Looping over ansible_hosts from inventory - ansible

Question

I have a bunch of root servers with different IP addresses. I'm trying to configure the ufw firewall on the server with MySQL server to only allow access from my servers (might change to webservers later) with Ansible. Initially, I only had the FQDNs in the inventory but added the ansible_host IPs because the firewall is not going to resolve the host names (makes sense).
Unfortunately I do not know how to access the ansible_host in the loop query("inventory_hostnames", "all")
My inventory:
all:
vars:
ansible_ssh_user: me
children:
sqlserver:
hosts:
sqlserver.my-domain.de:
ansible_ssh_user: mysql_me_user
ansible_host: 1.1.1.1
webserver:
hosts:
webserver1.my-domain.de:
ansible_host: 2.2.2.2
webserver2.my-domain.de:
ansible_host: 3.3.3.3
now I am trying to loop in the playbook:
- hosts: '{{target|default("sqlserver")}}'
roles:
- { name: oefenweb.ufw, become: yes } # needs root but does not define become by itself...
vars:
ufw_logging: true
ufw_rules:
- rule: allow
to_port: 22
protocol: tcp
tasks:
- name: open MySQL for servers in my
ufw:
rule: allow
to_port: 3306
protocol: tcp
from_ip: '{{ item }}'
loop: '{{ hosts|default(query("inventory_hostnames", "all")) }}'
tags: test
become: true

Answer 1

There are many options. Make your choice depending on the use case.
For example, the play below
shell> cat pb.yml
- hosts: '{{ target|default("sqlserver") }}'
tasks:
- debug:
msg: "{{ item }}: {{ ansible_host }}"
loop: "{{ clients|default(groups.webserver) }}"
vars:
ansible_host: "{{ hostvars[item].ansible_host }}"
gives
shell> ansible-playbook pb.yml
PLAY [sqlserver] *****************************************************************************
TASK [debug] *********************************************************************************
ok: [sqlserver.my-domain.de] => (item=webserver1.my-domain.de) =>
msg: 'webserver1.my-domain.de: 2.2.2.2'
ok: [sqlserver.my-domain.de] => (item=webserver2.my-domain.de) =>
msg: 'webserver2.my-domain.de: 3.3.3.3'
PLAY RECAP ***********************************************************************************
sqlserver.my-domain.de: ok=1 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
Example of the project for testing
shell> tree .
.
├── ansible.cfg
├── hosts
└── pb.yml
0 directories, 3 files
shell> cat ansible.cfg
[defaults]
gathering = explicit
inventory = $PWD/hosts
stdout_callback = yaml
shell> cat hosts
all:
vars:
ansible_ssh_user: me
children:
sqlserver:
hosts:
sqlserver.my-domain.de:
ansible_ssh_user: mysql_me_user
ansible_host: 1.1.1.1
webserver:
hosts:
webserver1.my-domain.de:
ansible_host: 2.2.2.2
webserver2.my-domain.de:
ansible_host: 3.3.3.3
shell> cat pb.yml
- hosts: '{{ target|default("sqlserver") }}'
tasks:
- debug:
msg: "{{ item }}: {{ ansible_host }}"
loop: "{{ clients|default(groups.webserver) }}"
vars:
ansible_host: "{{ hostvars[item].ansible_host }}"
Create the list and the dictionary below
clients: "{{ groups.webserver }}"
ah_list: "{{ clients|map('extract', hostvars, 'ansible_host')|list }}"
ah_dict: "{{ dict(clients|zip(ah_list)) }}"
give
ah_list:
- 2.2.2.2
- 3.3.3.3
ah_dict:
webserver1.my-domain.de: 2.2.2.2
webserver2.my-domain.de: 3.3.3.3
Then, all tasks below give the same results
2a)
- debug:
msg: "{{ item.key }}: {{ item.value }}"
with_dict: "{{ ah_dict }}"
2b)
- debug:
msg: "{{ item.0 }}: {{ item.1 }}"
with_together:
- "{{ clients }}"
- "{{ ah_list }}"
2c)
- debug:
msg: "{{ item }}: {{ ah_dict[item] }}"
loop: "{{ clients }}"
Example of a complete playbook for testing
- hosts: '{{ target|default("sqlserver") }}'
vars:
clients: "{{ groups.webserver }}"
ah_list: "{{ clients|map('extract', hostvars, 'ansible_host')|list }}"
ah_dict: "{{ dict(clients|zip(ah_list)) }}"
tasks:
- debug:
var: ah_list
- debug:
var: ah_dict
- debug:
msg: "{{ item.key }}: {{ item.value }}"
with_dict: "{{ ah_dict }}"
- debug:
msg: "{{ item.0 }}: {{ item.1 }}"
with_together:
- "{{ clients }}"
- "{{ ah_list }}"
- debug:
msg: "{{ item }}: {{ ah_dict[item] }}"
loop: "{{ clients }}"

Answer 2

As I was writting the question I understood that should google for accessing inventory property and found a solution in Accessing inventory host variable in Ansible playbook - use
from_ip: '{{ hostvars[item].ansible_host }}'
for my task.
I hope that this the way to go.