network_moid fails with "More than one object available" when the same network name is defined in multiple virtual switches

[Soraph]

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SUMMARY

When using vmware.vmware_rest.network_moid against a network name defined in multiple switches the result is a fatal error stating "More than one object available".

ISSUE TYPE

• Bug Report

COMPONENT NAME

vmware.vmware_rest.network_moid

ANSIBLE VERSION

$ ansible --version
ansible [core 2.15.3]
  config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = ['/home/some/.ansible/plugins/modules', '/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /usr/lib/python3.11/site-packages/ansible
  ansible collection location = /home/some/.ansible/collections:/usr/share/ansible/collections
  executable location = /usr/bin/ansible
  python version = 3.11.5 (main, Sep 22 2023, 15:34:29) [GCC 8.5.0 20210514 (Red Hat 8.5.0-20)] (/usr/bin/python3.11)
  jinja version = 3.1.2
  libyaml = True

COLLECTION VERSION

# ansible-galaxy collection list vmware.vmware_rest

# /root/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections
Collection         Version
------------------ -------
vmware.vmware_rest 3.0.0  

CONFIGURATION

# ansible-config dump --only-changed
CONFIG_FILE() = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg

OS / ENVIRONMENT

Minimal example executed in a freshly installed RHEL 8.9 machine with latest updates.

# sudo yum install ansible-core python3.11-pip
# pip3.11 install aiohttp
# --> Successfully installed aiohttp-3.9.1 aiosignal-1.3.1 attrs-23.2.0 frozenlist-1.4.1 idna-3.6 multidict-6.0.4 yarl-1.9.4

STEPS TO REPRODUCE

---
- name: Minimal example
  hosts: localhost
  gather_facts: false

  vars:
    connection_args:
      vcenter_hostname: #hostname
      vcenter_username: #username
      vcenter_password: #password
    vmware_datacenter: "datacenter"
    vm_network: "networkname"
  tasks:
    - name: Fetch network MOID
      ansible.builtin.debug:
        msg: "{{ lookup('vmware.vmware_rest.network_moid', '/'+vmware_datacenter+'/network/'+vm_network, **connection_args) }}"

EXPECTED RESULTS

If multiple switches are not supported, this should be addressed in the documentation. In that case, the documentation should also contain information on how to narrow the search path (e.g. adding virtual switch name) so that only one MoID is returned.

ACTUAL RESULTS

fatal: [blerb]: FAILED! => {
    "msg": "An unhandled exception occurred while running the lookup plugin 'vmware.vmware_rest.network_moid'. Error was a <class 'ansible_collections.cloud.common.plugins.module_utils.turbo.exceptions.EmbeddedModuleUnexpectedFailure'>, original message: More than one object available: [MY_NETWORK_ABC => a-1234, MY_NETWORK_ABC => a-1235, MY_NETWORK_ABC => a-1236].. More than one object available: [MY_NETWORK_ABC => a-1234, MY_NETWORK_ABC => a-1235, MY_NETWORK_ABC => a-1236]."
}

[hakbailey]

@Soraph Unfortunately the VSphere REST API does not support filtering retrieved networks by switch name, only by datacenter, folder, network name, and network type. The API response to list networks only includes the network name, identifier, and type, so we cannot add that logic in the lookup plugin either. We can update the docs to reflect this.