Looping through Dictionaries in Ansible

Note that this post uses NTC-Ansible. Installation instructions can be found here.

In the Understanding Ansible Output Structure post we saw how to extract a single entry out of a dictionary. We saw that it’s possible to do it using the map() filter too. However, what if we want to extract all entries in the dictionary, how would we go about that? The answer is simple - use with_dict . For example, this Playbook:

- hosts: "{{ hosts }}"
  connection: local
  gather_facts: no

  vars:
    provider:
      host: "{{ ansible_host }}"
      username: "{{ username }}"
      password: "{{ password }}"
      platform: "{{ platform }}"

  tasks:
  - name: ntc_show
    ntc_show_command:
      provider: "{{ provider }}"
      connection: "{{ connection }}"
      command: "{{ item }}"
      secret: "{{ secret }}"
    with_items:
      - "{{ command }}"
    register: output

  - name: Display output
    debug: msg="The key is {{ item.key }} and the value is {{ item.value }}"
    with_dict: "{{ output.results[1].response[0] }}"

Produces the following output:

$  ansible-playbook loop_dict.yml -i hosts.ini --extra-vars "hosts=gns3 username=cisco password=cisco connection=ssh platform=cisco_ios secret=cisco command=['show version','show cdp neighbor detail']"

PLAY [gns3] ********************************************************************

TASK [ntc_show] ****************************************************************
ok: [R2] => (item=show version)
ok: [R1] => (item=show version)
ok: [R2] => (item=show cdp neighbor detail)
ok: [R1] => (item=show cdp neighbor detail)

TASK [Display output] **********************************************************
ok: [R1] => (item={'key': u'software_version', 'value': u'Cisco IOS Software, 3700 Software (C3745-ADVENTERPRISEK9-M), Version 12.4(15)T14, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc2)'}) => {
    "item": {
        "key": "software_version",
        "value": "Cisco IOS Software, 3700 Software (C3745-ADVENTERPRISEK9-M), Version 12.4(15)T14, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc2)"
    },
    "msg": "The key is software_version and the value is Cisco IOS Software, 3700 Software (C3745-ADVENTERPRISEK9-M), Version 12.4(15)T14, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc2)"
}
ok: [R1] => (item={'key': u'local_port', 'value': u'FastEthernet0/0'}) => {
    "item": {
        "key": "local_port",
        "value": "FastEthernet0/0"
    },
    "msg": "The key is local_port and the value is FastEthernet0/0"
}
ok: [R1] => (item={'key': u'remote_port', 'value': u'FastEthernet0/0'}) => {
    "item": {
        "key": "remote_port",
        "value": "FastEthernet0/0"
    },
    "msg": "The key is remote_port and the value is FastEthernet0/0"
}
ok: [R1] => (item={'key': u'destination_host', 'value': u'R2.lab'}) => {
    "item": {
        "key": "destination_host",
        "value": "R2.lab"
    },
    "msg": "The key is destination_host and the value is R2.lab"
}
ok: [R1] => (item={'key': u'management_ip', 'value': u'192.168.0.197'}) => {
    "item": {
        "key": "management_ip",
        "value": "192.168.0.197"
    },
    "msg": "The key is management_ip and the value is 192.168.0.197"
}
ok: [R1] => (item={'key': u'platform', 'value': u'Cisco 3745'}) => {
    "item": {
        "key": "platform",
        "value": "Cisco 3745"
    },
    "msg": "The key is platform and the value is Cisco 3745"
}
ok: [R2] => (item={'key': u'remote_port', 'value': u'FastEthernet0/0'}) => {
    "item": {
        "key": "remote_port",
        "value": "FastEthernet0/0"
    },
    "msg": "The key is remote_port and the value is FastEthernet0/0"
}
ok: [R2] => (item={'key': u'software_version', 'value': u'Cisco IOS Software, 3700 Software (C3745-ADVENTERPRISEK9-M), Version 12.4(15)T14, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc2)'}) => {
    "item": {
        "key": "software_version",
        "value": "Cisco IOS Software, 3700 Software (C3745-ADVENTERPRISEK9-M), Version 12.4(15)T14, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc2)"
    },
    "msg": "The key is software_version and the value is Cisco IOS Software, 3700 Software (C3745-ADVENTERPRISEK9-M), Version 12.4(15)T14, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc2)"
}
ok: [R2] => (item={'key': u'platform', 'value': u'Cisco 3745'}) => {
    "item": {
        "key": "platform",
        "value": "Cisco 3745"
    },
    "msg": "The key is platform and the value is Cisco 3745"
}
ok: [R2] => (item={'key': u'destination_host', 'value': u'R1.lab.local'}) => {
    "item": {
        "key": "destination_host",
        "value": "R1.lab.local"
    },
    "msg": "The key is destination_host and the value is R1.lab.local"
}
ok: [R2] => (item={'key': u'local_port', 'value': u'FastEthernet0/0'}) => {
    "item": {
        "key": "local_port",
        "value": "FastEthernet0/0"
    },
    "msg": "The key is local_port and the value is FastEthernet0/0"
}
ok: [R2] => (item={'key': u'management_ip', 'value': u'192.168.0.210'}) => {
    "item": {
        "key": "management_ip",
        "value": "192.168.0.210"
    },
    "msg": "The key is management_ip and the value is 192.168.0.210"
}

PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************
R1                         : ok=2    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0
R2                         : ok=2    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0

Git

This playbook is available here in my Github repo.

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Note: The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and not those of my employer.