Looping through a list of dictionaries in Ansible - loops

Question

I've used basic loops before, nice and easy. However, now I have more of a challenge.
The task:
- name: Configure BGP
fortios_router_bgp:
vdom: "FG-traffic"
router_bgp:
as: " {{ as }}"
router_id: "{{ router_id }}"
neighbor:
-
holdtime_timer: "{{ holdtime_timer }}"
interface: "{{ item.interface }}"
ip: "{{ item.ip }}"
keep_alive_timer: "{{ keep_alive_timer }}"
prefix_list_in: "{{ item.prefix_list_in }}"
remote_as: "{{ item.remote_as }}"
route_map_in: "{{ item.route_map_in }}"
update_source: "{{ item.update_source }}"
loop: "{{ bgp_neighbors }}"
tags: bgp
The list of dictionaries/hashes, the variable:
bgp_neighbors:
- { interface: "INT_A", ip: "{{ netid_bgp }}.12", prefix_list_in: "default-route-in", remote_as: "30000", route_map_in: "SET_PREF", update_source: "INT_A" }
- { interface: "INT_B", ip: "{{ netid_bgp }}.14", prefix_list_in: "default-route-in", remote_as: "30000", route_map_in: "SET_PREF", update_source: "INT_B" }
- { interface: "INT_DR_A", ip: "{{ netid_bgp }}.16", prefix_list_in: "default-route-in", remote_as: "30000", route_map_in: "SET_PREF", update_source: "INT_DR_A" }
- { interface: "INT_DR_B", ip: "{{ netid_bgp }}.18", prefix_list_in: "default-route-in", remote_as: "30000", route_map_in: "SET_PREF", update_source: "INT_DR_B" }
The objective is to create a list of four neighbors. What I get, of course, is a list of one, the last dictionary in the list.
I understand the loop is working correctly, that this module runs four times based on the list of four dictionaries, overwriting the key value pairs each time.
I understand that I need to process the keys in the dictionary list seperately although I'm struggling to work this out.
Now that I've started to do more loops I see that is going to be a common requirement.
This is the long hand version that I am trying to replace - ignore the variable names, I haven repopulated them with the actual values:
- name: Configure BGP
fortios_router_bgp:
vdom: "FG-traffic"
router_bgp:
as: " {{ as }}"
router_id: "{{ router_id }}"
neighbor:
-
holdtime_timer: "{{ holdtime_timer }}"
interface: "{{ item.interface }}"
ip: "{{ item.ip }}"
keep_alive_timer: "{{ keep_alive_timer }}"
prefix_list_in: "{{ item.prefix_list_in }}"
remote_as: "{{ item.remote_as }}"
route_map_in: "{{ item.route_map_in }}"
update_source: "{{ item.update_source }}"
-
holdtime_timer: "{{ holdtime_timer }}"
interface: "{{ item.interface }}"
ip: "{{ item.ip }}"
keep_alive_timer: "{{ keep_alive_timer }}"
prefix_list_in: "{{ item.prefix_list_in }}"
remote_as: "{{ item.remote_as }}"
route_map_in: "{{ item.route_map_in }}"
update_source: "{{ item.update_source }}"
-
holdtime_timer: "{{ holdtime_timer }}"
interface: "{{ item.interface }}"
ip: "{{ item.ip }}"
keep_alive_timer: "{{ keep_alive_timer }}"
prefix_list_in: "{{ item.prefix_list_in }}"
remote_as: "{{ item.remote_as }}"
route_map_in: "{{ item.route_map_in }}"
update_source: "{{ item.update_source }}"
-
holdtime_timer: "{{ holdtime_timer }}"
interface: "{{ item.interface }}"
ip: "{{ item.ip }}"
keep_alive_timer: "{{ keep_alive_timer }}"
prefix_list_in: "{{ item.prefix_list_in }}"
remote_as: "{{ item.remote_as }}"
route_map_in: "{{ item.route_map_in }}"
update_source: "{{ item.update_source }}"
tags: bgp
Thanks!

Answer 1

Create a template
shell> cat templates/neighbor.j2
{% for i in bgp_neighbors %}
- holdtime_timer: "{{ holdtime_timer }}"
interface: "{{ i.interface }}"
ip: "{{ i.ip }}"
keep_alive_timer: "{{ keep_alive_timer }}"
prefix_list_in: "{{ i.prefix_list_in }}"
remote_as: "{{ i.remote_as }}"
route_map_in: "{{ i.route_map_in }}"
update_source: "{{ i.update_source }}"
{% endfor %}
Put the declarations into the vars
netid_bgp: 10.1.0
holdtime_timer: value of holdtime timer
keep_alive_timer: value of keep alive timer
_neighbor: "{{ lookup('template', 'templates/neighbor.j2') }}"
neighbor: "{{ _neighbor|from_yaml }}"
Then the tasks below
- set_fact:
neighbor: "{{ neighbor }}"
- debug:
var: neighbor
give the list
neighbor:
- holdtime_timer: value of holdtime timer
interface: INT_A
ip: 10.1.0.12
keep_alive_timer: value of keep alive timer
prefix_list_in: default-route-in
remote_as: '30000'
route_map_in: SET_PREF
update_source: INT_A
- holdtime_timer: value of holdtime timer
interface: INT_B
ip: 10.1.0.14
keep_alive_timer: value of keep alive timer
prefix_list_in: default-route-in
remote_as: '30000'
route_map_in: SET_PREF
update_source: INT_B
- holdtime_timer: value of holdtime timer
interface: INT_DR_A
ip: 10.1.0.16
keep_alive_timer: value of keep alive timer
prefix_list_in: default-route-in
remote_as: '30000'
route_map_in: SET_PREF
update_source: INT_DR_A
- holdtime_timer: value of holdtime timer
interface: INT_DR_B
ip: 10.1.0.18
keep_alive_timer: value of keep alive timer
prefix_list_in: default-route-in
remote_as: '30000'
route_map_in: SET_PREF
update_source: INT_DR_B
Use the variable in the module
- name: Configure BGP
fortios_router_bgp:
vdom: "FG-traffic"
router_bgp:
as: " {{ as }}"
router_id: "{{ router_id }}"
neighbor: "{{ neighbor }}"
...