validate_inputs

Note

Always use the FQCN (Fully Qualified Collection Name) arista.avd.validate_inputs when using this plugin.

Validate variables against AVD schemas

Synopsis

The arista.avd.validate_inputs module is an Ansible Action Plugin designed to validate device variables against Arista AVD schemas.

The plugin performs two phases:

1. Templating Phase: Resolves Ansible hostvars and writes the templated data as JSON files to the AVD temporary directory. This phase is skipped if input_dir is provided, treating the input files as already templated.
2. Validation Phase: Validates the inputs against the specified AVD schema using pyavd-utils and writes the validated data as JSON files to the AVD temporary directory.

Parameters

Argument	Type	Required	Default	Value Restrictions	Description
tmp_dir	str	True	None	-	Path to use as the AVD temporary directory for storing templated and validated data used internally by plugins. Must be the same across all plugins.
device_list	list	False	None	-	Optional list of hostnames to process. If not provided, fallback to all hosts in the current play. For eos_config and cv_deploy schemas, only these hosts will be validated. For avd_design, these hosts must be a subset of the fabric_name group and the entire group will be processed.
schema_name	str	optional	avd_design	Valid values: - avd_design - eos_config - cv_deploy	The AVD schema to validate against. If set to avd_design, the plugin will validate the inputs for the entire fabric (requiring fabric_name to be set). If set to eos_config or cv_deploy, the plugin will validate the inputs for the devices in the device_list if provided, otherwise all hosts in the current play.
input_dir	str	False	None	-	Optional path to a directory containing input files to validate directly. If provided, the templating phase is skipped and files are read from this directory. Files must be named device_name.input_suffix.
input_suffix	str	optional	json	Valid values: - yml - yaml - json	File suffix for files located in input_dir. Only used when input_dir is provided.
read_from_input_dir	bool	optional	False	-	If true, the templating phase is skipped and input files are read directly from input_dir. If false, the plugin resolves Ansible hostvars and writes templated data before validation. Requires input_dir to be set when true.
fail_on_missing_input_files	bool	optional	True	-	If true, the task will fail if any device input files are missing. If false, devices with missing input files will be skipped with an informational log message.
fail_on_validation_errors	bool	optional	False	-	If true, the task will fail if any validation errors are detected. If false, errors will be reported but the task will succeed.
batch_size	int	optional	10	-	The number of devices to process per child process during the templating phase.
validation_configuration	dict	False	None	-	Optional dictionary containing configuration options to control validation behavior.
warn_eos_config_keys	bool	optional	False	-	Enable warnings for EOS Config keys used in AVD Design input data. When enabled, warnings will be emitted during validation if any top-level keys from the EOS Config schema are found at the top level of AVD Design input data.
vault_id	str	False	None	-	Vault ID used for encrypting temporary files generated by the plugin. When Ansible Vault is not configured, this parameter has no effect and files are written as plain JSON. When Ansible Vault is configured, AVD encrypts files containing templated and validated data to prevent sensitive information from being exposed in the temporary directories. * When vault_id is not specified, AVD uses the first Vault ID in the list for encryption. * When vault_id is specified, AVD uses the specified Vault ID for encryption.

Examples

---
- name: Validate eos_designs inputs for the fabric
  arista.avd.validate_inputs:
    tmp_dir: "intended/tmp_eos_designs"
    schema_name: avd_design
    fail_on_validation_errors: true

- name: Validate eos_designs inputs with custom validation configuration
  arista.avd.validate_inputs:
    tmp_dir: "intended/tmp_eos_designs"
    schema_name: avd_design
    fail_on_validation_errors: true
    validation_configuration:
      warn_eos_config_keys: true

- name: Validate eos_cli_config_gen inputs from structured config files
  arista.avd.validate_inputs:
    tmp_dir: "intended/tmp_eos_cli_config_gen"
    schema_name: eos_config
    input_dir: "{{ inventory_dir }}/intended/structured_configs"
    input_suffix: "yml"
    fail_on_validation_errors: false

- name: Validate inputs with specific vault identity (when multiple vault identities are configured)
  arista.avd.validate_inputs:
    tmp_dir: "intended/tmp_eos_designs"
    schema_name: avd_design
    vault_id: prod
    fail_on_validation_errors: true
  # This example assumes vault_identity_list is configured in ansible.cfg:
  # [defaults]
  # vault_identity_list = dev@.vault_dev, prod@.vault_prod
  # The 'prod' vault identity will be used to encrypt temporary files.

- name: Validate cv_deploy inputs from structured config files
  arista.avd.validate_inputs:
    tmp_dir: "intended/tmp_cv_deploy"
    schema_name: cv_deploy
    input_dir: "{{ inventory_dir }}/intended/structured_configs"
    input_suffix: "yml"
    read_from_input_dir: true
    fail_on_missing_input_files: false
    fail_on_validation_errors: true

- name: Validate cv_deploy inputs from Ansible hostvars
  arista.avd.validate_inputs:
    tmp_dir: "intended/tmp_cv_deploy"
    schema_name: cv_deploy
    read_from_input_dir: false
    fail_on_validation_errors: true

Authors

• Arista Ansible Team (@aristanetworks)