Ansible vmware_guest optional disk with Ansible Tower survey - linux

Question

I have a playbook for the creation of a VM from a template in VMware ESXi 6.7. My playbook is below. I want to only configure the second (and possible subsequent) disks if the DISK1_SIZE_GB variable is > 0. This is not working. I've also tried using 'when: DISK1_SIZE_GB is defined' with no luck. I'm using a survey in Ansible Tower, with the 2nd disk configuration being an optional answer. In this case I get an error about 0 being an invalid disk size, or when I check for variable definition I get an error about DISK1_SIZE_GB being undefined. Either way, the 'when' conditional doesn't seem to be working.
If I hardcode the size, as in the first 'disk' entry, it works fine .. same if I enter a valid size from Ansible Tower. I need to NOT configure additional disks unless the size is defined in the Tower survey.
Thanks!
---
- name: Create a VM from a template
hosts: localhost
gather_facts: no
tasks:
- name: Clone a template to a VM
vmware_guest:
hostname: "{{ lookup('env', 'VMWARE_HOST') }}"
username: "{{ lookup('env', 'VMWARE_USER') }}"
password: "{{ lookup('env', 'VMWARE_PASSWORD') }}"
validate_certs: 'false'
name: "{{ HOSTNAME }}"
template: RHEL-Server-7.7
datacenter: Production
folder: Templates
state: poweredon
hardware:
num_cpus: "{{ CPU_NUM }}"
memory_mb: "{{ MEM_MB }}"
disk:
- size_gb: 20
autoselect_datastore: true
- size_gb: "{{ DISK1_SIZE_GB }}"
autoselect_datastore: true
when: DISK1_SIZE_GB > 0
networks:
- name: "{{ NETWORK }}"
type: static
ip: "{{ IP_ADDR }}"
netmask: "{{ NETMASK }}"
gateway: "{{ GATEWAY }}"
dns_servers: "{{ DNS_SERVERS }}"
start_connected: true
wait_for_ip_address: yes

Answer 1

AFAIK this can't be accomplished in a single task. You were on the right track with when: DISK1_SIZE_GB is defined if disk: was a task and not a parameter though. Below is how I would approach this.
Create two survey questions:
DISK1_SIZE_GB - integer - required answer - enforce a non-zero
minimum value such as 20 (since you're deploying RHEL)
DISK2_SIZE_GB - integer - optional answer - no minimum or maximum
value
Create disk 1 in your existing vmware_guest task:
disk:
- size_gb: "{{ DISK1_SIZE_GB }}"
autoselect_datastore: true
Create a new vmware_guest_disk task which runs immediately afterwards and conditionally adds the second disk:
- name: Add second hard disk if necessary
vmware_guest_disk:
hostname: "{{ lookup('env', 'VMWARE_HOST') }}"
username: "{{ lookup('env', 'VMWARE_USER') }}"
password: "{{ lookup('env', 'VMWARE_PASSWORD') }}"
validate_certs: 'false'
name: "{{ HOSTNAME }}"
datacenter: Production
folder: Templates
state: poweredon
disk:
- size_gb: "{{ DISK2_SIZE_GB }}"
autoselect_datastore: true
when: DISK2_SIZE_GB is defined