API BUG: `pvesh create /nodes/{node}/qemu --output-format=json` response format broken.

[reitermarkus]

The API documentation says that this request returns a string. It did previously, but it seems some update broke this.

It should return the Task ID as a JSON string. It now returns a plain text string before the JSON string, e.g. running

pvesh create /nodes/net2-pve/qemu -vmid 7777 -name yolo -memory 2048 -cpu kvm64 -cores 4 -sockets 1 -balloon 0 -agent 0 -onboot true -numa true -boot 'order=virtio0;ide0' -args '-cpu kvm64,+ssse3,+sse4.1,+sse4.2' -net0 virtio=40:40:40:40:0f:a9 -scsihw virtio-scsi-pci -virtio0 'local-zfs:4,discard=on,iothread=1' -ide0 'local:iso/talos-1.0.6-amd64.iso,media=cdrom' --output-format=json

produces

virtio0: successfully created disk 'local-zfs:vm-7777-disk-0,discard=on,iothread=1,size=4G'
"UPID:net2-pve:002605B4:00FB48C2:62B9E7EB:qmcreate:7777:root@pam:"

This is on PVE 7.2-5.

 

[fabian]

please note that pvesh is mainly useful as an API exploration/debugging tool. if you want to interact with the API in an automated fashion, please us it directly:

https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Proxmox_VE_API
https://pve.proxmox.com/pve-docs/api-viewer/index.html

that being said - with which version did it work for you? was it the exact same command on the exact same node (pvesh does proxy calls to other nodes differently than the regular API!).

 

[reitermarkus]

I'll try on another node, but all nodes are on the same version already.

Last time I know it worked was in February, so probably whichever 7.1 version was the latest in February would work.

 

[reitermarkus]

For context, I came across this while implementing https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general/pull/4027. It is much more convenient to use pvesh when you're already SSH'd into a node via Ansible rather than having to provide separate credentials, so it would be great if it was supported for this automation use case.

 

[reitermarkus]

Okay, I now tried with two VMs:

PVE 7.1-7 works.
PVE 7.2-3 does not work.

 

[fabian]

For context, I came across this while implementing https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general/pull/4027. It is much more convenient to use pvesh when you're already SSH'd into a node via Ansible rather than having to provide separate credentials, so it would be great if it was supported for this automation use case.

you could always use pveum ticket

PVE 7.1-7 works.
PVE 7.2-3 does not work.

thanks - I'll see whether it's possible to figure out what's going on

 

[reitermarkus]

@fabian, any update on this?

I could have a look myself, but last time I checked I couldn't quite figure out where the source code for the pvesh command is located. Would be great if you could point me to it.

 

[fabian]

no, sorry - haven't had time yet to take a closer look, but it's still on my TODO list!

the pvesh (entrypoint) source is here: https://git.proxmox.com/?p=pve-manager.git;a=blob;f=PVE/CLI/pvesh.pm (/usr/share/perl5/PVE/CLI/pvesh.pm on your system)

 

[reitermarkus]

Commit 3e7d9fac in the qemu-server.git repo added the message. There are some other printed messages printed to STDOUT however, so I don't think this is a new issue.

I guess the simplest solution would be to redirect STDOUT to STDERR in pvesh.pm during the API call. Something like this in sub call_api_method:

    do {
        local *STDOUT;
        open(STDOUT, '>&', STDERR);

        if ($node) {
            $data = proxy_handler($node, $remip, $path, $cmd, $param);
        } else {
            foreach my $p (keys %$uri_param) {
                $param->{$p} = $uri_param->{$p};
            }
            $data = $handler->handle($info, $param);
        }
    };

That way STDOUT only contains the JSON output, as expected.

 

[fabian]

https://bugzilla.proxmox.com/show_bug.cgi?id=4333

yeah, something like this but maybe limited to JSON or non-human-readable-text format seems like a good way to go..

 

[Leah]

Same problem here for deletions or creations of VMs. Currently running 7.3-6. Is there a fix coming soon for this problem?