Ansible can't loop through subelements in variables files - ansible

Question

I have the following user lists in separated files.
The idea behind this is to create multiple users and assign them to different user groups.
To make it easier, I shortened the list. I reality they include passwords and etc.
First variables file
userlist-os:
group: os
users:
- comment: Test User
username: ostest1
user_id: 9404
user_state: present
- comment: Test User
username: ostest2
user_id: 9405
user_state: present
Second variables file
userlist-zos:
group: zos
users:
- comment: Test User1
username: zostest1
user_id: 9204
user_state: present
- comment: Test User2
username: zostest2
user_id: 9205
user_state: present
This is how my playbook looks like:
- name: test
hosts: all
user: root
vars_files:
- [userlist-zos.yml]
- [userlist-os.yml]
tasks:
- name: Create user accounts
user:
name: "{{ item.users.username }}"
update_password: on_create
uid: "{{ item.users.user_id }}"
shell: /bin/bash
create_home: yes
group: "{{ item.group }}"
state: present
comment: "{{ item.users.comment }}"
when: item.users.user_state == 'present'
with_items:
- "{{ userlist-os }}"
- "{{ userlist-zos }}"
The problem is that I'm not getting into the sub elements of users(variable username is undefined), but when I set an index like this name: "{{ item.users.0.username }}" I do get the first username from each file.
Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

In your scenario, item.users are lists of users, they are not dictionaries. Therefore they don't have username field, they have list elements which have that field instead. You were able to access to first element of the list with "item.users.0.username". What I suggest you to do is to access these nested variables with an include_task variable as follows:
main.yaml
- name: Trial
hosts: localhost
vars:
# YOUR VARS
tasks:
- name: Create user accounts
include_tasks: helper.yml
with_items:
- "{{ userlistos }}"
- "{{ userlistzos }}"
loop_control:
loop_var: list
helper.yml
- name: Create user accounts
user:
name: "{{ item.username }}"
update_password: on_create
uid: "{{ item.user_id }}"
shell: /bin/bash
create_home: yes
group: "{{ list.group }}"
state: present
comment: "{{ item.comment }}"
when: item.user_state == 'present'
with_items:
- "{{list.users}}"