How can nest loops inside of module functions in ansible? - ansible

Question

Hopefully I worded this question correctly.
I have a group_vars file that defines the following:
etherchannels:
access2:
- channelnumber: 1
interfaces:
- FastEthernet 1/14
- FastEthernet 1/15
access1:
- channelnumber: 1
interfaces:
- FastEthernet 1/14
- FastEthernet 1/15
And my playbook looks like this:
- name: LAN Switches
hosts: access
tasks:
- name: config unused access ports
cisco.ios.ios_lag_interfaces:
config:
- name: "{{ item.channelnumber }}"
members:
- member: "{{ item.interface }}"
mode: on
loop: "{{ etherchannels[inventory_hostname] }}"
The expected outcome is:
ansible will run through the task for each hostnames under etherchannels(access 1 and 2)
for each hostnames it would run the "name" function, defining the etherchannel and then
for each etherchannel it would run the "members" function and add every listed interface
So it would function something like this, assuming I added more etherchannels:
name: 1
members:
- member: FastEthernetX
mode: on
- member: FastEthernetY
mode: on
name: 2
members:
- member: FastEthernetZ
mode: on
- member: FastEthernetA
mode: on
I've tried to add a loop inside the "cisco.ios.ios_lag_interfaces" module command but no dice.

Answer 1

This looks like a job for the subelements filter. In the following example, I've wrapped your task in a debug task so that I can run it locally and demonstrate the concept:
- hosts: all
gather_facts: false
vars:
etherchannels:
access2:
- channelnumber: 1
interfaces:
- FastEthernet 1/14
- FastEthernet 1/15
access1:
- channelnumber: 1
interfaces:
- FastEthernet 1/14
- FastEthernet 1/15
tasks:
- debug:
msg: |
cisco.ios.ios_lag_interfaces:
config:
- name: "{{ item.0.channelnumber }}"
members:
- member: "{{ item.1 }}"
mode: on
loop: "{{ etherchannels[inventory_hostname]|subelements('interfaces') }}"
If I run the above playbook, the output looks like:
TASK [debug] ******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [access1] => (item=[{'channelnumber': 1, 'interfaces': ['FastEthernet 1/14', 'FastEthernet 1/15']}, 'FastEthernet 1/14']) => {
"msg": "cisco.ios.ios_lag_interfaces:\n config:\n - name: \"1\"\n members:\n - member: \"FastEthernet 1/14\"\n mode: on\n"
}
ok: [access2] => (item=[{'channelnumber': 1, 'interfaces': ['FastEthernet 1/14', 'FastEthernet 1/15']}, 'FastEthernet 1/14']) => {
"msg": "cisco.ios.ios_lag_interfaces:\n config:\n - name: \"1\"\n members:\n - member: \"FastEthernet 1/14\"\n mode: on\n"
}
ok: [access1] => (item=[{'channelnumber': 1, 'interfaces': ['FastEthernet 1/14', 'FastEthernet 1/15']}, 'FastEthernet 1/15']) => {
"msg": "cisco.ios.ios_lag_interfaces:\n config:\n - name: \"1\"\n members:\n - member: \"FastEthernet 1/15\"\n mode: on\n"
}
ok: [access2] => (item=[{'channelnumber': 1, 'interfaces': ['FastEthernet 1/14', 'FastEthernet 1/15']}, 'FastEthernet 1/15']) => {
"msg": "cisco.ios.ios_lag_interfaces:\n config:\n - name: \"1\"\n members:\n - member: \"FastEthernet 1/15\"\n mode: on\n"
}
I think that's exactly what you were looking for. Your actual task would of course drop the debug wrapper:
- hosts: all
gather_facts: false
vars:
etherchannels:
access2:
- channelnumber: 1
interfaces:
- FastEthernet 1/14
- FastEthernet 1/15
access1:
- channelnumber: 1
interfaces:
- FastEthernet 1/14
- FastEthernet 1/15
tasks:
= cisco.ios.ios_lag_interfaces:
config:
- name: "{{ item.0.channelnumber }}"
members:
- member: "{{ item.1 }}"
mode: on
loop: "{{ etherchannels[inventory_hostname]|subelements('interfaces') }}"