如何通过Ansible遍历快照信息并删除指定条件的VMware快照？

我正在开发一个Ansible角色用于删除VMware快照，为避免误删所有快照，我希望仅删除名称匹配特定字符串且创建时间超过X天的快照。

我已通过vmware_guest_snapshot_info模块收集了各虚拟机的快照详情，并将结果注册到变量中，得到如下字典结构：

{"changed": false, 
"guest_snapshots": 
{
 "current_snapshot": 
  {"creation_time": "2023-06-06T18:31:37.532826+00:00", 
   "description": "Snapshot TEST", 
   "id": 1243,    
   "name": "Patching_Linux2023-06-06", 
   "state": "poweredOff"
  }, 
  "snapshots": [
   {"creation_time": "2023-06-06T14:38:17.909158+00:00", 
   "description": "", 
   "id": 1242, 
   "name": "Linux_test", 
   "state": "poweredOff"
   }, 
   {
    "creation_time": "2023-06-06T18:31:37.532826+00:00", 
    "description": "Snapshot TEST", 
    "id": 1243, "name": "Patching_Linux2023-06-06", 
    "state": "poweredOff"
   }
   ]
  }
}

我需要处理多快照场景，尝试编写了如下Ansible删除任务（暂未考虑快照过期时间）：

- name: Remove old snapshots
  vmware_guest_snapshot:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname_uni }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    datacenter: myvcenter
    validate_certs: no
    #name: "{{ inventory_hostname |upper }}"
    folder: "{{ vm_folders }}"
    vm_id: "{{ item.item }}"
    snapshot_name: "{{ item.name }}"
    state: absent
  delegate_to: "{{vcenter_launcher_uni }}"
  loop: "{{ snapshots_info.name }}"
  when: item.name is search('Patching_Linux') 
   tags:
    - clean_patching_snap 

我尝试过多种loop和with_items的写法，但始终无法正确访问所有快照名称，请问该如何解决？

核心问题是未正确遍历快照列表，同时需要补充过期时间判断逻辑，分步骤解决：

1. 修正遍历逻辑，正确访问快照列表 #

从你提供的字典结构来看，所有快照都存放在guest_snapshots.snapshots数组中，原任务的loop: "{{ snapshots_info.name }}"路径不存在，需调整指向正确的快照列表。同时修正vm_id的取值（需对应当前虚拟机的标识），调整后的任务如下：

- name: Remove old snapshots matching criteria
  vmware_guest_snapshot:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname_uni }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    datacenter: myvcenter
    validate_certs: no
    folder: "{{ vm_folders }}"
    vm_id: "{{ vm_id }}"  # 替换为你的虚拟机标识变量，比如inventory_hostname或VM ID
    snapshot_name: "{{ item.name }}"
    state: absent
  delegate_to: "{{ vcenter_launcher_uni }}"
  loop: "{{ snapshots_info.guest_snapshots.snapshots }}"
  when:
    - item.name is search('Patching_Linux')
  tags:
    - clean_patching_snap

2. 添加创建时间超过X天的判断 #

要实现过期筛选，需将快照的creation_time转换为Ansible可处理的时间格式，再与当前时间对比。假设要删除超过7天的快照，补充when条件：

- name: Remove old snapshots matching criteria
  vmware_guest_snapshot:
    hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname_uni }}"
    username: "{{ vcenter_username }}"
    password: "{{ vcenter_password }}"
    datacenter: myvcenter
    validate_certs: no
    folder: "{{ vm_folders }}"
    vm_id: "{{ vm_id }}"
    snapshot_name: "{{ item.name }}"
    state: absent
  delegate_to: "{{ vcenter_launcher_uni }}"
  loop: "{{ snapshots_info.guest_snapshots.snapshots }}"
  vars:
    # 计算快照已存在的天数
    snapshot_age_days: "{{ (ansible_date_time.iso8601 | to_datetime - item.creation_time | to_datetime).days }}"
  when:
    - item.name is search('Patching_Linux')
    - snapshot_age_days | int > 7  # 替换为你需要的过期天数
  tags:
    - clean_patching_snap

关键说明 #

• 如果是批量处理多台虚拟机，需要在外层先循环VM，再嵌套遍历每台VM的快照列表。
• to_datetime过滤器要求Ansible 2.9+版本，若使用旧版本，可手动解析时间格式：item.creation_time | strptime('%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%f%z')。
• 建议先添加check_mode: yes运行任务，确认待删除快照符合预期后再执行实际删除操作。

内容的提问来源于stack exchange，提问作者Goul