ansible parsing json into include_tasks loop - json

Question

I have the following json file called cust.json :
{
"customer":{
"CUST1":{
"zone":"ZONE1",
"site":"ASIA"
},
"CUST2":{
"zone":"ZONE2",
"site":"EUROPE"
}
}
}
I am using this json file in my main.yml to get a list of customers (CUST1 and CUST2).
main.yml:
- name: Include the vars
include_vars:
file: "{{ playbook_dir }}/../default_vars/cust.json"
name: "cust_json"
- name: Generate customer config
include_tasks: create_config.yml
loop: "{{ cust_json.customer }}"
I was hoping the loop will basically pass each customer's code (eg CUST1) to create_config.yml, so that something like the following can happen:
create_config.yml:
- name: Create customer config
block:
- name: create temporary file for customer
tempfile:
path: "/tmp"
state: file
prefix: "my customerconfig_{{ item }}."
suffix: ".tgz"
register: tempfile
- name: Setup other things
include_tasks: "othercustconfigs.yml"
Which will result in :
The following files being generated : /tmp/mycustomerconfig_CUST1 and /tmp/mycustomerconfig_CUST2
The tasks within othercustconfigs.yml be run for CUST1 and CUST2.
Questions :
Running the ansible, it fails at this point:
TASK [myrole : Generate customer config ] ************************************************************************************************************************************************************
fatal: [127.0.0.1]: FAILED! => {
"msg": "Invalid data passed to 'loop', it requires a list, got this instead: {u'CUST1': {u'site': u'ASIA', u'zone': u'ZONE1'}, u'CUST2': {u'site': u'EUROPE', u'zone': uZONE2'}}. Hint: If you passed a list/dict of just one element, try adding wantlist=True to your lookup invocation or use q/query instead of lookup."
}
How do I loop the JSON so that it would get the list of customers (CUST1 and CUST2) correctly? loop: "{{ cust_json.customer }}" clearly doesnt work.
If I manage to get the above working, is it possible to pass the result of the loop to the next include_tasks: "othercustconfigs.yml ? SO basically, passing the looped items from main.yml , then to config.yml, and then to othercustconfigs.yml. Is this possible?
Thanks!!
J

Answer 1

cust_json.customer is a hashmap containing one key for each customer, not a list.
The dict2items filter can transform this hashmap into a list of elements each containing a key and value attribute, e.g:
- key: "CUST1"
value:
zone: "ZONE1"
site: "ASIA"
- key: "CUST2"
value:
zone: "ZONE2"
site: "EUROPE"
With this in mind, you can transform your include to the following:
- name: Generate customer config
include_tasks: create_config.yml
loop: "{{ cust_json.customer | dict2items }}"
and the relevant task in your included file to:
- name: create temporary file for customer
tempfile:
path: "/tmp"
state: file
prefix: "my customerconfig_{{ item.key }}."
suffix: ".tgz"
register: tempfile
Of course you can adapt all this to use the value element where needed, e.g. item.value.site
You can see the following documentations for in depth info and alternative solutions:
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/user_guide/playbooks_filters.html#dict-filter
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/user_guide/playbooks_loops.html#iterating-over-a-dictionary
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/user_guide/playbooks_loops.html#with-dict
https://jinja.palletsprojects.com/en/2.11.x/templates/#dictsort