Use Jinja2 dict as part of an Ansible modules options - ansible

Question

I have the following dict:
endpoint:
esxi_hostname: servername.domain.com
I'm trying to use it as an option via jinja2 for the vmware_guest but have been unsuccessful. The reason I'm trying to do it this way is because the dict is dynamic...it can either be cluster: clustername or esxi_hostname: hostname, both mutually exclusive in the vmware_guest module.
Here is how I'm presenting it to the module:
- name: Create VM pysphere
vmware_guest:
hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
username: "{{ username }}"
password: "{{ password }}"
validate_certs: no
datacenter: "{{ ansible_host_datacenter }}"
folder: "/DCC/{{ ansible_host_datacenter }}/vm"
"{{ endpoint }}"
name: "{{ guest }}"
state: present
guest_id: "{{ osid }}"
disk: "{{ disks }}"
networks: "{{ niclist }}"
hardware:
memory_mb: "{{ memory_gb|int * 1024 }}"
num_cpus: "{{ num_cpus|int }}"
scsi: "{{ scsi }}"
customvalues: "{{ customvalues }}"
cdrom:
type: client
delegate_to: localhost
And here is the error I'm getting when including the tasks file:
TASK [Preparation : Include VM tasks] *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
fatal: [10.10.10.10]: FAILED! => {"reason": "Syntax Error while loading YAML.
The error appears to have been in '/data01/home/hit/tools/ansible/playbooks/roles/Preparation/tasks/prepareVM.yml': line 36, column 4, but may
be elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.
The offending line appears to be:
"{{ endpoint }}"
hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
^ here
We could be wrong, but this one looks like it might be an issue with
missing quotes. Always quote template expression brackets when they
start a value. For instance:
with_items:
- {{ foo }}
Should be written as:
with_items:
- "{{ foo }}"
exception type: <class 'yaml.parser.ParserError'>
exception: while parsing a block mapping
in "<unicode string>", line 33, column 3
did not find expected key
in "<unicode string>", line 36, column 4"}
So in summary, I'm not sure how to format this or if it is even possible.

Answer 1

The post from techraf sums up your problem, but for a possible solution, in the docs, especially regarding Jinja filters, there is the following bit:
Omitting Parameters
As of Ansible 1.8, it is possible to use the default filter to omit
module parameters using the special omit variable:
- name: touch files with an optional mode
file: dest={{item.path}} state=touch mode={{item.mode|default(omit)}} > with_items:
- path: /tmp/foo
- path: /tmp/bar
- path: /tmp/baz
mode: "0444"
For the first two files in the list, the default mode will be
determined by the umask of the system as the mode= parameter will not
be sent to the file module while the final file will receive the
mode=0444 option.
So it looks like what should be tried is:
esxi_hostname: "{{ endpoint.esxi_hostname | default(omit) }}"
# however you want the alternative cluster settings done.
# I dont know this module.
cluster: "{{ cluster | default(omit) }}"
This is obviously reliant on the vars to only have one choice set.

Answer 2

There is no way you could ever use the syntax you tried in the question, because firstly and foremostly Ansible requires a valid YAML file.
The closest workaround would be to use a YAML anchor/alias although it would work only with literals:
# ...
vars:
endpoint: &endpoint
esxi_hostname: servername.domain.com
tasks:
- name: Create VM pysphere
vmware_guest:
hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
username: "{{ username }}"
password: "{{ password }}"
validate_certs: no
datacenter: "{{ ansible_host_datacenter }}"
folder: "/DCC/{{ ansible_host_datacenter }}/vm"
<<: *endpoint
name: "{{ guest }}"
state: present
guest_id: "{{ osid }}"
disk: "{{ disks }}"
networks: "{{ niclist }}"
hardware:
memory_mb: "{{ memory_gb|int * 1024 }}"
num_cpus: "{{ num_cpus|int }}"
scsi: "{{ scsi }}"
customvalues: "{{ customvalues }}"
cdrom:
type: client
delegate_to: localhost