Ansible converts dictionary to string while it should not.

[Niek]

Hi,

I'm having trouble with the cisco.mso.mso_schema module (Doc Page). I can't get the first example to work and I think I know why, but I don't know if I can solve it. So let me explain my problem.

When I try to add a schema, using the example:

- name: Add a new schema 

cisco.mso.mso_schema: 

  host: mso_host

  username: admin 

  password: SomeSecretPassword 

  schema: schema1

  state: present 

  templates: 

  - name: template1

     displayName: template1 

     tenantId: niek_tenant

I get an error back from the MSO:

"msg":"MSO Error 125: Malformed body",

"payload":{

   "code":125,

   "info":{

      "obj[0]":[

         "\"{'displayName': 'template1', 'name': 'template1', 'tenantId': 'niek_tenant'}\" is not an object"

      ]

   },

   "message":"Malformed body"

}

In the error message, you can see that quotes have been added around the dictionary that specifies the parameters of the template that is created with the schema. I also get the following warning from ansible when I run my playbook:

[WARNING]: The value "templates: {'displayName': 'template1', 'name': 'template1', 'tenantId': 'niek_tenant'}" (type dict) was converted to "templates: u"{'displayName': 'template1', 'name': 'template1', 'tenantId': 'niek_tenant'}""  (type string). If this does not look like what you expect, quote the entire value to ensure it does not change.

I also tried adding a schema using a POST request outside of ansible to the MSO. This worked, and the body of my POST was:

{

  "displayName": "schema1",

  "templates": [

    {

      "name": "template1",

      "displayName": "template1",

      "tenantId": "5fa29a543c0000e9c3a6ed80"

    }

  ]

}

I think that the post request that ansible sends to the MSO is (Notice the extra quotes around the template definition):

{

  "displayName": "schema1",

  "templates": [

    "{

      "name": "template1",

      "displayName": "template1",

      "tenantId": "5fa29a543c0000e9c3a6ed80"

    }"

  ]

}

Can someone tell me if I'm doing something wrong, or if this might be a bug in Ansible or in the used Cisco module?

Version information:

Ansible version: 2.10.2

Python3 version: 3.6.9

Cisco.mso version: 1.0.0

Kind regards,

Niek

[Felix Fontein]

Hi,

> I'm having trouble with the cisco.mso.mso_schema module (Doc Page

> <https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/cisco/mso/mso_schema_module.html#parameter-templates>).

> I can't get the first example to work and I think I know why, but I
> don't know if I can solve it. So let me explain my problem.
>
> When I try to add a schema, using the example:
>

> *- name: Add a new schema *
> *cisco.mso.mso_schema: *
> * host: mso_host*
> * username: admin *
> * password: SomeSecretPassword *
> * schema: schema1*
> * state: present *
> * templates: *
> * - name: template1*
> * displayName: template1 *
> * tenantId: niek_tenant*

>
>
>
> I get an error back from the MSO:
>

> *"msg":"MSO Error 125: Malformed body",*
> *"payload":{*
> * "code":125,*
> * "info":{*
> * "obj[0]":[*
> * "\"{'displayName': 'template1', 'name': 'template1',
> 'tenantId': 'niek_tenant'}\" is not an object"*
> * ]*
> * },*
> * "message":"Malformed body"*

> }
>
>
>
> In the error message, you can see that quotes have been added around
> the dictionary that specifies the parameters of the template that is
> created with the schema. I also get the following warning from
> ansible when I run my playbook:
>

> *[WARNING]: The value "templates: {'displayName': 'template1',

> 'name': 'template1', 'tenantId': 'niek_tenant'}" (type dict) was
> converted to "templates: u"{'displayName': 'template1', 'name':
> 'template1', 'tenantId': 'niek_tenant'}"" (type string). If this
> does not look like what you expect, quote the entire value to ensure

> it does not change.*

well, Ansible did what the mso_schema module asked for, namely convert
the list of dicts to a list of strings. See the documentation of the
parameter
(https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/cisco/mso/mso_schema_module.html#parameter-templates).

I think someone accidentally set the element type to string here. You
should file a bug in the repository:
https://github.com/CiscoDevNet/ansible-mso

The error was introduced in this commit:
https://github.com/CiscoDevNet/ansible-mso/commit/98f010a6889c45536b925a0b77a99e816922929e

Cheers,
Felix

[Niek]

Thank you for the quick response Felix, I have filed a bug in the repository.