Loop through list variable in Ansable - ansible

Question

I am making an ansible script where a variable file will hold a list of servers, where I will loop through and power them down. It appears that Ansible is changing my list to a string, but maybe I am wrong.
I've tried using "loop", "with_items", and having them on the same line. serverA and ServerB does indeed exist
File dir:
taskName/vars/ServerListA.yaml
taskName/tasks/main.yaml
taskName/tasks/shutdown.yaml
ServerListA.yaml:
---
evenServers:
- serverB
- serverA
main.yaml:
---
- import_tasks: shutdown.yaml
shutdown.yaml:
---
- name: get vars
include_vars:
file: ServerListA.yaml
name: evenServers
- name: shutdown guest
vmware_guest_powerstate:
hostname: virtualCenterName
state: powered-on
username: user
name: "{{ item }}"
password: pass
validate_certs: no
loop:
- "{{ evenServers }}"
output:
TASK [vCenter_Infra_HA_Test : shutdown guest]
********************************************************************************************************* [WARNING]: The value {'evenServers': ['serverA', 'serverB']} (type
dict) in a string field was converted to u"{'evenServers': ['serverA',
'serverB']}" (type string). If this does not look like what you
expect, quote the entire value to ensure it does not change.
failed: [localServer] (item={u'evenServers': [u'serverA',
u'serverB']}) => {"ansible_loop_var": "item", "changed": false,
"item": {"evenServers": ["serverA", "serverB"]}, "msg": "Unable to set
power state for non-existing virtual machine : '{'evenServers':
['serverA', 'serverB']}'"}

Answer 1

You are including vars inside a top level 'namespace' with the same name as the first var defined in your included file. Thus, after inclusion, you data looks like this:
evenServers:
evenServers:
- serverA
- serverB
Since ansible cannot loop over the first level hash (without any other instructions) it transforms it to a string representation to have something to use.
You should transfrom your tasks file like this:
---
- name: get vars
include_vars:
file: ServerListA.yaml
- name: shutdown guest
vmware_guest_powerstate:
hostname: virtualCenterName
state: powered-on
username: user
name: "{{ item }}"
password: pass
validate_certs: no
loop: "{{ evenServers }}"
I also suggest you fix the indentation in your var file
---
evenServers:
- serverB
- serverA