What is the best way to dynamically add variables as Ansible Facts? - ansible

Question

I have an Ansible task where I navigate to a YAML variable file in GitHub, download the file, and add the variables as Ansible Facts where they're later used.
My YAML file looks like:
---
foo: bar
hello: world
I have a method where I loop over this file, and individually add the key/value pairs as the facts:
- name: Grab contents of variable file
win_shell: cat '{{ playbook_dir }}/DEV1.yml'
register: raw_config
- name: Add variables to workspace
vars:
config: "{{ raw_config.stdout | from_yaml }}"
set_fact:
"{{ item.key }}": "{{ item.value }}"
loop: "{{ config | dict2items }}"
This works but generates much larger log outputs that look like:
ok: [localhost] => (item={u'key': u'foo', u'value': u'bar'}) => {
"ansible_facts": {
"foo": "bar"
},
"ansible_loop_var": "item",
"changed": false,
"item": {
"key": "foo",
"value": "bar"
}
}
ok: [localhost] => (item={u'key': u'hello', u'value': u'world'}) => {
"ansible_facts": {
"hello": "world"
},
"ansible_loop_var": "item",
"changed": false,
"item": {
"key": "hello",
"value": "world"
}
}
I was wondering if it was possible to add the entire variable file as Ansible Facts instead of needing to loop through it. The way I tried was like:
- name: Grab contents of variable file
win_shell: cat '{{ playbook_dir }}/DEV1.yml'
register: raw_config
- name: Add variables to workspace
vars:
config: '{{ raw_config.stdout | from_yaml }}'
set_fact: '{{ config }}'
This almost works, but it looks like this:
ok: [msf1vpom04d.corp.tjxcorp.net] => {
"ansible_facts": {
"_raw_params": {
"foo": "bar",
"hello": "world"
…
Can I add the entire object as Ansible Facts without generating this _raw_params object?

Answer 1

... where I navigate to a YAML variable file in GitHub, download the file, and add the variables ... I was wondering if it was possible to add the entire variable file ...
There are several possibilities.
One option (annot.: like in Ansible Tower) can be to checkout, download, sync the variable file before executing the playbook. To do so
curl --silent --user "${ACCOUNT}:${PASSWORD}" -X GET "https://${REPOSITORY_URL}/raw/group_vars/test?at=refs%2Fheads%2Fmaster" -o group_vars/test && \
sshpass -p ${PASSWORD} ansible-playbook --user ${ACCOUNT} --ask-pass test.yml
... used a Bitbucket URL here for demonstration and test
The advantage of this approach is that there is no implementation or logic within the playbooks necessary at all. The only requirement is just to Organize host and group variables. Furthermore it is the there recommended approach
Keeping your inventory file and variables in a git repo (or other version control) is an excellent way to track changes to your inventory and host variables.
An other option would be to use include_vars module to
Loads YAML/JSON variables dynamically from a file or directory, recursively, during task runtime.
In respect to simplicity it is still recommended to sync before execute.
Further Q&A
... and as already mentioned within the comments
Getting variable values from URL

Answer 2

You can take advantage of the play level vars_files parameter and the fact that it will be loaded and expanded for each running task. We just need to have a fallback file when your file does not yet locally exist so that we don't get an error (during facts gathering for example).
Here is an example with a uri of mine containing default values for an ansible role.
First, create an empty.yml file which will be empty as its name suggest. (It's adjacent to my playbook for the example but you can put it wherever your want, just reflect this in your playbook accordingly)
Then the following playbook:
---
- hosts: localhost
gather_facts: false
vars:
external_vars_uri: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ansible-ThoTeam/nexus3-oss/main/defaults/main.yml
external_vars_file: /tmp/external_vars.yml
vars_files:
- "{{ lookup('first_found', [external_vars_file, 'empty.yml']) }}"
tasks:
- name: make sure we have our external file
get_url:
url: "{{ external_vars_uri }}"
dest: "{{ external_vars_file }}"
# Note: we're only using localhost here so the below
# parameters are useless. But they will be necessary
# if you target other (groups of) hosts.
run_once: true
delegate_to: localhost
- name: debug a var we know is in the external file
debug:
var: nexus_repos_maven_proxy
Gives:
$ ansible-playbook play.yml
PLAY [localhost] **************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
TASK [make sure we have our external file] ************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
changed: [localhost]
TASK [debug a var we know is in the external file] ****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"nexus_repos_maven_proxy": [
{
"layout_policy": "permissive",
"name": "central",
"remote_url": "https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/"
},
{
"name": "jboss",
"remote_url": "https://repository.jboss.org/nexus/content/groups/public-jboss/"
}
]
}
PLAY RECAP ********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
localhost : ok=2 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0