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ansible create an array with set_fact

In one of my vSphere Ansible automation task, I was looking for to create a new array variable using set_fact. here I have achieved the same task using 2 different playbook with small way procedure. In the both methods on the vars I have defined infra variable where I have defined my VMware esxi servers info as example from line no 6 to 14. Next in the set_fact task with the help of condition in when function get the connected esxi hosts list only, from with_item loops (on infra variable) in the set_fact. In the same set_fact on the line no 19, I am using esxilist variable keep adding same esxilist variable (default filter that can be used to set a default value when one isn’t provided and if esxlilist is not defined it will use empty array to append) plus loop array [item] creating one Array.

On the last debug task it is printing the esxilist var result on the screen.

You can download this playbook from github.com or from here.

setfactarray_playbook01.yml

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---
- hosts: localhost
  gather_facts: False
  connection: local
  vars:
    infra:
      - name: ironman.vcloud-lab.com
        connection_state: CONNECTED
      - name: hulk.vcloud-lab.com
        connection_state: CONNECTED
      - name: captain.vcloud-lab.com
        connection_state: DISCONNECTED
      - name: hawkeye.vcloud-lab.com
        connection_state: DISCONNECTED

  tasks:   
  - name: Filter list of only connected esxi
    set_fact: 
      esxilist: "{{esxilist | default([]) + [item]}}" 
    with_items: "{{infra}}"
    when: item.connection_state == "CONNECTED"
  
  - name: Show connected esxi list information
    debug:
      var: esxilist

On the second below method will get the results, only the thing is on the line no 6, I am already defining empty array variable named esxilist. so on the line no 20 I dont have to use jinja2 default() function.

setfactarray_playbook02.yml

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---
- hosts: localhost
  gather_facts: False
  connection: local
  vars:
    esxilist: []
    infra:
      - name: ironman.vcloud-lab.com
        connection_state: CONNECTED
      - name: hulk.vcloud-lab.com
        connection_state: CONNECTED
      - name: captain.vcloud-lab.com
        connection_state: DISCONNECTED
      - name: hawkeye.vcloud-lab.com
        connection_state: DISCONNECTED

  tasks:   
  - name: Filter list of only connected esxi
    set_fact: 
      esxilist: "{{esxilist + [item]}}"
    with_items: "{{infra}}"
    when: item.connection_state == "CONNECTED"
  
  - name: Show connected esxi list information
    debug:
      var: esxilist

Both the above yaml scripts give me same results as below after executing with ansible-playbook, It skips disconnected hosts and show me the nice json array of host with connection_state of CONNECTED.

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[root@centos01 002_Get_esxi_advanced_settings]# ansible-playbook setfactsarray_playbook.yml 
[WARNING]: provided hosts list is empty, only localhost is available. Note that the implicit localhost does not match 'all'

/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/requests/__init__.py:91: RequestsDependencyWarning: urllib3 (1.24.3) or chardet (2.2.1) doesn't match a supported version!
  RequestsDependencyWarning)

PLAY [localhost] *****************************************************************************************************************************************

TASK [Filter list of only connected esxi] ****************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => (item={u'connection_state': u'CONNECTED', u'name': u'ironman.vcloud-lab.com'})
ok: [localhost] => (item={u'connection_state': u'CONNECTED', u'name': u'hulk.vcloud-lab.com'})
skipping: [localhost] => (item={u'connection_state': u'DISCONNECTED', u'name': u'captain.vcloud-lab.com'}) 
skipping: [localhost] => (item={u'connection_state': u'DISCONNECTED', u'name': u'hawkeye.vcloud-lab.com'}) 

TASK [Show connected esxi list information] **************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "esxilist": [
        {
            "connection_state": "CONNECTED", 
            "name": "ironman.vcloud-lab.com"
        }, 
        {
            "connection_state": "CONNECTED", 
            "name": "hulk.vcloud-lab.com"
        }
    ]
}

PLAY RECAP ***********************************************************************************************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=2    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0   

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