ansible module add_host error: skipping: no hosts matched - windows

Question

The Script, running on a Linux host, should call some Windows hosts holding Oracle Databases. Each Oracle Database is in DNS with its name "db-[ORACLE_SID]".
Lets say you have a database with ORACLE SID TEST02, it can be resolved as db-TEST02.
The complete script is doing some more stuff, but this example is sufficient to explain the problem.
The db-[SID] hostnames must be added as dynamic hosts to be able to parallelize the processing.
The problem is that oracle_databases is not passed to the new playbook. It works if I change the hosts from windows to localhost, but I need to analyze something first and get some data from the windows hosts, so this is not an option.
Here is the script:
---
# ansible-playbook parallel.yml -e "databases=TEST01,TEST02,TEST03"
- hosts: windows
gather_facts: false
vars:
ansible_connection: winrm
ansible_port: 5985
ansible_winrm_transport: kerberos
ansible_winrm_kerberos_delegation: true
tasks:
- set_fact:
database: "{{ databases.split(',') }}"
- name: Add databases as hosts, to parallelize the shutdown process
add_host:
name: "db-{{ item }}"
groups: oracle_databases
loop: "{{ database | list}}"
##### just to check, what is in oracle_databases
- name: show the content of oracle_databases
debug:
msg: "{{ item }}"
with_inventory_hostnames:
- oracle_databases
- hosts: oracle_databases
gather_facts: true
tasks:
- debug:
msg:
- "Hosts, on which the playbook is running: {{ ansible_play_hosts }}"
verbosity: 1
My inventory file is just small, but there will be more windows hosts in future:
[adminsw1#obelix oracle_change_home]$ cat inventory
[local]
localhost
[windows]
windows68
And the output
[adminsw1#obelix oracle_change_home]$ ansible-playbook para.yml -l windows68 -e "databases=TEST01,TEST02"
/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible/parsing/vault/__init__.py:44: CryptographyDeprecationWarning: Python 2 is no longer supported by the Python core team. Support for it is now deprecated in cryptography, and will be removed in a future release.
from cryptography.exceptions import InvalidSignature
/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/requests/__init__.py:89: RequestsDependencyWarning: urllib3 (1.23) or chardet (2.2.1) doesn't match a supported version!
RequestsDependencyWarning)
PLAY [windows] *****************************************************************************************************************************
TASK [set_fact] ****************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [windows68]
TASK [Add databases as hosts, to parallelize the shutdown process] *************************************************************************
changed: [windows68] => (item=TEST01)
changed: [windows68] => (item=TEST02)
TASK [show the content of oracle_databases] ************************************************************************************************
ok: [windows68] => (item=db-TEST01) => {
"msg": "db-TEST01"
}
ok: [windows68] => (item=db-TEST02) => {
"msg": "db-TEST02"
}
PLAY [oracle_databases] ********************************************************************************************************************
skipping: no hosts matched
PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************************************************************************
windows68 : ok=3 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0

Answer 1

It might be possible that Ansible is not parsing the updated inventory file file, or the hosts name is being malformed in as it updates the inventory.
In this scenario, you can use the -vv or -vvvv parameter in your Ansible command to get extra logging.
This will give you a complete picture into what Ansible is actually doing as it tries to parse hosts.

Answer 2

I found out, what the problem was. The playbook is restricted to a host "windows68" and therefore can´t be run at the hosts added by the dynamic inventory.
It will work that way:
[adminsw1#obelix oracle_change_home]$ ansible-playbook para.yml -l windows68,oracle_databases -e "databases=TEST01,TEST02"