Ansible variable in dictionary key - ansible

Question

I am trying to execute a playbook for setting up Dell servers and I have some problems with a dictionary in module idrac_redfish_config. I need to enable SOL for a specific user, but for this I want to use a key in the dictionary with a variable because ID of user can be different from server to server.
How I try to add a variable to a dictionary key like this:
- name: Store id test-user
set_fact:
ID: "{{ result.redfish_facts.user.entries | json_query(\"[?UserName=='test-user'].Id\") }}"
- name: Enable SOL for test-user
community.general.idrac_redfish_config:
category: Manager
command: SetManagerAttributes
resource_id: iDRAC.Embedded.1
manager_attributes:
Users.{{ ID[0] }}.SolEnable: "Enabled" <---
Users.{{ ID[0] }}.IpmiLanPrivilege: "Administrator" <---
baseuri: "testhost"
username: "admin"
password: "admin"
I get this error:
TASK [Store id test-user] **************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"ansible_facts": {
"ID": [
"8"
]
},
"changed": false
}
TASK [Enable SOL for test-user] ********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {
"changed": false,
"invocation": {
"module_args": {
"baseuri": "testhost",
"category": "Manager",
"command": [
"SetManagerAttributes"
],
"manager_attribute_name": null,
"manager_attribute_value": null,
"manager_attributes": {
"Users.{{ ID[0] }}.IpmiLanPrivilege": "Administrator",
"Users.{{ ID[0] }}.SolEnable": "Enabled"
},
"password": "VALUE_SPECIFIED_IN_NO_LOG_PARAMETER",
"resource_id": "iDRAC.Embedded.1",
"timeout": 10,
"username": "admin"
}
},
"msg": "SetManagerAttributes: Manager attribute Users.{{ ID[0] }}.SolEnable not found"
}
If I do this:
manager_attributes: "{
'Users.{{ ID[0] }}.SolEnable': Enabled
'Users.{{ ID[0] }}.IpmiLanPrivilege': Administrator
}"
I get:
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {
"changed": false,
"invocation": {
"module_args": {
"baseuri": "testhost",
"category": "Manager",
"command": [
"SetManagerAttributes"
],
"manager_attributes": "{ 'Users.8.SolEnable': Enabled 'Users.8.IpmiLanPrivilege': Administrator }",
"password": "VALUE_SPECIFIED_IN_NO_LOG_PARAMETER",
"resource_id": "iDRAC.Embedded.1",
"timeout": 10,
"username": "admin"
}
},
"msg": "argument manager_attributes is of type <class 'str'> and we were unable to convert to dict: unable to evaluate string as dictionary"
}
I didn't find in Ansible documentation how to do this correctly.

Answer 1

According to documentation, manager_attributes should be a dict of key/value pairs to set on your device. The keys have dots in their names and you cannot "statically" create dynamic key names as you tried above (i.e. "prefix{{ dynamic_value }}suffix": "some content" does not work as you experienced by yourself since the key name does not go through jinja2 templating).
Below is a solution. It's far from being the only one but that's the first that came to my mind and I could setup an example for you quickly. In this case, I create a list of {key: X, value: Y} dicts with your dynamic names as keys and use the items2dict filter to transform this back to a dict itself.
I don't have a network device to play this against so I could not verify that the final result is actually accepted by the module. My example simply uses a debug with your input data to illustrate and outputs a dictionary as the module expects. You will have to tune the exact key names if they are wrong but at least you should be able to move forward.
- name: Dynamic dict
hosts: localhost
gather_facts: false
vars:
ID:
- "8"
my_attributes:
- key: "Users.{{ ID[0] }}.IpmiLandPrivilege"
value: Administrator
- key: "Users.{{ ID[0] }}.SolEnable"
value: Enabled
tasks:
- name: construct a dynamic dict and debug
vars:
manager_attributes: "{{ my_attributes | items2dict }}"
debug:
var: manager_attributes
Which gives:
PLAY [Dynamic dict demo] ***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
TASK [construct a dynamic dict and debug] **********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"manager_attributes": {
"Users.8.IpmiLandPrivilege": "Administrator",
"Users.8.SolEnable": "Enabled"
}
}
PLAY RECAP *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
localhost : ok=1 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
Edit: An additional (out of many others) example to achieve the same goal. The output is exactly the same as above:
- name: Dynamic dict
hosts: localhost
gather_facts: false
vars:
ID:
- "8"
manager_attributes: "{{
{
'Users.' + ID[0] + '.IpmiLandPrivilege': 'Administrator',
'Users.' + ID[0] + '.SolEnable': 'Enabled'
}
}}"
tasks:
- name: construct a dynamic dict and debug
debug:
var: manager_attributes