Ansible\AWX - Powershell JSON-Object not returning my items

Question

Still working on my first playbook. I'm running into a problem when i try to access a JSON object.

I have a little script that checks for 2 groups to exist or not:

- name: Verify if the groups already exists in AD
  register: lookupResult
  win_shell: |
  $groups = @()
  Try{
      $group = Get-ADGroup {{ GroupNameUpper }}  | Select Name, DistinguishedName
      $groups += [PSCustomObject]@{
          Name              = $group.Name
          DistinguishedName = $group.DistinguishedName
          Message           = "Group already exists"
      }
  }  catch  {
      $groups += [PSCustomObject]@{
          Name              =  "{{ GroupNameUpper }}"
          DistinguishedName = ""
          Message           = "Does not exist"
      }
  }  Try  {
      $group = Get-ADGroup  "{{ GroupNameUpper }}_GrpMgmt"  | Select Name, DistinguishedName
      $groups += [PSCustomObject]@{
          Name              = $group.Name
          DistinguishedName = $group.DistinguishedName
          Message           = "Group already exists"
      }
  }  catch  {
      $groups += [PSCustomObject]@{
          Name              =  "{{ GroupNameUpper }}_GrpMgmt"
          DistinguishedName = ""
          Message           = "Does not exist"
      }      
  }
  $Json = $groups | convertTo-Json
  $Json

When i display the output, it looks like nicely formed JSON

- name: Show output
 debug:
 msg: "{{ lookupResult.stdout_lines|list }}"

It looks like so:

TASK [Show output] *************************************************************
ok: [server] => {
    "msg": [
        "[",
        "    {",
        "        \"Name\":  \"R_UC_APP_Testapp\",",
        "        \"DistinguishedName\":  \"\",",
        "        \"Message\":  \"Does not exist\"",
        "    },",
        "    {",
        "        \"Name\":  \"R_UC_APP_Testapp_GrpMgmt\",",
        "        \"DistinguishedName\":  \"CN=R_UC_APP_testapp_GrpMgmt,whatever,DC=com\",",
        "        \"Message\":  \"Group already exists\"",
        "    }",
        "]"
    ]
}

In the UI, i can look at the JSON with the next task and it shows up fine there too:

- name: Process win_shell output
 set_fact:
 testOutput: "{{ lookupResult.stdout | from_json  }}"

According to this page i should be able to access my object testoutput https://www.jonathanmedd.net/2019/07/returning-data-from-powershell-scripts-to-be-consumed-by-ansible-playbooks.html

- name: Inform that group already exists
  debug:
     msg: "Group {{ testOutput.Name }} ."
when: "'already exists' in lookupResult.stdout"

But it doesn't work and returns the error "msg": "The task includes an option with an undefined variable. The error was: 'list object' has no attribute 'Name'

The only difference between my code and the example-code on the website, is the fact that my JSON-object has 2. But that shouldn't be an issue right?

I have tried many different things but i've come to a stall. Anyone can help me out please?

Thanks so much in advance!

EDIT: So i'm a bit closer thanks to the loop suggestion. However, this prints too much information. I just want to see the msg.

  - name: Debug Loop
    debug: 
     msg: "Group : {{ item.Name }} , {{ item.Message }} in domain {{ domainName }}"
    loop: "{{ testOutput }}"

user_19373218 · Answer

As you pointed out you have two elements in your list, so what you'd need to do is to iterate through each element, you can do that using the loop or with keywords. There are some examples in the below link but in real terms it's like asking a room of two people, what there name is and only being able to write down one of them.

: https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/user_guide/playbooks_loops.html

user_7380779 · Answer

i dunno if your testOutput.stdout is directly a json format:

  - name: Debug Loop
    debug: 
      msg: "Group : {{ item.Name }} , {{ item.Message }} in domain {{ domainName }}"
    loop: "{{ testOutput.stdout }}"

if its a string do a loop: "{{ testOutput.stdout | from_json }}"

for more precision show the content of testOutput.stdout

- name: Inform that group already exists
  debug:
    msg: "Group {{ item.Name }} ."
  loop: "{{ testOutput.stdout | from_json }}"   
  when: "'already exists' in item.Message"

Ansible\AWX - Powershell JSON-Object not returning my items

2 Answers