nd_rest module crashes with TypeError when API returns empty response body (DCNE-684)

[imanassypov]

Collection: cisco.nd
Version: 1.4.0
Module: nd_rest

Environment:
Python: 3.10.4
Ansible: 2.17.6
cisco.nd: 1.4.0
OS: macOS 15.3 (Darwin 25.3.0 arm64)
NDFC Version: 4.1.1 (Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller)

Problem Summary:
The nd_rest module crashes with a TypeError when the NDFC API returns an empty/null response body on a successful POST request. This happens with certain NDFC endpoints that return HTTP 200 with no body, such as the VPC pair creation endpoint.

Steps to repro:

• name: Create VPC pair
  cisco.nd.nd_rest:
  host: "{{ ansible_host }}"
  username: "{{ ansible_user }}"
  password: "{{ ansible_password }}"
  use_ssl: true
  validate_certs: false
  login_domain: local
  path: /appcenter/cisco/ndfc/api/v1/lan-fabric/rest/vpcpair
  method: POST
  content: |
  {
  "useVirtualPeerLink": false,
  "peerOneId": "SERIAL1",
  "peerTwoId": "SERIAL2",
  "templateName": "vpc_pair",
  "nvPairs": { ... }
  }

Expected Behavior
Module completes successfully and reports changed: true when VPC pair is created.

Actual Behavior:
TypeError: object to sanitize can only be of type list or dict. Got <class 'NoneType'>

Traceback:
File ".../cisco/nd/plugins/modules/nd_rest.py", line 262, in main
File ".../cisco/nd/plugins/module_utils/nd.py", line 66, in sanitize
TypeError: object to sanitize can only be of type list or dict. Got <class 'NoneType'>

Note: The API call itself succeeds — the VPC pair is created in NDFC. The error occurs when the module tries to parse the response.

The sanitize() function in plugins/module_utils/nd.py (line 55-66) only accepts list or dict:
def sanitize(obj_to_sanitize, keys=None, values=None, recursive=True, remove_none_values=True):
if isinstance(obj_to_sanitize, dict):
return sanitize_dict(...)
elif isinstance(obj_to_sanitize, list):
return sanitize_list(...)
else:
raise TypeError("object to sanitize can only be of type list or dict. Got {}".format(type(obj_to_sanitize)))

Possible fix to handle None gracefully:

def sanitize(obj_to_sanitize, keys=None, values=None, recursive=True, remove_none_values=True):
"""Clean up a Python object of type list or dict from specific keys, values and None values if specified"""
if obj_to_sanitize is None:
return {} # or return None, depending on desired behavior
if isinstance(obj_to_sanitize, dict):
return sanitize_dict(obj_to_sanitize, keys, values, recursive, remove_none_values)
elif isinstance(obj_to_sanitize, list):
return sanitize_list(obj_to_sanitize, keys, values, recursive, recursive, remove_none_values)
else:
raise TypeError("object to sanitize can only be of type list or dict. Got {}".format(type(obj_to_sanitize)))

[akinross]

For the thing that you are trying to achieve there should already be a module in https://galaxy.ansible.com/ui/repo/published/cisco/dcnm/content/module/dcnm_vpc_pair/, is there a reason for not using this?

Furthermore for rest call on NDFC I would recommend using https://galaxy.ansible.com/ui/repo/published/cisco/dcnm/content/module/dcnm_rest/ for now.