Concatenate variable with a fact in Ansible - ansible

Question

I am trying to use a variable and the results of a previous task as input. Here is my code.
---
- hosts: localhost
vars:
v_hostname: XXXXXXXXXXXXX
v_datacentre: DC-UK-LON-GS
v_username: YYYYYYYY
v_password: XXXXXXXX
connection: local
gather_facts: false
tasks:
- name: Find the folder for the VM
vmware_guest_find:
hostname: "{{ v_hostname }}"
datacenter: "{{ v_datacentre }}"
username: "{{ v_username }}"
password: "{{ v_password }}"
validate_certs: no
name: MYVMNAME
register: folder
- debug:
msg:
- "{{ folder.folders }}"
- name: Gather facts from VM
connection: local
gather_facts: false
vmware_guest_facts:
hostname: "{{ v_hostname }}"
datacenter: "{{ v_datacentre }}"
username: "{{ v_username }}"
password: "{{ v_password }}"
validate_certs: no
folder: "{{ v_datacentre }}{{ folder.folders }}"
name: MYVMNAME
The last line tries to use the defined variable v_datacentre and append the value from the registered fact from the previous task. However the concatenation produces some unwanted wrapping chars:
ansible-playbook 2.4.2.0
config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
configured module search path = [u'/export/home/ansible/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
ansible python module location = /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible
executable location = /bin/ansible-playbook
python version = 2.7.5 (default, May 3 2017, 07:55:04) [GCC 4.8.5 20150623 (Red Hat 4.8.5-14)]
Using /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg as config file
Parsed /export/home/ansible/inventory_prod inventory source with ini plugin
[WARNING]: Ignoring invalid attribute: gather_facts
PLAYBOOK: mainvm.yml *****************************************************************************************************************************************
1 plays in mainvm.yml
PLAY [localhost] *********************************************************************************************************************************************
META: ran handlers
TASK [TEST1] *************************************************************************************************************************************************
task path: /export/home/ansible/mainvm.yml:12
Using module file /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible/modules/cloud/vmware/vmware_guest_find.py
<127.0.0.1> ESTABLISH LOCAL CONNECTION FOR USER: ansible
<127.0.0.1> EXEC /bin/sh -c 'echo ~ && sleep 0'
<127.0.0.1> EXEC /bin/sh -c '( umask 77 && mkdir -p "` echo /export/home/ansible/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1523621823.18-119950066241401 `" && echo ansible-tmp-1523621823.18-119950066241401="` echo /export/home/ansible/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1523621823.18-119950066241401 `" ) && sleep 0'
<127.0.0.1> PUT /tmp/tmpM_Pf2B TO /export/home/ansible/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1523621823.18-119950066241401/vmware_guest_find.py
<127.0.0.1> EXEC /bin/sh -c 'chmod u+x /export/home/ansible/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1523621823.18-119950066241401/ /export/home/ansible/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1523621823.18-119950066241401/vmware_guest_find.py && sleep 0'
<127.0.0.1> EXEC /bin/sh -c '/usr/bin/python2 /export/home/ansible/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1523621823.18-119950066241401/vmware_guest_find.py; rm -rf "/export/home/ansible/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1523621823.18-119950066241401/" > /dev/null 2>&1 && sleep 0'
ok: [localhost] => {
"changed": false,
"folders": [
"/vm/LON-GS-AD/LON-GS-AD-UNIX"
],
"invocation": {
"module_args": {
"datacenter": "DC-UK-LON-GS",
"hostname": "XXXXXXXXXXXXX",
"name": "MYVMNAME",
"password": "VALUE_SPECIFIED_IN_NO_LOG_PARAMETER",
"username": "XXXXXXXX",
"uuid": null,
"validate_certs": false
}
}
}
TASK [debug] *************************************************************************************************************************************************
task path: /export/home/ansible/mainvm.yml:23
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": [
[
"/vm/LON-GS-AD/LON-GS-AD-UNIX"
]
]
}
TASK [Gather facts from standalone ESXi server] **************************************************************************************************************
task path: /export/home/ansible/mainvm.yml:28
Using module file /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible/modules/cloud/vmware/vmware_guest_facts.py
<127.0.0.1> ESTABLISH LOCAL CONNECTION FOR USER: ansible
<127.0.0.1> EXEC /bin/sh -c 'echo ~ && sleep 0'
<127.0.0.1> EXEC /bin/sh -c '( umask 77 && mkdir -p "` echo /export/home/ansible/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1523621827.79-78942665802166 `" && echo ansible-tmp-1523621827.79-78942665802166="` echo /export/home/ansible/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1523621827.79-78942665802166 `" ) && sleep 0'
<127.0.0.1> PUT /tmp/tmp43NXf_ TO /export/home/ansible/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1523621827.79-78942665802166/vmware_guest_facts.py
<127.0.0.1> EXEC /bin/sh -c 'chmod u+x /export/home/ansible/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1523621827.79-78942665802166/ /export/home/ansible/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1523621827.79-78942665802166/vmware_guest_facts.py && sleep 0'
<127.0.0.1> EXEC /bin/sh -c '/usr/bin/python2 /export/home/ansible/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1523621827.79-78942665802166/vmware_guest_facts.py; rm -rf "/export/home/ansible/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1523621827.79-78942665802166/" > /dev/null 2>&1 && sleep 0'
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {
"changed": false,
"invocation": {
"module_args": {
"datacenter": "XXXXXX",
"folder": "DC-UK-LON-GS[u'/vm/LON-GS-AD/LON-GS-AD-UNIX']",
"hostname": "XXXXXXXXXXXXX",
"name": "MYVMNAME",
"name_match": "first",
"password": "VALUE_SPECIFIED_IN_NO_LOG_PARAMETER",
"username": "XXXXXXXX",
"uuid": null,
"validate_certs": false
}
},
"msg": "Unable to gather facts for non-existing VM MYVMNAME"
}
to retry, use: --limit #/export/home/ansible/mainvm.retry
PLAY RECAP ***************************************************************************************************************************************************
localhost : ok=2 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=1
The results of folder.folders is correctly printed by debug but in the last step the concatenation gives:
"folder": "DC-UK-LON-GS[u'/vm/LON-GS-AD/LON-GS-AD-UNIX']",
I confess to being a bit of an Ansible newbie but I don't understand where the [u' and ] come from. I just want to use the combined strings as input. Can anyone please explain or show solution or point me at some beginners documents for this sort of variable use?
Thanks.

Answer 1

So after some further playing turns out that the vmware_guest_find returns a list (and it's in the docs!!!) so I need to either pick the 1st item if there will only be one group or loop though them.
folder: "{{ v_datacentre }}{{ folder.folders[0] }}"
This does the job.