How to create a host variable from an environmental variable

[smatterchew]

SUMMARY

I'm looking for a way to assign the name of my vCenter host to a variable using community.vmware.vmware_vm_inventory

ISSUE TYPE

• Documentation Report

COMPONENT NAME

community.vmware.vmware_vm_inventory

ANSIBLE VERSION

  config file = /home/username/.ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = ['/home/username/.ansible/plugins/modules', '/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /opt/ansible/vcenter_inv_20220824/lib64/python3.6/site-packages/ansible
  ansible collection location = /home/username/.ansible/collections:/usr/share/ansible/collections
  executable location = /opt/ansible/vcenter_inv_20220824/bin/ansible
  python version = 3.6.8 (default, Aug 13 2020, 07:46:32) [GCC 4.8.5 20150623 (Red Hat 4.8.5-39)]
  jinja version = 3.0.3
  libyaml = True

I'm using the community.vmware collection v2.7.0. The doc for the vmware_vm_inventory module says I can use the compose parameter to create host variables from jinja2 expressions, so I tried:

compose:
  vcenter_server: lookup('env','VMWARE_SERVER')

and

compose:
  vcenter_server: "{{ lookup('env','VMWARE_SERVER') }}"

I have confirmed that the environmental variable VMWARE_SERVER is set, but the variable vcenter_server is not instantiated in the host record. Neither invocation threw an error or warning.

Is there a way to create a host variable from an environmental variable?

If not, for this specific requirement, is there a way to get the name of the vCenter server from the inventory module itself?

[ansibullbot]

Files identified in the description: None

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[mariolenz]

This looks like a general question on using Ansible and not related to this collection directly.

And, anyway, issues should be created to report bugs or request new features. Not to ask questions how to do things. Try the forum for this.