azure.mgmt.containerinstance.ContainerInstanceManagementClient.container_groups list operations returning stale / incomplete resources

[adamcunnington]

I have instantiated an authorised azure.mgmt.containerinstance.ContainerInstanceManagementClient object. When i iterate over .container_groups.list() I see the 3 container groups but their instance_view property is None. However, when I call .container_groups.get() the object I get has all the properties populated and I can see the instance_view property.

Therefore, unless this is somehow deliberate behaviour of list/list_by_resource_group, i.e. to return a partial resource, this is a bug.

[lmazuel]

Hi @adamcunnington
That's a common pattern I see from RestAPI on Azure, that list is listing the common properties, and you need an additional get to get the detailled property (see #573 for instance). So I would consider this more a lack of features than a bug actually. But let me send an email to the RestAPI service team, to see if they have guidance or suggestion here.
Thanks,

[lmazuel]

Hi @adamcunnington
I got confirmation from the team, it's not possible yet because that's a very expensive operation. So let's say the list returns 100 container groups, this might take more time than a reasonable Rest call. Note that you can parallelize the get calls to be fast if necessary. We are also working on the async version of this SDK, which would do the parallelize code simple to write.
Note that the ACI team noted your feedback, and said "If this becomes common, we will find ways to implement." so thank you for the feedback :)

I keep this issue open until I'm able to suggest at least some async code to do that.

[adamcunnington]

Thank you for confirming. I don't mind this behaviour (although it's not typical behaviour for REST APIs) - it's just not documented as far as I can see. The description at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/python/api/azure.mgmt.containerinstance.operations.containergroupsoperations?view=azure-python is basically identical for list and get operations.

[lmazuel]

Hi @adamcunnington
I agree it's not documented, since get and list return the same object, it's not obvious that the ones from list with be None always. I take a note to improve that as well.