Ansible Query how to query inside JSON output - json

Question

I'm asking to a URL API and passing to output to a register. This should be a JSON output.
The first variable "vcclust" JSON, I can extract the "item.cluster" as it's just one level, bad the second output "vchosts" looks, I cant parse to get "item.name" from it and get the hostnames
This is the code:
- hosts: localhost
gather_facts: False
vars_prompt:
- name: "vcenter_hostname"
prompt: "Enter vcenter hostname"
private: no
- name: "vcenter_user"
prompt: "Enter vcenter username"
private: no
- name: "vcenter_pass"
prompt: "Enter vcenter password"
private: yes
- name: "cluster_touched"
prompt: "Enter cluster name"
private: no
tasks:
- name: Login in to vCenter and store login information
uri:
url: "https://{{ vcenter_hostname }}/rest/com/vmware/cis/session"
force_basic_auth: yes
method: POST
user: '{{ vcenter_user }}'
password: '{{ vcenter_pass }}'
status_code: 200
validate_certs: no
register: login
- name: Get vCenter cluster ID for {{ cluster_touched }}
uri:
url: "https://{{ vcenter_hostname }}/rest/vcenter/cluster?filter.names={{ cluster_touched }}"
force_basic_auth: yes
validate_certs: no
headers:
Cookie: '{{ login.set_cookie }}'
register: vcclust
- name: Get ESXi nodes from cluster ID for {{ cluster_touched }}
uri:
url: "https://{{ vcenter_hostname }}/rest/vcenter/host?filter.clusters={{ item.cluster }}"
force_basic_auth: yes
validate_certs: no
headers:
Cookie: '{{ login.set_cookie }}'
register: vchosts
with_items:
- '{{ vcclust.json.value }}'
- name: Modify root local user to ESXi
vmware_local_user_manager:
hostname: '{{ item.name }}'
username: root
password: '{{ esxi_pass }}'
local_user_name: root
local_user_password: '{{ esxi_new_pass }}'
validate_certs: False
with_items:
- '{{ vchosts.json.value }}'
And this is the output of the debug the vchosts and vcclust
vcclust:
TASK [debug] *************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"vcclust": {
"changed": false,
"connection": "close",
"content_type": "application/json",
"cookies": {},
"date": "Mon, 11 Jun 2018 09:50:43 GMT",
"failed": false,
"json": {
"value": [
{
"cluster": "domain-c310",
"drs_enabled": true,
"ha_enabled": false,
"name": "DB-CLUSTER"
}
]
},
"msg": "OK (unknown bytes)",
"redirected": false,
"status": 200,
"url": "https://vcenter01.lab.test/rest/vcenter/cluster?filter.names=DB-CLUSTER"
}
}
vchosts:
TASK [debug] *************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"vchosts": {
"changed": false,
"msg": "All items completed",
"results": [
{
"_ansible_ignore_errors": null,
"_ansible_item_result": true,
"_ansible_no_log": false,
"_ansible_parsed": true,
"changed": false,
"connection": "close",
"content_type": "application/json",
"cookies": {},
"date": "Mon, 11 Jun 2018 09:50:45 GMT",
"failed": false,
"invocation": {
"module_args": {
"attributes": null,
"backup": null,
"body": null,
"body_format": "raw",
"client_cert": null,
"client_key": null,
"content": null,
"creates": null,
"delimiter": null,
"dest": null,
"directory_mode": null,
"follow": false,
"follow_redirects": "safe",
"force": false,
"force_basic_auth": true,
"group": null,
"headers": {
"Cookie": "vmware-api-session-id=56fa6d3015150212b086917d15165bee;Path=/rest;Secure;HttpOnly"
},
"http_agent": "ansible-httpget",
"method": "GET",
"mode": null,
"owner": null,
"regexp": null,
"remote_src": null,
"removes": null,
"return_content": false,
"selevel": null,
"serole": null,
"setype": null,
"seuser": null,
"src": null,
"status_code": [
200
],
"timeout": 30,
"unsafe_writes": null,
"url": "https://vcenter01.lab.test/rest/vcenter/host?filter.clusters=domain-c310",
"url_password": null,
"url_username": null,
"use_proxy": true,
"validate_certs": false
}
},
"item": {
"cluster": "domain-c310",
"drs_enabled": true,
"ha_enabled": false,
"name": "DB-CLUSTER"
},
"json": {
"value": [
{
"connection_state": "CONNECTED",
"host": "host-312",
"name": "vmh19.lab.test",
"power_state": "POWERED_ON"
},
{
"connection_state": "CONNECTED",
"host": "host-313",
"name": "vmh20.lab.test",
"power_state": "POWERED_ON"
}
]
},
"msg": "OK (unknown bytes)",
"redirected": false,
"status": 200,
"url": "https://vcenter01.lab.test/rest/vcenter/host?filter.clusters=domain-c310"
}
]
}
}
The error I got is:
ansible (ansible_test) ✗)ansible-playbook site.yml
[WARNING]: Unable to parse /etc/ansible/hosts as an inventory source
[WARNING]: No inventory was parsed, only implicit localhost is available
[WARNING]: provided hosts list is empty, only localhost is available. Note that the implicit localhost does not match 'all'
Enter vcenter hostname [vcenter01.lab.test]:
Enter vcenter username :
Enter vcenter password :
Enter cluster name [DB-CLUSTER]:
PLAY [localhost] *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
TASK [Start SSH service setting for an ESXi Host in given Cluster] *******************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [Login in to vCenter and store login information] *******************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [Get vCenter cluster ID for DB-CLUSTER] *************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [Get ESXi nodes from cluster ID for DB-CLUSTER] *****************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => (item={'drs_enabled': True, 'cluster': 'domain-c310', 'name': 'DB-CLUSTER', 'ha_enabled': False})
TASK [Modify root local user to ESXi] ************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {"msg": "'dict object' has no attribute 'json'"}
to retry, use: --limit #/Users/jv/Workspace/vmware-powershell/ansible/site.retry
PLAY RECAP ***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
localhost : ok=5 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=1
What I'm doing wrong?

Answer 1

Try using json_query. For that, you might need to install jmespath on your ansible host. You can do it with pip install jmespath.
- name: Get ESXi nodes from cluster ID for {{ cluster_touched }}
uri:
url: "https://{{ vcenter_hostname }}/rest/vcenter/host?filter.clusters={{ item.cluster }}"
force_basic_auth: yes
validate_certs: no
headers:
Cookie: '{{ login.set_cookie }}'
register: vchosts
with_items: "{{ vcclust | json_query('*.value') }}"
- name: Modify root local user to ESXi
vmware_local_user_manager:
hostname: '{{ item.name }}'
username: root
password: '{{ esxi_pass }}'
local_user_name: root
local_user_password: '{{ esxi_new_pass }}'
validate_certs: False
with_items: "{{ vchosts.results | json_query('*.value') }}"

Answer 2

Thanks a lot #Kelson Silva
you pointed the clue to the answer.
I dont know why this
- debug: var=item.name
with_items:
- "{{ vchosts.json.value }}"
is not the same as
- debug:
var: item.name
with_items:
- "{{ vchosts.json.value }}"
and actually that was driving me crazy, this is for sure a bug in this version of ansible
the problem is that it was tooking the elements in my first request as list inside a Json and you need to enumerate them.
In order to dont get a dirty "vchosts" JSON you need to use just one element from "vcclust", so the code end like:
- name: Get vCenter cluster ID for {{ cluster_touched }}
uri:
url: "https://{{ vcenter_hostname }}/rest/vcenter/cluster?filter.names={{ cluster_touched }}"
force_basic_auth: yes
validate_certs: no
headers:
Cookie: '{{ login.set_cookie }}'
register: vcclust
- name: Get ESXi nodes from cluster ID for {{ cluster_touched }}
uri:
url: "https://{{ vcenter_hostname }}/rest/vcenter/host?filter.clusters={{ vcclust.json.value[0].cluster }}"
force_basic_auth: yes
validate_certs: no
headers:
Cookie: '{{ login.set_cookie }}'
register: vchosts
- name: Modify root local user to ESXi
vmware_local_user_manager:
hostname: '{{ item.name }}'
username: root
password: '{{ esxi_pass }}'
local_user_name: root
local_user_password: '{{ esxi_new_pass }}'
validate_certs: False
with_items:
- "{{ vchosts.json.value }}"