How Do I Make An Ansible Playbook Skip A Role? - ansible

Question

I am trying to skip the upgrade part of my playbook. The key part looks like this:
hosts: linux_group
name: Upgrade the third-party application
roles:
- role: "upgradeEnv"
when: ENV == inventory_hostname
vars:
logdir: "/home/appuser/external/logs"
become_user: "{{ sudoUser }}"
become_method: sudo
become: yes
tags:
- upgrade
And the key part of the role looks like this:
- name: Upgrade database
shell: "upgradeDB.sh {{ env }}"
vars:
DBURL: "{{ user }}#{{ host }}"
no_log: True
register: register_appupgrade
tags:
- upgrade
- fail:
msg: "Upgrade errors:"
when: register_appupgrade.stderr !=""
tags:
- upgrade
I run the playbook with --skip-tags=upgrade but ansible still goes into the role and runs the tasks so I end up with tags: upgrade specified on each task.
The Upgrade database gets skipped but the fail ends the run due to the when condition.
Why is the role being run from the playbook even when the tags are supposed to be skipped?
Why is the fail task not being skipped?

Answer 1

Given the project for testing
shell> tree .
.
├── ansible.cfg
├── hosts
├── pb.yml
└── roles
└── upgradeEnv
└── tasks
└── main.yml
3 directories, 4 files
shell> cat ansible.cfg
[defaults]
inventory = $PWD/hosts
roles_path = $PWD/roles
remote_tmp = ~/.ansible/tmp
retry_files_enabled = false
stdout_callback = yaml
shell> cat hosts
[linux_group]
test_11
test_13
ansible [core 2.14.1]
The tags keyword means the tags are applied to all tasks at the indentation level.
If you apply tags at the play level
shell> cat pb.yml
- hosts: linux_group
roles:
- role: upgradeEnv
when: ENV == inventory_hostname
tags: upgrade
everything will be skipped
shell> ansible-playbook pb.yml --skip-tags=upgrade
PLAY [linux_group] ***************************************************************************
PLAY RECAP ***********************************************************************************
If you apply tags at the role level
shell> cat pb.yml
- hosts: linux_group
roles:
- role: upgradeEnv
when: ENV == inventory_hostname
tags: upgrade
the role will be skipped
shell> ansible-playbook pb.yml --skip-tags=upgrade
PLAY [linux_group] ***************************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ***********************************************************************
ok: [test_13]
ok: [test_11]
PLAY RECAP ***********************************************************************************
test_11: ok=1 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
test_13: ok=1 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=
You'll see the same result if you omit tags at role level and apply tags at each task in the role
shell> cat pb.yml
- hosts: linux_group
roles:
- role: upgradeEnv
when: ENV == inventory_hostname
shell> cat roles/upgradeEnv/tasks/main.yml
- name: Upgrade database
command: "echo {{ env }}"
register: register_appupgrade
tags: upgrade
- debug:
msg: |
register_appupgrade.stdout: {{ register_appupgrade.stdout }}
register_appupgrade.stderr: {{ register_appupgrade.stderr }}
tags: upgrade
- fail:
msg: Upgrade errors
when: register_appupgrade.stderr != ""
tags: upgrade
If you don't skip tags the play works as expected
shell> ansible-playbook pb.yml -e ENV=test_11 -e env=test
PLAY [linux_group] ***************************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ***********************************************************************
ok: [test_11]
ok: [test_13]
TASK [upgradeEnv : Upgrade database] *********************************************************
skipping: [test_13]
changed: [test_11]
TASK [upgradeEnv : debug] ********************************************************************
skipping: [test_13]
ok: [test_11] =>
msg: |-
register_appupgrade.stdout: test
register_appupgrade.stderr:
TASK [upgradeEnv : fail] *********************************************************************
skipping: [test_11]
skipping: [test_13]
PLAY RECAP ***********************************************************************************
test_11: ok=3 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=1 rescued=0 ignored=0
test_13: ok=1 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=3 rescued=0 ignored=0