Passing Project Custom Properties to 3rd party integrations like Ansible Integrations in VMware Aria Automation 8.18.x

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)

Issue/Introduction

When deploying workloads in VMware Aria Automation 8.18, users may find that Project-level custom properties are not automatically inherited by Cloud.Ansible integrations if passed as something like ${LDAPnetgroup} (netgroup in Ansible) in the example below:

• This issue occurs when variables like LDAPnetgroup do not resolve correctly in Ansible hostVariables.
• Instead of passing the expected value (e.g., abc_adminuser), the deployment may show an unresolved placeholder (+@${LDAPnetgroup}).

Environment

VMware Aria Automation 8.x

Ansible Open / Ansible Tower

Cause

 

• Project-level custom properties are not automatically inherited in Cloud.Ansible or other resource types unless explicitly referenced in the blueprint YAML.
• YAML parsing issues can cause string values to be misinterpreted, requiring the use of a pipe (|) to ensure correct formatting.

 

Resolution

 

Explicitly Reference the Resource Property in the Cloud Template:

• Ensure the LDAPnetgroup variable is referenced from the Cloud_vSphere_Machine resource.

Modify the Cloud Template to Use the Correct Syntax:

• Incorrect Configuration (Will not resolve properly):

hostVariables: netgroup: ${LDAPnetgroup}

• Correct Configuration (Explicitly References the Resource and Uses |):

hostVariables: | netgroup: ${resource.Cloud_vSphere_Machine_1.LDAPnetgroup}

 

Additional Information

Automation Assembler expression syntax

Using Ansible to integrate IdM with NIS domains and netgroups