapshots older than 2 weeks
    set_fact:
    old_snapshots: “{{ snapshots_info.virtual_machines | selectattr(‘snapshots’, ‘defined’) | selectattr(‘snapshots’, ‘select’, ‘creation_time <= old_date’) }}”
    vars:
    old_date: “{{ (now() - timedelta(weeks=2)).strftime(‘%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S’) }}”

  • name: Display VMs with snapshots older than 2 weeks
    debug:
    var: old_snapshots

3

Hi Stephen,

First of all, thanks for helping…
(Long read ahead, sorry.)

I’m afraid that did not work for me.

I’m collecting all the snapshots using “community.vmware.vmware_all_snapshots_info”:

  • name: Collect snapshots older than 2 weeks
    community.vmware.vmware_all_snapshots_info:
    datacenter: “{{ datacenter_name }}”
    validate_certs: false
    register: snapshots_info

Which does not return “snapshots_info.virtual_machines”. Instead, it returns “snapshots_info.vmware_all_snapshots_info” So, I had to adjust your suggestion to:

  • name: Filter snapshots older than 2 weeks
    ansible.builtin.set_fact:
    old_snapshots: “{{ snapshots_info.vmware_all_snapshots_info | selectattr(‘vm_name’, ‘defined’) | selectattr(‘vm_name’, ‘select’, ‘creation_time <= old_date’) }}”
    vars:
    old_date: “{{ (now() - timedelta(weeks=2)).strftime(‘%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S’) }}”

But that gave me this:
TASK [Filter snapshots older than 2 weeks] *************************************
An exception occurred during task execution. To see the full traceback, use -vvv. The error was: line 0
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {“changed”: false}

So, as a test, I tried to define “old_date” separately using:

  • name: Set 2 weeks ago date
    ansible.builtin.set_fact:
    old_date: “{{ (now() - timedelta(weeks=2)).strftime(‘%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S’) }}”

Which gave me the error below. (That error makes me believe that our environment (AAP 2.4 + Ansible-core 2.15) perhaps is missing something.)
TASK [Set 2 weeks ago date] ****************************************************
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {“msg”: “The task includes an option with an undefined variable. The error was: ‘timedelta’ is undefined. ‘timedelta’ is undefined\n\nThe error appears to be in ‘/runner/project/dealing_with_snapshots.yml’: line 28, column 8, but may\nbe elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.\n\nThe offending line appears to be:\n\n\n - name: Set 2 weeks ago date\n ^ here\n”}

When somehow the “timedelta” error is resolved, do you think I’d be able to populate the “old_date” variable prior to calling " community.vmware.vmware_all_snapshots_info" and then go with something like this? (Sorry for my lack of knowledge if what I’m asking is complete nonsense…)

  • name: Collect snapshots older than 2 weeks
    community.vmware.vmware_all_snapshots_info:
    datacenter: “{{ datacenter_name }}”
    validate_certs: false
    filters:
    creation_time: " {{ selectattr(‘vm_name’, ‘select’, ‘creation_time <= old_date’) }}"
    register: snapshots_info

The reason I’m bringing back the idea of using “filters” from vmware_all_snapshots_info is that it would return a, potentially, much shorter list of VMs for me to deal with.

Regards,

Alex

4

If you don’t have now(), you can probably use this:

old_date: "{{ lookup('ansible.builtin.pipe', 'date -d \"now - 14 days\" +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S') }}"
5

Hello Todd,

After a slight change on your suggestion (space, instead of “T”: +%Y-%m-%d" "%H:%M:%S), I could have “old_date” as a time object:

  • name: Set 2 weeks ago date
    ansible.builtin.set_fact:

old_date: “{{ lookup(‘ansible.builtin.pipe’, ‘date -d "now - 14 days" +%Y-%m-%d" "%H:%M:%S’) | to_datetime }}”

So, now I can use that in Stephen’s suggestion:- name: Filter snapshots older than 2 weeks
ansible.builtin.set_fact:
old_snapshots: “{{ snapshots_info.vmware_all_snapshots_info | selectattr(‘vm_name’, ‘select’, ‘(creation_time <= old_date’) }}”

But that is still erroring out:

TASK [Filter snapshots older than 2 weeks] *************************************

An exception occurred during task execution. To see the full traceback, use -vvv. The error was: line 0

fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {“changed”: false}

I’m very grateful for all your help, but I don’t intend to consume much more of your time with my problem. So, one last question if you don’t mind:
Would I be able to convert “creation_time” which is a string like “2024-05-26T10:01:21.219280+00:00” into a date/time object formatted as “old_date” mentioned up above? (As I think that the error is related to me trying to compare a string to a date/time object.)

Note: “creation_time | to_datetime” does not work. As, in short, it gave me:
“… The error was: time data ‘2024-05-26T10:01:21.219280+00:00’ does not match format ‘%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S’\n\n…”

Again, thank you…

Alex

6

Hello Alex,

That error looks very much like the original error. I don’t have vmware snapshots I can play with, so I (and I presume Stephen Maher) are limited to throwing suggestions over the wall so to speak.

Anyway, my guess is that your creation_time is some complex type - well, more complex than a string anyway, while our Jinja expressions are limited to producing strings. I would be curious to know what “| type_debug” after your creation_time produces. It should show the type of the preceding expression. In any case, I don’t think your old_date ends up being a datetime object since Jinja produces strings. The “| to_datetime” part “wares off” so to speak once the expression is resolved, and you end up with a string. Behold:

utoddl@tango:~/ansible$ **cat test.yml**
---
# test.yml
- name: Date games
  hosts: localhost
  gather_facts: false
  vars:
    old_date: "{{ lookup('ansible.builtin.pipe', 'date -d \"now - 14 days\" +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S') }}"
    start_trigger: "{{ (now(utc=false,fmt='%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S') | to_datetime('%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S')).strftime('%s') }}"
  tasks:
    - name: Set 2 weeks ago date
      ansible.builtin.set_fact:
        new_date: "{{ lookup('ansible.builtin.pipe', 'date -d \"now - 14 days\" +%Y-%m-%d\" \"%H:%M:%S') | to_datetime }}"
    - name: Check types
      ansible.builtin.debug:
        msg:
         - '{{ old_date }}, {{ old_date | type_debug }}'
         - '{{ new_date }}, {{ new_date | type_debug }}'
utoddl@tango:~/ansible$ **ansible-playbook  test.yml**

PLAY [Date games] *********************************************************************************************************

TASK [Set 2 weeks ago date] ***********************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]

TASK [Check types] ********************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => 
  msg:
  - 2024-08-21T23:56:21, AnsibleUnsafeText
  - 2024-08-21 23:56:21, AnsibleUnsafeText

Since the output of date is a string, if you could get create_time to be a string also, you could compare them as strings rather than datetime objects. And you probably only need the “+%Y-%m-%d” part anyway.