VMware: Colon support within VMWare Tags vmware_tag_manager

[limitedreality]

SUMMARY

VMWare supports using colons in VMWare tags, however the vmware_tag_manager module does not since colons are used to delineate categories. It would be nice if there was some way to support using colons in tag names.

ISSUE TYPE

• Feature Idea

COMPONENT NAME

vmware_tag_manager

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

There should be some way to escape a colon in a tag_name so that we can continue to support categories but intentionally override that functionality when we intend to use a tag with a colon within. Two tag examples below. One with category, one escaping for instance. Feel free to use whatever escape sequence is most supportable.

    vmware_tag_manager:
      hostname: '{{ vcenter_hostname }}'
      username: '{{ vcenter_username }}'
      password: '{{ vcenter_password }}'
      validate_certs: no
      tag_names:
        -  'Category:Tag'
        -  'TagWith\:Colon'
      object_name: 'VMGuest'
      object_type: VirtualMachine
      state: add
    delegate_to: localhost

Including the authors:
@Akasurde
@GBrawl

[ansibot]

Files identified in the description:

• lib/ansible/modules/cloud/vmware/vmware_tag_manager.py

If these files are inaccurate, please update the component name section of the description or use the !component bot command.

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[ansibot]

cc @Tomorrow9 @goneri @lparkes @pgbidkar @warthog9
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[ansibot]

@limitedreality, just so you are aware we have a dedicated Working Group for vmware.
You can find other people interested in this in #ansible-vmware on Freenode IRC
For more information about communities, meetings and agendas see https://github.com/ansible/community

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[GBrawl]

As of right now category and tag name are indeed separated by ":", but note that this string is only split once, so currently as a workaround you could specify the category name and then you could use colons in your tag name. For example:

    vmware_tag_manager:
      hostname: '{{ vcenter_hostname }}'
      username: '{{ vcenter_username }}'
      password: '{{ vcenter_password }}'
      validate_certs: no
      tag_names:
        -  'category:tag:with:colon'
      object_name: 'VMGuest'
      object_type: VirtualMachine
      state: add
    delegate_to: localhost

But escaping sounds like a good idea for when there is no category name given.

[limitedreality]

@GBrawl Great idea, but unfortunately that fails for me stating InvalidArgument. Basically it's saying the tag_names dict object has no attribute set now.

Are you able to test and confirm working on your side?

[GBrawl]

Just tested it and it works fine on ansible 2.9.2, can you show me the task you are trying to run? Also you can't have colons in your category name with this approach.

[limitedreality]

Here's what I'm using with: Ansible 2.8.0

  - name: Add tags to a virtual machine
    vmware_tag_manager:
      hostname: '{{ vcenter_hostname }}'
      username: '{{ vcenter_username }}'
      password: '{{ vcenter_password }}'
      validate_certs: no
      tag_names:
        -  'Category:Tag:Name'
      object_name: 'TestGuest'
      object_type: VirtualMachine
      state: add
    delegate_to: localhost

I know that I'm using the category:name syntax properly as when I apply a tag in that category without a colon it works fine.

Interestingly, it seems that it is parsing the tag name properly because if I change the tag name portion to something that doesn't exist (including a colon), it errors saying unable to find that tag.

It's only when I supply a valid tag with a colon that it appears to fail. So maybe something specific to the application of the tag?

File \"/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/vmware/vapi/bindings/stub.py\", line 345, in _invoke\n    
return self._api_interface.native_invoke(ctx, _method_name, kwargs)\n  
File \"/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/vmware/vapi/bindings/stub.py\", line 298, in native_invoke\n    
self._rest_converter_mode)\ncom.vmware.vapi.std.errors_client.InvalidArgument: {messages : [], data : None, error_type : None}\n",
    "module_stdout": "",
    "msg": "MODULE FAILURE\nSee stdout/stderr for the exact error",
    "rc": 1
}

TASK [debug] ***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
task path: /etc/ansible/playbooks/add_vmware_tag.yml:21
fatal: [IP-REMOVED]: FAILED! => {
    "msg": "The task includes an option with an undefined variable. The error was: 'dict object' has no attribute 'stdout_lines'\n\nThe error appears to be in '/etc/ansible/playbooks/add_vmware_tag.yml': line 21, column 5, but may\nbe elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.\n\nThe offending line appears to be:\n\n\n  - debug: msg=\"{{ out.stdout_lines }}\"\n    ^ here\nWe could be wrong, but this one looks like it might be an issue with\nmissing quotes. Always quote template expression brackets when they\nstart a value. For instance:\n\n    with_items:\n      - {{ foo }}\n\nShould be written as:\n\n    with_items:\n      - \"{{ foo }}\"\n"

[GBrawl]

Tried it on 2.8.4 and that also worked for me and your example looks correct, if both the category and the tag name exist it should work. Are you running vSphere 6.5 or higher?

[limitedreality]

Yes vSphere 6.5

[limitedreality]

We updated to Ansible 2.8.7 to see if that would help and the results are the same. Anyone have any other thoughts or suggestions? Any further way to debug why we're seeing different results than GBrawl?

[Akasurde]

resolved_by_pr #66150

[Akasurde]

@limitedreality, Could you please check PR #66150 and let us know if it works for you ?

Please check How to test a PR for more help.

Thanks.

needs_info

[ansibot]

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