VMware: blacklist custom fields in vmware_inventory.py (#36877)

* Provide the ability to blacklist custom fields from having groups created for them.

* Updated configuration parameter name

2 files changed, 16 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/contrib/inventory/vmware_inventory.ini b/contrib/inventory/vmware_inventory.ini
index 859f42ca30..bdffd4c2b9 100644
--- a/contrib/inventory/vmware_inventory.ini
+++ b/contrib/inventory/vmware_inventory.ini
@@ -93,6 +93,13 @@ password=vmware
 # vmware_tag_ prefix is the default and consistent with ec2_tag_
 #custom_field_group_prefix = vmware_tag_
 
+# You can blacklist custom fields so that they are not included in the
+# groupby_custom_field option. This is useful when you have custom fields that
+# have values that are unique to individual hosts. Timestamps for example.
+# The groupby_custom_field_excludes option should be a comma separated list of custom
+# field keys to be blacklisted.
+#groupby_custom_field_excludes=<custom_field_1>,<custom_field_2>,<custom_field_3>
+
 # The script attempts to recurse into virtualmachine objects and serialize
 # all available data. The serialization is comprehensive but slow. If the
 # vcenter environment is large and the desired properties are known, create
diff --git a/contrib/inventory/vmware_inventory.py b/contrib/inventory/vmware_inventory.py
index 855c46778d..844abab4d9 100755
--- a/contrib/inventory/vmware_inventory.py
+++ b/contrib/inventory/vmware_inventory.py
@@ -99,6 +99,7 @@ class VMWareInventory(object):
     host_filters = []
     skip_keys = []
     groupby_patterns = []
+    groupby_custom_field_excludes = []
 
     safe_types = [bool, str, float, None] + list(integer_types)
     iter_types = [dict, list]
@@ -230,6 +231,7 @@ class VMWareInventory(object):
             'groupby_patterns': '{{ guest.guestid }},{{ "templates" if config.template else "guests"}}',
             'lower_var_keys': True,
             'custom_field_group_prefix': 'vmware_tag_',
+            'groupby_custom_field_excludes': '',
             'groupby_custom_field': False}
         }
 
@@ -304,8 +306,12 @@ class VMWareInventory(object):
                     groupby_pattern += "}}"
                 self.groupby_patterns.append(groupby_pattern)
         self.debugl('groupby patterns are %s' % self.groupby_patterns)
+        temp_groupby_custom_field_excludes = config.get('vmware', 'groupby_custom_field_excludes')
+        self.groupby_custom_field_excludes = [x.strip('"') for x in [y.strip("'") for y in temp_groupby_custom_field_excludes.split(",")]]
+        self.debugl('groupby exclude strings are %s' % self.groupby_custom_field_excludes)
+
         # Special feature to disable the brute force serialization of the
-        # virtulmachine objects. The key name for these properties does not
+        # virtual machine objects. The key name for these properties does not
         # matter because the values are just items for a larger list.
         if config.has_section('properties'):
             self.guest_props = []
@@ -496,6 +502,8 @@ class VMWareInventory(object):
                     for tv in v['customvalue']:
                         newkey = None
                         field_name = self.custom_fields[tv['key']] if tv['key'] in self.custom_fields else tv['key']
+                        if field_name in self.groupby_custom_field_excludes:
+                            continue
                         values = []
                         keylist = map(lambda x: x.strip(), tv['value'].split(','))
                         for kl in keylist: