How to include variables from roles (vars) directory ansible? - ansible

Question

I have my ansible playbook which basically create a new Virtual machine from template in esxi what , i have to convert the playbook into roles. I am new to ansible so i don't know how to call my hard coded variables from roles(install)->vars directory .
This is my playbook
---
# create a new VM from a template
- name: VM from template
hosts: localhost
gather_facts: false
connection: local
vars:
vcenter_hostname: vcenter-app
vcenter_user: john#doe
vcenter_pass: blabla6
esxhost: esx-4.cbalo.fr
datastore: VM-PROD-02-NORMAL
vmtemplate: Centos7-template
name: "newvm2"
notes: Ansible Test
dumpfacts: False
tasks:
- name: Create VM from template
vmware_guest:
validate_certs: False
hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
username: "{{ vcenter_user }}"
password: "{{ vcenter_pass }}"
esxi_hostname: "{{ esxhost }}"
datacenter: CD06
folder: Test
name: "{{ name }}"
template: "{{ vmtemplate }}"
hardware:
memory_mb: "{{ vm_memory | default(1024) }}"
wait_for_ip_address: True
state: present
register: newvm2
I have divide this into my role(install)->tasks->main.yml like this
---
- name: Create VM from template
vmware_guest:
validate_certs: False
hostname: "{{ vcenter_hostname }}"
username: "{{ vcenter_user }}"
password: "{{ vcenter_pass }}"
esxi_hostname: "{{ esxhost }}"
datacenter: CD06
folder: Test
name: "{{ name }}"
template: "{{ vmtemplate }}"
hardware:
memory_mb: "{{ vm_memory | default(1024) }}"
wait_for_ip_address: True
state: present
register: newvm2
Then in my main directory i create new file run.yml and include my role
---
# create a new VM from a template
- name: VM from template
hosts: localhost
gather_facts: false
connection: local
roles:
- install
The issue is i don't know how to call vars from roles->vars directory as you can see in my playbook i have hard code variables. I need to get or set the variable in file and call it from that file.
**vcenter_hostname: vcenter-app
vcenter_user: john#doe
vcenter_pass: blabla6
esxhost: esx-4.cbalo.fr
datastore: VM-PROD-02-NORMAL
vmtemplate: Centos7-template
name: "newvm2"
datacenter: CD06
folder: Test**

Answer 1

Variables in ansible are a set of values that will replace certain place-holders. You supply them when running your playbook and they will "trickle down" if you include roles etc. Check the documentation to find out about variable precedence in ansible.
So what you want to do is to put your variable-assignments in your inventory (you can split out variables in separate files as well, using group_vars) and then use the -i path/to/inventory.yml on your ansible-playbook command.
A structure could look like that:
my-ansible/
roles/
my-role/
tasks/
main.yaml
defaults/
main.yaml # contains default values for your variables
inventory/
inventory.yaml # contains hosts and variable assignments
run.yaml
Then, you can run it like that:
ansible-playbook -i inventory/inventory.yaml run.yaml
Hints:
Don't use my-role/vars as it is very hard to override variable assignments in there. (See variable precedence)
defaults/main.yaml is not necessary, but can be handy for variables you rarely change