v3.9.0 breaks inventory plugin

[TiTi]

SUMMARY

After upgrading from 3.8.0 to 3.9.0, we have errors during processing of dynamic inventory and thus end up with:
ERROR! Specified inventory, host pattern and/or --limit leaves us with no hosts to target.

ISSUE TYPE

• Bug Report

COMPONENT NAME

plugins/inventory/azure_rm.py
3.9.0 only change is #2055

ANSIBLE VERSION

ansible-playbook [core 2.18.7]
  config file = /agent/_work/2/s/ansible-windows/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = ['/home/AzDevOps/.ansible/plugins/modules', '/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /usr/venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/ansible
  ansible collection location = /home/AzDevOps/.ansible/collections:/usr/share/ansible/collections
  executable location = /usr/venv/bin/ansible-playbook
  python version = 3.12.11 (main, Jun  4 2025, 08:56:18) [GCC 11.4.0] (/usr/venv/bin/python3.12)
  jinja version = 3.1.6
  libyaml = True

COLLECTION VERSION

# /home/AzDevOps/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections
Collection                               Version
---------------------------------------- -------
azure.azcollection                       3.9.0  

# /usr/venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/ansible_collections
Collection                               Version
---------------------------------------- -------
azure.azcollection                       3.6.0  

CONFIGURATION

N/A

OS / ENVIRONMENT

Python 3.12

STEPS TO REPRODUCE

• Have a dynamic azure inventory
• Execute a simple playbook

ansible-playbook -i "inventories/infra1/europe/" --diff --limit "vm1" --tags all --skip-tags none -vvv  ping.yml

In our case, we also use Azure Stack HCI objects. Maybe it's related, maybe not, i don't know at this point.
Here is our europe.prd.inventory.azure_rm.yml

---

plugin: azure.azcollection.azure_rm
auth_source: auto
include_vm_resource_groups: []
include_hcivm_resource_groups:
  - "*"
subscription_id: xxxxxxxxxxxxx
plain_host_names: true
default_host_filters:
  - powerstate != 'running'
  - provisioning_state != 'succeeded'
hostvar_expressions:
  ansible_host: (private_ipv4_addresses | first) if os_disk.operating_system_type == 'linux' else computer_name | default(name, true)
conditional_groups:
  windows: os_disk.operating_system_type == 'windows'
  linux: os_disk.operating_system_type == 'linux'
  hci: true
  europe: true
keyed_groups:
  # places each host in a group named 'tag_(tag name)_(tag value)' for each tag on a VM.
  - prefix: tag
    key: tags
  - prefix: geo
    key: customLocation | default(location)

Please note presence of include_hcivm_resource_groups (which i helped develop in a previous PR).

EXPECTED RESULTS

Inventory should be parsed without errors

ACTUAL RESULTS

Exception in compute_client.virtual_machines.instance_view

  File "/usr/venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/ansible/inventory/manager.py", line 292, in parse_source
    plugin.parse(self._inventory, self._loader, source, cache=cache)
  File "/usr/venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/ansible/plugins/inventory/auto.py", line 58, in parse
    plugin.parse(inventory, loader, path, cache=cache)
  File "/home/AzDevOps/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections/azure/azcollection/plugins/inventory/azure_rm.py", line 292, in parse
    results = self._serialize(self._hosts)
              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/home/AzDevOps/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections/azure/azcollection/plugins/inventory/azure_rm.py", line 304, in _serialize
    hostvars=h.hostvars))
             ^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/home/AzDevOps/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections/azure/azcollection/plugins/inventory/azure_rm.py", line 938, in hostvars
    instance_view = compute_client.virtual_machines.instance_view(new_hostvars['resource_group'], new_hostvars['name'])
                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/azure/core/tracing/decorator.py", line 94, in wrapper_use_tracer
    return func(*args, **kwargs)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/azure/mgmt/compute/v2024_07_01/operations/_operations.py", line 16047, in instance_view
    map_error(status_code=response.status_code, response=response, error_map=error_map)
  File "/usr/venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/azure/core/exceptions.py", line 161, in map_error
    raise error
  File "/usr/venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/ansible/inventory/manager.py", line 292, in parse_source
    plugin.parse(self._inventory, self._loader, source, cache=cache)
  File "/usr/venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/ansible/plugins/inventory/yaml.py", line 113, in parse
    raise AnsibleParserError('Plugin configuration YAML file, not YAML inventory')
  File "/usr/venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/ansible/inventory/manager.py", line 292, in parse_source
    plugin.parse(self._inventory, self._loader, source, cache=cache)
  File "/usr/venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/ansible/plugins/inventory/ini.py", line 137, in parse
    raise AnsibleParserError(e)

[TiTi]

yep some of our vms are of kind:

'id': '/subscriptions/xxxxxxx/resourceGroups/rg-eu-prd/providers/Microsoft.HybridCompute/machines/vm1/providers/Microsoft.AzureStackHCI/virtualMachineInstances/default',
'resource_type': 'microsoft.azurestackhci/virtualmachineinstances'

thus the call to instance_view = compute_client.virtual_machines.instance_view(new_hostvars['resource_group'], new_hostvars['name']) fails badly

[TiTi]

ping @magodo

[roman-vynar]

It is never okay, one issue is fixed, another one is introduced.

v3.3.1 was the last working version.
Then up to v3.8.0 we have no VMSS instance IP addresses available in ansible inventory.
v3.9.0 is supposed to fix that (they call it FEATURE ENHANCEMENT).
Yes, v3.9.0 fixes VMSS IP addesses but slows down the whole inventory lookup.
time ansible-inventory -i azure_rm.yml --graph this takes ~10s on v3.3.1.
On v3.9.0 it is very slow, almost a minute.
Returned back on v3.3.1.

[TiTi]

by the way instance view is already fetched !!!
cf def _on_instanceview_response(self, vm_instanceview_model):

i'm working on a clean fix

[TiTi]

ok i made a PR to fix this
@roman-vynar it should also fix the problem of private ip addresses for vmss :) (i tried it)
it's back to normal speed also :)

[Fred-sun]

@TiTi I am very sorry for the trouble caused to you. We are in the process of fixing it and pushing relate PR to merge! Thanks!