Support for Group Vars

[michaelklose]

Is there a way to get group vars with this script? So for example vars for a site or a device role.

[aabouzaid]

@michaelklose Could you please add more details about what you want to do?
Thanks.

[michaelklose]

So for example I currently get something like this here back when running ansible

ok: [Test-Switch2] => {
    "hostvars[inventory_hostname]": {
        "ansible_check_mode": false,
        "ansible_diff_mode": false,
        "ansible_facts": {},
        "ansible_forks": 5,
        "ansible_inventory_sources": [
            "/home/mikl/netbox.py"
        ],
        "ansible_playbook_python": "/usr/bin/python2",
        "ansible_run_tags": [
            "all"
        ],
        "ansible_skip_tags": [],
        "ansible_version": {
            "full": "2.5.2",
            "major": 2,
            "minor": 5,
            "revision": 2,
            "string": "2.5.2"
        },
        "group_names": [
            "Cisco IOS",
            "Core Switch",
            "Lab"
        ],
        "groups": {
            "Access-Switch": [
                "Test-Switch"
            ],
            "Cisco IOS": [
                "Test-Switch2",
                "Test-Switch"
            ],
            "Core Switch": [
                "Test-Switch2"
            ],
            "Lab": [
                "Test-Switch2",
                "Test-Switch"
            ],
            "all": [
                "Test-Switch2",
                "Test-Switch"
            ],
            "ungrouped": []
        },
        "inventory_dir": "/home/mikl",
        "inventory_file": "/home/mikl/netbox.py",
        "inventory_hostname": "Test-Switch2",
        "inventory_hostname_short": "Test-Switch2",
        "omit": "__omit_place_holder__169b16eaeddb5cd7bfa41b605b4850d2de522c9f",
        "playbook_dir": "/home/mikl"
    }
}

Test-Switch2 is in for example in 3 groups "Cisco IOS", "Core Switch" and "Lab"
"Lab" is a Site so if I retrieve it through the API it looks like similar llike that

{
    "id": 1,
    "name": "Lab",
    "slug": "lab",
    "status": {
        "label": "Active",
        "value": 1
    },
    "region": null,
    "tenant": null,
    "facility": "",
    "asn": null,
    "time_zone": "Europe/Berlin",
    "description": "Testdescription",
    "physical_address": "",
    "shipping_address": "",
    "contact_name": "",
    "contact_phone": "",
    "contact_email": "",
    "comments": "",
    "custom_fields": {},
    "created": "2018-05-19",
    "last_updated": "2018-05-23T12:11:27.044439Z",
    "count_prefixes": 0,
    "count_vlans": 0,
    "count_racks": 0,
    "count_devices": 2,
    "count_circuits": 0
}

It would be great if it dynamically get the vars from the groups to also use them. In this example I might use site description for part of the SNMP Location.

[LuPo]

I also have a use case for group_vars and before i will start to work on it, I would like to share some thoughts on how I understand it should be implemented. Please share your comments on it.

According to Ansible documentation, already quoted in #19, the inventory structure might look like this:

{
    "group001": {
        "hosts": ["host001", "" "host002"],
        "vars": {
            "var1": true
        },
        "children": ["group002"]
    },
    "group002": {
        "hosts": ["host003","host004"],
        "vars": {
            "var2": 500
        },
        "children":[]
    }
}

Basically we could extend netbox.yml with group_vars at the same level as hosts_vars are defined:

---
netbox:
    main:
        api_url: 'http://netbox:32783/api/dcim/devices'
        api_token: 'sometoken'
    group_by:
        # Default section in Netbox.
        default:
            - device_role
            - rack
        #   - platform

    # Use Netbox sections as host variables.
    hosts_vars:
         general:
              ...

    # Use Netbox sections from groups as group variables.
    group_vars:
        general:
            racks:
              site_name: site
            device-roles:
              represents_color: color

We can maintain the categories level for mapping the key values (i.e. general). Concerning the variables themselves, there might be several approaches.
Logically, I would search them among properties of the groups selected in group_by section - each for its group.
Variables device_role and rack can be searched for their proprieties on the following endpoints:
/api/dcim/device-roles and /api/dcim/racks, so the mapping must be handled.

[michaelklose]

Technically I can't add something useful regarding your comment but Netbox is working on a similiar feature which is on the way to the official Netbox release. See netbox-community/netbox#1349 for more details.

[michaelklose]

If you have similar requirements have a look at the inventory script located here: https://github.com/netbox-community/ansible_modules