Ansible set_fact is overwriting the items - ansible

Question

Here is my main.yml
---
- name: Gathering VCenter facts
vmware_vm_info:
hostname: "{{ vcenter_server }}"
username: "{{ vcenter_user }}"
password: "{{ vcenter_pass }}"
validate_certs: false
register: vcenter_facts
delegate_to: localhost
- debug:
var: vcenter_facts.virtual_machines
- name: Find all test-vms to run IO
set_fact:
vm_ip: "{{ item.ip_address }}"
loop: "{{ vcenter_facts.virtual_machines }}"
when: item.guest_name is regex("test_vm*")
- name: print vm_ip variable value
debug:
var: vm_ip
- name: Mount 16TB dropbox in each test vm
shell: mount-16tb-dropbox.sh
args:
chdir: /usr/local/bin/
with_items: "{{ vm_ip }}"
And here is the recap:
ok: [localhost] => {
"vcenter_facts.virtual_machines": [
{
"attributes": {},
"cluster": "Compute Cluster",
"esxi_hostname": "100.80.90.179",
"guest_fullname": "CentOS 7 (64-bit)",
"guest_name": "test_vm4",
"ip_address": "192.168.202.13",
"mac_address": [
"00:50:56:9d:d2:99"
],
"power_state": "poweredOn",
"tags": [],
"uuid": "421d7b54-1359-14e8-3ec4-74b568cb96d2",
"vm_network": {
"00:50:56:9d:d2:99": {
"ipv4": [
"192.168.202.13"
],
"ipv6": [
"fe80::44f6:a395:cde3:4dd1",
"fe80::a357:a163:e44f:2086",
"fe80::cd0c:e7d7:1356:2830"
]
}
}
},
{
"attributes": {},
"cluster": "Compute Cluster",
"esxi_hostname": "100.80.90.178",
"guest_fullname": "CentOS 7 (64-bit)",
"guest_name": "test_vm3",
"ip_address": "192.168.202.12",
"mac_address": [
"00:50:56:9d:a9:e8"
],
"power_state": "poweredOn",
"tags": [],
"uuid": "421d9239-0980-80c1-bca4-540efd726452",
"vm_network": {
"00:50:56:9d:a9:e8": {
"ipv4": [
"192.168.202.12"
],
"ipv6": [
"fe80::cd0c:e7d7:1356:2830"
]
}
}
},
{
"attributes": {},
"cluster": "Compute Cluster",
"esxi_hostname": "100.80.90.178",
"guest_fullname": "CentOS 7 (64-bit)",
"guest_name": "Test_Automation_CentOS8_Linux_VM",
"ip_address": "192.168.202.6",
"mac_address": [
"00:50:56:9d:13:14"
],
"power_state": "poweredOn",
"tags": [],
"uuid": "421d53ba-4824-57e4-06fd-fba0f2b1dbea",
"vm_network": {
"00:50:56:9d:13:14": {
"ipv4": [
"192.168.202.6"
],
"ipv6": [
"fe80::cd0c:e7d7:1356:2830",
"fe80::44f6:a395:cde3:4dd1"
]
}
}
},
{
"attributes": {},
"cluster": "Compute Cluster",
"esxi_hostname": "100.80.90.180",
"guest_fullname": "CentOS 7 (64-bit)",
"guest_name": "test_vm5",
"ip_address": "192.168.202.14",
"mac_address": [
"00:50:56:9d:85:b6"
],
"power_state": "poweredOn",
"tags": [],
"uuid": "421d6855-e60e-cd80-f113-39f11927d63b",
"vm_network": {
"00:50:56:9d:85:b6": {
"ipv4": [
"192.168.202.14"
],
"ipv6": [
"fe80::44f6:a395:cde3:4dd1",
"fe80::cd0c:e7d7:1356:2830",
"fe80::a357:a163:e44f:2086"
]
}
}
}
]
}
I am not able to loop through all the ip_address variable (i.e. 192.168.202.12, 192.168.202.13, 192.168.202.14).
It just reads the last item (i.e. 192.168.202.14).
What am I possibly doing wrong with set_fact that it is not reading all the variable and performing the set of tasks that follows?

Answer 1

An alternate solution using json_query
---
- name: Gathering VCenter facts
vmware_vm_info:
hostname: "{{ vcenter_server }}"
username: "{{ vcenter_user }}"
password: "{{ vcenter_pass }}"
validate_certs: false
register: vcenter_facts
delegate_to: localhost
- name: Mount 16TB dropbox in each test vm
shell: mount-16tb-dropbox.sh
args:
chdir: /usr/local/bin/
vars:
query: >-
[?contains("guest_name", 'test_vm')].ip_address[]
with_items: "{{ vcenter_facts.virtual_machines | to_json | from_json | json_query(query) | list }}"
Note: to_json | from_json is a workaround for a bug between ansible and jmespath so that all values can be converted to real strings and can be used with the jmespath contains function.

Answer 2

This should give all the IP. You correctly assumed where the code may need correction. In the code, vm_ip variable was overwritten by each loop and the last IP remained. What you need is a list and then append each IP to the list.
- set_fact:
vm_ip: "{{ vm_ip | default([]) + [item.ip_address] }}"
loop: "{{ vcenter_facts.virtual_machines | flatten }}"
when: item.guest_name is regex("test_vm*")
- debug:
var: vm_ip
Alternative solution using Jinja2 filters.
- set_fact:
vm_ip: >-
{{ vcenter_facts.virtual_machines | flatten
| rejectattr('guest_name', 'match', '^(?!test_vm).*')
| map(attribute='ip_address') | list }}