Error creating rack_group with location name: Location needs a valid UUID

[nicholaskuechler]

ISSUE TYPE

• Bug Report

SOFTWARE VERSIONS

pynautobot

pynautobot==2.0.1

Ansible:

ansible==8.5.0

Nautobot:

2.0.5

SUMMARY

When I try to add a rack group using the location's friendly name, such as Location1, I get an error saying I need to use the Location UUID: msg: Location needs a valid UUID.

I'm using the example snippet for creating a rack group from: https://nautobot-ansible.readthedocs.io/en/latest/plugins/rack_group_module.html#examples

Related Slack thread: https://networktocode.slack.com/archives/C01NWPK6WHL/p1701378500094129

STEPS TO REPRODUCE

• Use example snippet from https://nautobot-ansible.readthedocs.io/en/latest/plugins/rack_group_module.html#examples with the location name, not the location's UUID.

EXPECTED RESULTS

Expected the new rack group to be created and attached to the specified location.

ACTUAL RESULTS

TASK [rack_groups : Create rack group within Nautobot with only required information]
fatal: [0.0.0.0]: FAILED! => changed=false
  msg: Location needs a valid UUID

[nicholaskuechler]

The location can be specified 2 different ways using nautobot api:

1.) Using location friendly name:

curl -X "POST" "http://0.0.0.0:8000/api/dcim/rack-groups/" \
     -H 'Authorization: Token 0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef01234567' \
     -H 'Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8' \
     -d $'{
  "name": "TestABC",
  "location": {
    "name": "Location1"
  }
}'

2.) Using location UUID:

curl -X "POST" "http://0.0.0.0:8000/api/dcim/rack-groups/" \
     -H 'Authorization: Token 0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef01234567' \
     -H 'Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8' \
     -d $'{
  "name": "TestDEF",
  "location": "250f0616-30a7-47ca-b230-92d1caf160d1"
}'

Notice the location being a dictionary object with friendly name versus a string with the location uuid.

I made some ansible to create the location using the api rather than the nautobot-ansible module as a temporary solution:

- name: Create default rack_groups
  ansible.builtin.uri:
    url: "{{ nautobot_url }}/api/dcim/rack-groups/"
    method: POST
    headers:
      Authorization: "Token {{ nautobot_token }}"
    body_format: json
    body:
      name: "{{ item.name }}"
      location:
        name: "{{ item.location }}"
    status_code: [201, 400]
  loop: "{{ rack_groups_defaults }}"

[joewesch]

I see that there were a few lines added as part of the 2.0 migration:

nautobot-ansible/plugins/module_utils/utils.py

Lines 786 to 787 in 6fad2c7

	elif k == "location":
	self._handle_errors(msg="Location needs a valid UUID")

There could be a valid reason, or it could have just been a misunderstanding. Let me investigate and either update the documentation or remove that limitation.

[joewesch]

Also, you may be interested to know we have many lookup plugins so you don't need to reinvent the wheel with the URI module:

nautobot-ansible/tests/integration/targets/latest/tasks/rack_group.yml

Line 8 in 6fad2c7

test_location: "{{ lookup('networktocode.nautobot.lookup', 'locations', api_endpoint=nautobot_url, token=nautobot_token, api_filter='name=\"Child Test Location\"') }}"

[jvanderaa]

@joewesch do you think we could handle this so the nice name can be provided?