SaltStack - mine.get is able to grab mine_function data from master, but not in .sls or jinja variable - salt-stack

Question

I hope you can help me with a rather frustrating issue I have been having. I have been trying to remove static config from some config files and move this to Pillar/Mine data using Salt-Stack.
Everything is going well, with the exception of 1 specific task.
This is grabbing data (custom grain) from 3 specific minions to make 3 different variables in an .sls (context) or a jinja file (direct variable) on other minions, but I cannot seem to get it to work.
(My scenario is flexible as I can call this in either a state file or jinja variable in a config file.)
This is on AWS EC2 instances, but can be replicated away from AWS in my lab. The grain I need is: "public_ipv4" and the reason I cannot use the network.util in salt runner is because this is NAT'd and the box doesn't have a 2nd interface with the public IP assigned to it. (This cannot be changed)
Pillar data works and I have a init.sls for the mine function:
mine_functions:
grains.item:
- location
- environment
- roles
- srvtype
- instance
- az
- public_ipv4
- fqdn
- ipv4
- ipv6
(Also the custom grain: "public_ipv4" works being called by the minion so I know it is the not the grains themselves being incorrect.)
When targeting via the master using the below it brings back the requested information:
my-minion:
----------
minion-with-data-i-want-1:
----------
az:
c
environment:
dev
fqdn:
correct_fqdn
instance:
3
ipv4:
- Correct_local_ip
- 127.0.0.1
ipv6:
- ::1
- Correct_ip
location:
correct_location
public_ipv4:
Correct_public_ip
roles:
Correct_role
srvtype:
None
It is key to note here that the above comes from:
salt '*globbed_target*' mine.get '*minions-with-data-i-need-glob*' grains.item
This is from the master, but I cannot single out a specific grain by using indexing or any args/kwargs etc.
So I put some syntax into a state file and some jinja templates and I cannot get it to work. Here are a few I have tried so far:
Jinja:
{% set ip1 = salt['mine.get']('*minion-with-data-i-need-glob*', 'grains.item')[7] %}
Above returns nothing.
State file:
- context:
- ip1: {{ salt['mine.get']('*minions-with-data-i-need-glob*', 'grains.item') }}
The above returns a dict error:
Context must be formed as a dict
Running latest salt-minion/master from apt.
Steps I have taken:
Running: salt '*' mine.update after every change and checking with: salt '*' mine.valid after every change and they show.
Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

This looks like you are running into a classic problem. Not knowing what you are getting as the return value.
first your {# set ip1 = salt['mine.get']('*minion-with-data-i-need-glob*', 'grains.item')[7] #} returns nothing because it is a jinja comment. {% set ip1 = salt['mine.get']('*minion-with-data-i-need-glob*', 'grains.item') %}
the next problem you have is that you are passing a list to context. when it is supposed to take a dict. the error isn't even related to mine.
try this instead
- context:
ip1: {{ salt['mine.get']('*minions-with-data-i-need-glob*', 'grains.item') | json}}
next learn to use slsutil.renderer to look at how things are rendered. such as salt minion slsutil.renderer salt://thing/init.sls default_renderer=jinja