I would like to know how to target a playbook on a specific hosts within the inventory file with a specific column...
My inventory file:
[server]
demo_1.example.com dc="pri"
demo_2.example.com dc="sec"
demo_3.example.com dc="pri"
I want just run a playbook over the servers with dc="pri"
What is should be the syntax ?
ansible-playbook -i inventory/my_file role/my_playbook.yaml
You are taking the problem upside down in my opinion. With what you ask, you basically want to define a group based on an individual variable defined for each host. This is possible but really not ideal.
Instead of that, create the needed groups and assign the variables to the group. Here is an example for the above in a all in one ini inventory
[server:children]
primary
secondary
[primary]
demo_1.example.com
demo_3.example.com
[primary:vars]
dc="pri"
[secondary]
demo_2.example.com
[secondary:vars]
dc="sec"
You can then target for example in your hosts play target or as a --limit to the ansible command line:
all servers: server
only the primary dc: primary
Now if for any reason you need to keep your original inventory untouched, you can still achieve something similar to above with a constructed dynamic inventory
inventory/0-hosts
[server]
demo_1.example.com dc="pri"
demo_2.example.com dc="sec"
demo_3.example.com dc="pri"
inventory/1-constructed.yml
---
plugin: ansible.builtin.constructed
strict: False
groups:
primary: dc == 'pri'
secondary: dc == 'sec'
As you can see the global resulting inventoy will have the same groups as above
$ ansible-inventory -i inventory/ --list
{
"_meta": {
"hostvars": {
"demo_1.example.com": {
"dc": "pri"
},
"demo_2.example.com": {
"dc": "sec"
},
"demo_3.example.com": {
"dc": "pri"
}
}
},
"all": {
"children": [
"primary",
"secondary",
"servers",
"ungrouped"
]
},
"primary": {
"hosts": [
"demo_1.example.com",
"demo_3.example.com"
]
},
"secondary": {
"hosts": [
"demo_2.example.com"
]
},
"servers": {
"hosts": [
"demo_1.example.com",
"demo_2.example.com",
"demo_3.example.com"
]
}
}
So you can target them exactly as I described earlier.
Q: "Run a playbook over the servers with dc="pri""
A: Use the inventory plugin constructed and create inventory groups by the value of the variable. See
shell> ansible-doc -t inventory ansible.builtin.constructed
In your case, use keyed_groups instead of just groups. You don't have to specify the values of the variable. The names of the created groups will be automatically constructed by using the values of the variable.
For example, the tree below for testing
shell> tree .
.
├── ansible.cfg
├── inventory
│ ├── 01-hosts
│ └── 02-constructed.yml
└── pb.yml
1 directory, 4 files
shell> cat ansible.cfg
[defaults]
gathering = explicit
inventory = $PWD/inventory
stdout_callback = yaml
Create the inventory
shell> cat inventory/01-hosts
[server]
demo_1.example.com dc="pri"
demo_2.example.com dc="sec"
demo_3.example.com dc="pri"
shell> cat inventory/02-constructed.yml
plugin: ansible.builtin.constructed
keyed_groups:
- key: dc
prefix: dc
default_value: pool
and test it. Two new groups dc_pri and dc_sec will be created
shell> ansible-inventory --list --yaml
all:
children:
dc_pri:
hosts:
demo_1.example.com:
dc: pri
demo_3.example.com:
dc: pri
dc_sec:
hosts:
demo_2.example.com:
dc: sec
server:
hosts:
demo_1.example.com: {}
demo_2.example.com: {}
demo_3.example.com: {}
ungrouped: {}
Use the groups. For example, in the playbook below
shell> cat pb.yml
- hosts: all
tasks:
- debug:
var: ansible_play_hosts_all
run_once: true
shell> ansible-playbook pb.yml --limit dc_pri
PLAY [all] ***********************************************************************************
TASK [debug] *********************************************************************************
ok: [demo_1.example.com] =>
ansible_play_hosts_all:
- demo_1.example.com
- demo_3.example.com
PLAY RECAP ***********************************************************************************
demo_1.example.com: ok=1 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
I receive an parsing error when executing the inventory... seems the plugin is not loaded?
0-inventory.yaml
[app_server]
demo_1.example.com dc="pri"
demo_2.example.com dc="sec"
demo_3.example.com dc="pri"
1-constructed.yaml
plugin: ansible.builtin.constructed
strict: False
groups:
primary: dc == 'pri'
secondary: dc == 'sec'
tree
.
├── inventory
│ ├── 0-hosts
│ └── 1-constructed.yaml
├── pb_filter.yaml
└── task1.yaml
execution outcome
$ ansible-inventory -i inventory/ --list
[WARNING]: * Failed to parse
/mnt/c/Users/rcarb/Documents/GitHub/Ansible/Ansible_test/Ansible_filter_inventory/inventory/1-constructed.yaml with
script plugin: problem running
/mnt/c/Users/rcarb/Documents/GitHub/Ansible/Ansible_test/Ansible_filter_inventory/inventory/1-constructed.yaml --list
([Errno 8] Exec format error:
'/mnt/c/Users/rcarb/Documents/GitHub/Ansible/Ansible_test/Ansible_filter_inventory/inventory/1-constructed.yaml')
[WARNING]: * Failed to parse
/mnt/c/Users/rcarb/Documents/GitHub/Ansible/Ansible_test/Ansible_filter_inventory/inventory/1-constructed.yaml with
auto plugin: Invalid value "ansible.builtin.constructed" for configuration option "plugin_type: inventory plugin:
ansible_collections.ansible.builtin.plugins.inventory.constructed setting: plugin ", valid values are: ['constructed']
[WARNING]: * Failed to parse
/mnt/c/Users/rcarb/Documents/GitHub/Ansible/Ansible_test/Ansible_filter_inventory/inventory/1-constructed.yaml with
yaml plugin: Plugin configuration YAML file, not YAML inventory
[WARNING]: * Failed to parse
/mnt/c/Users/rcarb/Documents/GitHub/Ansible/Ansible_test/Ansible_filter_inventory/inventory/1-constructed.yaml with ini
plugin: Invalid host pattern '---' supplied, '---' is normally a sign this is a YAML file.
[WARNING]: Unable to parse
/mnt/c/Users/rcarb/Documents/GitHub/Ansible/Ansible_test/Ansible_filter_inventory/inventory/1-constructed.yaml as an
inventory source
{
"_meta": {
"hostvars": {
"demo_1.example.com": {
"dc": "pri"
},
"demo_2.example.com": {
"dc": "sec"
},
"demo_3.example.com": {
"dc": "pri"
}
}
},
"all": {
"children": [
"app_server",
"ungrouped"
]
},
"app_server": {
"hosts": [
"demo_1.example.com",
"demo_2.example.com",
"demo_3.example.com"
]
}
}
Any idea about why is failing to parse the inventory file?
Best regards
Related
I have the current node role:
$ tree roles/node
roles/node
├── defaults
│ └── main.yaml
└── tasks
├── main.yaml
├── reset.yaml
└── unmount.yaml
Current provisioning.yaml playbook is using the main tasks:
- name: Node Provisioning
hosts: node
become: true
gather_facts: true
roles:
- role: node
I would like to create a separate reset.yaml playbook which uses the reset tasks:
- name: Node Reset
hosts: node
become: true
gather_facts: true
roles:
- role: node
I understand I could create a separate role or use tags, but my goal is to use the same role name and define into playbook the reset tasks name, instead of main.
Is there a proper solution allowing me to use a specific tasks_from in my playbook scenario? The example above is a simplified playbook, for proof of concept.
There are three ways to include a role in your playbook:
Use the classic roles: directive in the play;
Using the dynamic include_role task
Using the static import_role task
While the roles: directive doesn't support a tasks_from argument, the other two options do. You could write:
- name: Node Reset
hosts: node
become: true
gather_facts: true
tasks:
- import_role:
name: node
tasks_from: reset.yaml
Here's a complete test walk-through. If used the following layout:
.
├── playbook.yaml
└── roles
└── node
└── tasks
├── main.yaml
├── reset.yaml
└── umount.yaml
Where roles/node/tasks/reset.yaml contains:
- debug:
msg: "This is reset.yaml"
- name: Umount filesystem
ansible.builtin.include_tasks:
file: umount.yaml
with_items:
- /run/netns
- /var/lib/kubelet
loop_control:
loop_var: mounted_fs
And roles/node/tasks/unmount.yaml contains:
- debug:
msg: "This is umount.yaml; fs: {{ mounted_fs }}"
If I run this playbook.yml:
- hosts: localhost
gather_facts: false
tasks:
- import_role:
name: node
tasks_from: reset
I get as output:
PLAY [localhost] ***************************************************************
TASK [node : debug] ************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "This is reset.yaml"
}
TASK [node : Umount filesystem] ************************************************
included: /home/lars/tmp/ansible/roles/node/tasks/umount.yaml for localhost => (item=/run/netns)
included: /home/lars/tmp/ansible/roles/node/tasks/umount.yaml for localhost => (item=/var/lib/kubelet)
TASK [node : debug] ************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "This is umount.yaml; fs: /run/netns"
}
TASK [node : debug] ************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "This is umount.yaml; fs: /var/lib/kubelet"
}
PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************
localhost : ok=5 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
You can find my complete test setup here.
My current ansible structure looks something like this:
- inventory
- prod
- prod1
- hosts.yml
- group_vars
- all.yml
- prod2
- hosts.yml
- group_vars
- all.yml
- prod3
- hosts.yml
- group_vars
- all.yml
- nonprod
- dev
- hosts.yml
- group_vars
- all.yml
- qa
- hosts.yml
- group_vars
- all.yml
- uat
- hosts.yml
- group_vars
- all.yml
- roles
- main.yml (this isn't accurate just a sample playbook for the question)
I'd like to be able to run something like this: ansible-playbook main.yml -i inventory/prod and have it automatically cycle through the environments (each with distinct group_vars values).
Currently the command will find the hosts in each environment but not the vars which stops the playbook from running, but if I run ansible-playbook main.yml -i inventory/prod/prod1 it runs fine.
I would suggest restructuring your inventory. Ansible looks for the group_vars directory adjacent to your inventory files. If you run with ansible -i inventory ..., it won't find the group_vars file (it will only find it when running e.g. ansible -i inventory/prod/prod1).
Consider a layout like this:
inventory/
├── group_vars
│ ├── prod1.yaml
│ ├── prod2.yaml
│ └── prod3.yaml
└── prod
├── prod1.yaml
├── prod2.yaml
└── prod3.yaml
Where each inventory file places hosts into a similarly named hostgroup. E.g., inventory/prod/prod1.yaml contains:
all:
children:
prod1:
hosts:
prod1-node0:
prod1-node1:
prod1-node2:
If we have a variable defined with a different value for each group:
$ grep . inventory/group_vars/*
inventory/group_vars/prod1.yaml:location: datacenter1
inventory/group_vars/prod2.yaml:location: datacenter2
inventory/group_vars/prod3.yaml:location: datacenter3
And a playbook like this:
- hosts: all
gather_facts: false
tasks:
- debug:
var: location
We can run it against all the hosts (I'm only using two groups here, prod1 and prod2, in order to keep the output shorter):
$ ansible-playbook playbook.yaml -i inventory
TASK [debug] ********************************************************************************************
ok: [prod1-node0] => {
"location": "datacenter1"
}
ok: [prod1-node1] => {
"location": "datacenter1"
}
ok: [prod1-node2] => {
"location": "datacenter1"
}
ok: [prod2-node0] => {
"location": "datacenter2"
}
ok: [prod2-node1] => {
"location": "datacenter2"
}
ok: [prod2-node2] => {
"location": "datacenter2"
}
Or you can run the playbook against a specific group:
$ ansible-playbook playbook.yaml -i inventory -l prod2
TASK [debug] ********************************************************************************************
ok: [prod2-node0] => {
"location": "datacenter2"
}
ok: [prod2-node1] => {
"location": "datacenter2"
}
ok: [prod2-node2] => {
"location": "datacenter2"
}
In each case, hosts will use the values from the appropriate group_vars file based on their hostgroup.
I have playbook like this
test_playbook/
├── dep_test.yaml
├── my_hosts_file
└── roles
├── common
│ └── vars
│ └── main.yaml
├── dep_test
│ ├── meta
│ │ └── main.yaml
│ └── tasks
│ └── main.yaml
├── dep_test_a
│ └── tasks
│ └── main.yaml
└── dep_test_b
├── meta
│ └── main.yaml
└── tasks
└── main.yaml
Files content are as below.
dep_test.yaml
- hosts: my_host
gather_facts: no
roles:
- common
- dep_test
my_hosts_file
[my_host]
localhost
roles/common/vars/main.yaml
python_version: "3"
roles/dep_test/tasks/main.yaml
- name: debug test
debug:
msg: test debug
roles/dep_test/meta/main.yaml
dependencies:
- role: dep_test_a
# pyenv_versions: ["{{ python_version }}"]
pyenv_versions: ["3"]
- role: dep_test_b
# python_versions: ["{{ python_version }}"]
python_versions: ["3"]
roles/dep_test_a/tasks/main.yaml
- name: Dep test a
debug:
msg: "Dependency test a called with {{ pyenv_versions }}"
roles/dep_test_b/tasks/main.yaml
- name: Dep test b
debug:
msg: "Dependency test b called with {{ python_versions }}"
roles/dep_test_b/meta/main.yaml
dependencies:
- role: dep_test_a
# pyenv_versions: "{{ python_versions }}"
pyenv_versions: ["3"]
When I pass parameter as ["3"] it works fine and apply the Role Duplication and Execution
ansible-playbook dep_test.yaml -i my_hosts_file -u root --ask-pass
SSH password:
PLAY [my_host] ****************************************************************************************************
TASK [dep_test_a : Dep test a] ************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "Dependency test a called with [u'3']"
}
TASK [dep_test_b : Dep test b] ************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "Dependency test b called with [u'3']"
}
TASK [dep_test : debug test] **************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "test debug"
}
PLAY RECAP ********************************************************************************************************
localhost : ok=3 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0
When I change the parameter from ["3"] to use the variable form common/vars/main.yaml's python_version, it fail the Duplication rule and execute same role with duplicate arguments.
After change code would be
roles/dep_test/meta/main.yaml
dependencies:
- role: dep_test_a
pyenv_versions: ["{{ python_version }}"]
# pyenv_versions: ["3"]
- role: dep_test_b
python_versions: ["{{ python_version }}"]
# python_versions: ["3"]
roles/dep_test_b/meta/main.yaml
dependencies:
- role: dep_test_a
pyenv_versions: "{{ python_versions }}"
# pyenv_versions: ["3"]
Playbook execution output.
ansible-playbook dep_test.yaml -i my_hosts_file -u root --ask-pass
SSH password:
PLAY [my_host] ****************************************************************************************************
TASK [dep_test_a : Dep test a] ***********************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "Dependency test a called with [u'3']"
}
TASK [dep_test_a : Dep test a] ************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "Dependency test a called with [u'3']"
}
TASK [dep_test_b : Dep test b] ************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "Dependency test b called with [u'3']"
}
TASK [dep_test : debug test] **************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "test debug"
}
PLAY RECAP ********************************************************************************************************
localhost : ok=4 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0
Role dep_test_a called 2 times with same arguments [u'3']
TASK [dep_test_a : Dep test a] ***********************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "Dependency test a called with [u'3']"
}
TASK [dep_test_a : Dep test a] ************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "Dependency test a called with [u'3']"
}
One for the dependencies in dep_test role and another for dep_test_b.
As per the rule of dependencies, this should be called only once.
Question: Why dependent role runs twice when passing the parameter?
Question: Why dependent role runs twice when passing the parameter?
Answer: Because Ansible uses lazy evaluation, hence Jinja2 templating is not being triggered until the variable is used.
Passing a variable to a role is not considered a usage, so it passes and compares the templates, not the values.
You call the dep_test_a role twice:
- role: dep_test_a
pyenv_versions: ["{{ python_version }}"]
and:
- role: dep_test_a
pyenv_versions: "{{ python_versions }}"
["{{ python_version }}"] is not equal to "{{ python_versions }}", thus Ansible executes the role twice.
And btw, the code to illustrate the behaviour in the question can be shortened to:
- hosts: localhost
connection: local
gather_facts: no
vars:
my_var1: 1
my_var2: 1
roles:
- role: my_role
role_param: "{{ my_var1 }}"
- role: my_role
role_param: "{{ my_var2 }}"
I would like to shape my directory structure of my ansible roles and playbooks.
Currently I have a directory structure like.
group_vars
* all
* group-one
- group-vars.yml
- group-vault.yml
...
host_vars
- server1.yml
plays
- java_plays
* deploy_fun_java_stuff.yml
* deploy_playbook.yml
roles
- role1
- tasks
* main.yml
- handlers
- (the rest of the needed directories)
- role2
- java
- java_role1
- tasks
* main.yml
- handlers
- (the rest of the needed directories)
I would like to be able to call upon the role java_role1 in the play deploy_fun_java_stuff.yml
I can call
---
- name: deploy fun java stuff
hosts: java
roles:
- { role: role1 }
but I cannot call (I've tried multiple ways). Is this possible?
- name: deploy fun java stuff
hosts: java
roles:
- { role: java/java_role1 }
What I really want to accomplish is to be able to structure my plays in an orderly fashion along with my roles.
I will end up with a large number of both roles and plays I would like to organize them.
I can handle this with a separate ansible.cfg file for each play directory but I cannot add those cfg files to ansible tower (So I'm looking for an alternate solution).
I think the problem is that you need to set the relative path properly. Ansible first applies the given path relative to the called playbooks directory, then looks in the current working path (from which you are executing the ansible-playbook command) and finally checks in /etc/ansible/roles, so instead of { role: java/java_role1 } in your dir structure you could use { role: ../../roles/java/java_role1 } or { role: roles/java/java_role1 }. Yet another option would be to configure the paths in which ansible is looking for roles. For that you could set the roles_path inside your projects ansible.cfg as described in the Ansible docs.
Based on your example:
Dir tree:
ansible/
├── hosts
│ └── dev
├── plays
│ └── java_plays
│ └── java.yml
└── roles
├── java
│ └── java_role1
│ └── tasks
│ └── main.yml
└── role1
└── tasks
└── main.yml
To test it, the play would include java_role1 and role1.
plays/java_plays/java.yml:
---
- name: deploy java stuff
hosts: java
roles:
- { role: roles/role1 }
- { role: roles/java/java_role1 }
For testing purposes these roles simply print a debug msg.
role1/tasks/main.yml:
---
- debug: msg="Inside role1"
The dev hosts file simply sets localhost to the java group. Now I can use the playbook:
fishi#zeus:~/workspace/ansible$ ansible-playbook -i hosts/dev plays/java_plays/java.yml
PLAY [deploy java stuff] *******************************************************
TASK [setup] *******************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [role1 : debug] ***********************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "Inside role1"
}
TASK [java_role1 : debug] *************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "Inside java_role1"
}
PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************
localhost : ok=3 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0
Now doing the same when you use { role: ../../roles/java/java_role1 } and { role: ../../roles/role1 } your log output inside the TASK brackets would show the whole relative path instead of just the role name:
fishi#zeus:~/workspace/ansible$ ansible-playbook -i hosts/dev plays/java_plays/java.yml
PLAY [deploy java stuff] *******************************************************
TASK [setup] *******************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [../../roles/role1 : debug] ***********************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "Inside role1"
}
TASK [../../roles/java/java_role1 : debug] *************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "Inside java_role1"
}
PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************
localhost : ok=3 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0
Another option and one that I use is to create an ansible.cfg file in your playbook directory and place the following in it:
[defaults]
roles_path = /etc/ansible/roles: :
or in your case:
[defaults]
roles_path = /etc/ansible/roles:/etc/ansible/roles/java
Then don't use any relative paths.
A more elegant solution (imo) is symlinking your roles directory to inside the playbooks directory.
My directory structure is as follows:
inventory/
playbooks/
|-> roles -> ../roles
|-> group_vars -> ../group_vars
|-> host_vars -> ../host_vars
roles/
group_vars/
host_vars/
In my case, I created the symlink by running ln -s ../roles playbooks/roles
I want to make the most of variable precedence with ansible.
So let’s have a look at this simplified project:
├── group_vars
│ └── all
│ └── web
├── hosts
│ └── local
└── site.yml
The inventory file hosts/local:
[local_web]
192.168.1.20
[local_db]
192.168.1.20
[web:children]
local_web
[db:children]
local_db
The group_vars/all file:
test: ALL
The group_vars/web file:
test: WEB
The site.yml file:
---
- name: Test
hosts: db
tasks:
- debug: var=test
Alright, so this is just to test variable precedence. As I run ansible in the db group, the test variable should display “ALL”, as ansible will only looks into group_vars/all, right?
Wrong:
TASK: [debug var=test] ********************************************************
ok: [192.168.1.20] => {
"var": {
"test": "WEB"
}
}
Actually, if local_web and local_db hosts are different, then it works.
Why ansible still looks into an unrelated config file when hosts are the same? Is that a bug or just me?
You're stating that 192.168.1.20 is a member of all 4 of your defined groups, and that's independent of how you reference the host in your playbook. No matter how you reference the host in your playbook Ansible is going to evaluate all the groups that host is in and import variables based on those groups.
Here's a handy test to demonstrate this:
- name: Test
hosts: db
tasks:
- debug: msg="{{ inventory_hostname }} is in group {{ item }}"
when: inventory_hostname in groups[item]
with_items: group_names
The output of this is:
TASK: [debug msg="host is in group {{ item }}"] *******************************
ok: [192.168.1.20] => (item=db) => {
"item": "db",
"msg": "192.168.1.20 is in group db"
}
ok: [192.168.1.20] => (item=local_db) => {
"item": "local_db",
"msg": "192.168.1.20 is in group local_db"
}
ok: [192.168.1.20] => (item=local_web) => {
"item": "local_web",
"msg": "192.168.1.20 is in group local_web"
}
ok: [192.168.1.20] => (item=web) => {
"item": "web",
"msg": "192.168.1.20 is in group web"
}
Since the host is in the web group then the web group_vars file was included.
#Bruce P answer is right.
However, this ansible behavior is not satisfying for me, because it change variable precedence depending on the hosts. Instead of group_vars, I use the vars_files dict.
I moved group_vars into a directory named vars.
The updated site.yml:
---
- name: Test
hosts: db
tasks:
- debug: var=test
vars_files:
- vars/all
- vars/db
Now, test displays “ALL”, as I wanted. It first read vars/all, then vars/db (which is empty).
(Note: variable precedence seems to be a bit buggy at the moment - v1.9.2 -. This means if you use variables as var files name, ansible will not load files in the order expected.)
Another solution that can leave variables in group_vars is to replace the inventory file hosts/local by two files : hosts/inv_db and hosts/inv_web, and to use the -i option to specify the inventory file to use.