Can I navigate relationships between CICS resouces from Ansible?

Question

I've been getting started with the CICS collection on Ansible Galaxy. I've been using it to do things like request individual resources, but I can't see a way of traversing relationships like you would do in CICS' CMCI GraphQL API.

Does the collection have that ability?

Answer 1

No, the CICS collection doesn't have the ability to use the CMCI GraphQL API. It purely uses the CMCI REST API which just deals with one resource type at a type.

However, that doesn't mean you can't use the CMCI GraphQL API to CICS from Ansible! That API is generally a bit more understandable and you can build up queries using GraphiQL without needing a special collection. Then, you can use Ansible's built-in uri module to send GraphQL requests and get information out of the response.

Simple query

Here, for example, is a simple playbook and accompanying GraphQL query to get the structure of a CICSplex with its CICS regions, and print out the result. The important part is the query key being added to the body of the request.

playbook1.yml:

- hosts: localhost

  tasks:

  - name: Get data from CICS
    register: result
    uri:
      url: https://my.cicsplex:12345/graphql/
      method: POST
      body_format: json
      body:
        query: '{{ lookup("file", "./queries/topology_query.graphql") }}' #  GraphQL query is passed here

  - name: Print out response
    debug:
      msg: '{{ result.json }}'

queries/topology_query.graphql:

{
  cicsplexes {
    name
    regions {
      name
    }
  }
}

---

Adding variables to the query

Of course, you probably want to parameterise the query. You can do that using Jinja templating in Ansible. Here's a playbook and accompanying GraphQL query to find a particular region name (named MYREGION, in the vars) across all connected CICSplexes.

playbook2.yml:

- hosts: localhost

  vars:
    regionName: MYREGION

  tasks:
  - name: Get data from CICS
    register: result
    uri:
      url: https://my.cicsplex:12345/graphql/
      method: POST
      body_format: json
      body:
        query: '{{ lookup("template", "./templates/single_region_query.graphql.j2") }}' # template instead of plain file

  - name: Print out response
    debug:
      msg: '{{ result.json }}'

templates/single_region_query.graphql.j2:

{
  cicsplexes {
    name
    region(name: "{{ regionName }}") { # this variable will be expanded by Ansible
      name
    }
  }
}

---

Adding variables to the query - a better way

However, I get a bit leery about templating. It seems fairly prone to injection problems, be they malicious or just accidental, when vars are coming in from elsewhere! Even writing the example above, I missed getting the quotes right. So I'd prefer to use GraphQL's built-in variable support to sanitise variables better.

In CICS' CMCI GraphQL API, you can supply variables using the variables key in the body of the request you send to CICS, alongside the existing query key.

Here you see the regionName variable being supplied in the body, and then the same variable (referred to as $regionName) in the GraphQL query.

playbook3.yml:

- hosts: localhost

  vars:
    regionName: MYREGION

  tasks:

  - name: Get data from plex
    register: result
    uri:
      url: https://my.cicsplex:12345/graphql/
      method: POST
      body_format: json
      body:
        query: '{{ lookup("file", "./queries/single_region_query.graphql") }}' # plain file, not template
        variables:
          regionName: "{{ regionName }}" # variables will get passed to CICS

  - name: Print out response
    debug:
      msg: '{{ result.json }}'

queries/single_region_query.graphql:

query searchForRegion ($regionName: String!) { # query declares used variables
  cicsplexes {
    name
    region(name: $regionName) { # GraphQL expands the variable here at query execution time
      name
    }
  }
}