Alex Wanderley

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Sep 4, 2024, 3:38:00 AM9/4/24

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Hi,

I've been trying to solve this but I truly still have lots to learn... Could somebody help?

Given that a VM "creation_time" snapshot property has this format: "2024-05-26T10:01:21.219280+00:00".

How could I build a filter for the "community.vmware.vmware_all_snapshots_info" module that would give me VMs whose snapshots were created 2 weeks ago or older?

- name: Collect snapshots older than 2 weeks
community.vmware.vmware_all_snapshots_info:
datacenter: "{{ datacenter_name }}"
validate_certs: false
filters:
creation_time: "<filter>"
match_type: includes
register: old_snapshots

Thanks...

Alex

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Stephen Maher

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Sep 4, 2024, 8:11:14 AM9/4/24

to 'Caroline Kiel' via Ansible Project

Alex,

Does this wok for you as i’ve previously used something similar.

Regards

- name: Gather VMs with snapshots older than 2 weeks

hosts: localhost

gather_facts: no

tasks:

- name: Get all snapshots info

community.vmware.vmware_all_snapshots_info:

hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"

username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"

password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"

validate_certs: no

register: snapshots_info

- name: Filter snapshots older than 2 weeks

set_fact:

old_snapshots: "{{ snapshots_info.virtual_machines | selectattr('snapshots', 'defined') | selectattr('snapshots', 'select', 'creation_time <= old_date') }}"

vars:

old_date: "{{ (now() - timedelta(weeks=2)).strftime('%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S') }}"

- name: Display VMs with snapshots older than 2 weeks

debug:

var: old_snapshots

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Alex Wanderley

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Sep 4, 2024, 9:06:30 PM9/4/24

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Hi Stephen,

First of all, thanks for helping...

(Long read ahead, sorry.)

I'm afraid that did not work for me.

I'm collecting all the snapshots using "community.vmware.vmware_all_snapshots_info":

- name: Collect snapshots older than 2 weeks
community.vmware.vmware_all_snapshots_info:
datacenter: "{{ datacenter_name }}"
validate_certs: false

register: snapshots_info

Which does not return "snapshots_info.virtual_machines". Instead, it returns "snapshots_info.vmware_all_snapshots_info" So, I had to adjust your suggestion to:

- name: Filter snapshots older than 2 weeks

ansible.builtin.set_fact:
old_snapshots: "{{ snapshots_info.vmware_all_snapshots_info | selectattr('vm_name', 'defined') | selectattr('vm_name', 'select', 'creation_time <= old_date') }}"

vars:
old_date: "{{ (now() - timedelta(weeks=2)).strftime('%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S') }}"

But that gave me this:

TASK [Filter snapshots older than 2 weeks] *************************************
An exception occurred during task execution. To see the full traceback, use -vvv. The error was: line 0
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {"changed": false}

So, as a test, I tried to define "old_date" separately using:

- name: Set 2 weeks ago date
ansible.builtin.set_fact:

old_date: "{{ (now() - timedelta(weeks=2)).strftime('%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S') }}"

Which gave me the error below. (That error makes me believe that our environment (AAP 2.4 + Ansible-core 2.15) perhaps is missing something.)
TASK [Set 2 weeks ago date] ****************************************************
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {"msg": "The task includes an option with an undefined variable. The error was: 'timedelta' is undefined. 'timedelta' is undefined\n\nThe error appears to be in '/runner/project/dealing_with_snapshots.yml': line 28, column 8, but may\nbe elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.\n\nThe offending line appears to be:\n\n\n - name: Set 2 weeks ago date\n ^ here\n"}

When somehow the "timedelta" error is resolved, do you think I'd be able to populate the "old_date" variable prior to calling " community.vmware.vmware_all_snapshots_info" and then go with something like this? (Sorry for my lack of knowledge if what I'm asking is complete nonsense...)

- name: Collect snapshots older than 2 weeks
community.vmware.vmware_all_snapshots_info:
datacenter: "{{ datacenter_name }}"
validate_certs: false
filters:

creation_time: " {{ selectattr('vm_name', 'select', 'creation_time <= old_date') }}"
register: snapshots_info

The reason I'm bringing back the idea of using "filters" from vmware_all_snapshots_info is that it would return a, potentially, much shorter list of VMs for me to deal with.

Regards,

Alex

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Todd Lewis

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Sep 4, 2024, 9:30:42 PM9/4/24

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If you don't have now(), you can probably use this:

old_date: "{{ lookup('ansible.builtin.pipe', 'date -d \"now - 14 days\" +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S') }}"

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Alex Wanderley

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Sep 5, 2024, 12:30:19 AM9/5/24

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Hello Todd,

After a slight change on your suggestion (space, instead of "T": +%Y-%m-%d\" \"%H:%M:%S), I could have "old_date" as a time object:

- name: Set 2 weeks ago date

ansible.builtin.set_fact:

old_date: "{{ lookup('ansible.builtin.pipe', 'date -d \"now - 14 days\" +%Y-%m-%d\" \"%H:%M:%S') | to_datetime }}"

So, now I can use that in Stephen's suggestion:

- name: Filter snapshots older than 2 weeks
ansible.builtin.set_fact:

old_snapshots: "{{ snapshots_info.vmware_all_snapshots_info | selectattr('vm_name', 'select', '(creation_time <= old_date') }}"

But that is still erroring out:

TASK [Filter snapshots older than 2 weeks] *************************************

An exception occurred during task execution. To see the full traceback, use -vvv. The error was: line 0

fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {"changed": false}

I'm very grateful for all your help, but I don't intend to consume much more of your time with my problem. So, one last question if you don't mind:

Would I be able to convert "creation_time" which is a string like "2024-05-26T10:01:21.219280+00:00" into a date/time object formatted as "old_date" mentioned up above? (As I think that the error is related to me trying to compare a string to a date/time object.)

Note: "creation_time | to_datetime" does not work. As, in short, it gave me:
"... The error was: time data '2024-05-26T10:01:21.219280+00:00' does not match format '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'\n\n..."

Again, thank you...

Alex

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Todd Lewis

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Sep 5, 2024, 5:00:00 AM9/5/24

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Hello Alex,

That error looks very much like the original error. I don't have vmware snapshots I can play with, so I (and I presume Stephen Maher) are limited to throwing suggestions over the wall so to speak.

Anyway, my guess is that your creation_time is some complex type - well, more complex than a string anyway, while our Jinja expressions are limited to producing strings. I would be curious to know what "| type_debug" after your creation_time produces. It should show the type of the preceding expression. In any case, I don't think your `old_date` ends up being a datetime object since Jinja produces strings. The "| to_datetime" part "wares off" so to speak once the expression is resolved, and you end up with a string. Behold:

utoddl@tango:~/ansible$ cat test.yml
---
# test.yml
- name: Date games
  hosts: localhost
  gather_facts: false
  vars:
    old_date: "{{ lookup('ansible.builtin.pipe', 'date -d \"now - 14 days\" +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S') }}"
    start_trigger: "{{ (now(utc=false,fmt='%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S') | to_datetime('%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S')).strftime('%s') }}"
  tasks:
    - name: Set 2 weeks ago date
      ansible.builtin.set_fact:
        new_date: "{{ lookup('ansible.builtin.pipe', 'date -d \"now - 14 days\" +%Y-%m-%d\" \"%H:%M:%S') | to_datetime }}"
    - name: Check types
      ansible.builtin.debug:
        msg:
         - '{{ old_date }}, {{ old_date | type_debug }}'
         - '{{ new_date }}, {{ new_date | type_debug }}'
utoddl@tango:~/ansible$ ansible-playbook  test.yml

PLAY [Date games] *********************************************************************************************************

TASK [Set 2 weeks ago date] ***********************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]

TASK [Check types] ********************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => 
  msg:
  - 2024-08-21T23:56:21, AnsibleUnsafeText
  - 2024-08-21 23:56:21, AnsibleUnsafeText

Since the output of `date` is a string, if you could get `create_time` to be a string also, you could compare them as strings rather than datetime objects. And you probably only need the "+%Y-%m-%d" part anyway.

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-- 
Todd

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