How do I mention duplicate host ip in Ansible inventory file - ansible

I have the below entry in the host file
cat server.hosts
[mum_servers]
10.12.34.213 USER=user1
10.12.34.213 USER=root
[all_hosts:children]
mum_servers
Below is how I run my playbook where I specify hosts as all_hosts
ansible-playbook -i server.hosts test.yml
However the playbook runs 10.12.34.213 only once and not twice as mentioned in the hosts file.
I understand that Ansible treats duplicate entries for hosts as a single entry, however can you please suggest how can I change my server.hosts file to make 10.12.34.213 run twice first with user1 and then with root ?

You have to create different hosts using aliases
my_host_as_user1 ansible_host=10.12.34.213 USER=user1
my_host_as_root ansible_host=10.12.34.213 USER=root

Related

how can I run a playboook on a single or short list of hosts and getting content from a inventory group where the host is not part of?

I do have a playbook which tooks a specific group and put all hosts of this group into a command on another host.
to be more precise.
all hosts from the hosts group oldservers from my inventory file must be in the /etc/ssh.conf on one or multiple clients.
the task looks like...
---
- name: echo Old Servers
debug:
var: groups["oldservers"]
- name: create ssh_conf_for_old_server
blockinfile:
path: /etc/ssh/ssh_config
backup: True
block: |
Host {{ groups["oldservers"]|join(' ') }}
user admin
KexAlgorithms +diffie-hellman-group1-sha1
HostKeyAlgorithms +ssh-dss
Ciphers +aes128-cbc
this should be executed on a client which is not member of the group servers.
hosts file (inventory):
[clients]
192.168.200.1
192.168.200.2
[oldservers]
192.168.201.1
192.168.201.2
My execution line is ansible-playbook -i 192.168.200.1, -u ansible ./createServerList.yml
I guess I should do it a bit different. Dont I ?
The result should be ... at first output all the oldservers (debug)
than write a block with these old server into the /etc/ssh/ssh_config
For command ansible-playbook -i 192.168.200.1 -u ansible ./createServerList.yml, you are passing the ip address directly as inventory. Because of this Ansible is unaware of the inventory file where host groups are defined. So can you try running this instead ansible-playbook -i <path_to_inventory_file> -u ansible ./createServerList.yml
And then if you have to restrict playbook running only certain hosts or group, do
ansible-playbook -i <path_to_inventory_file> -u ansible ./createServerList.yml --limit "192.168.200.1,192.168.200.2"
OR
ansible-playbook -i <path_to_inventory_file> -u ansible ./createServerList.yml --limit clients

ansible-playbook:: how to play on other host than configured

I am trying to play a yml on other host than configured, using -l option.. but skipping: no hosts matched .
The scenario is where a host associated playbook is needed to be exceptionally used for some other host. (and for safety reasons, the playbook cannot have hosts:all and be left to the admin to limit the target(s))
What is the correct way to do this (if there is any)?
L.E. So, in the end, the answer of #mdaniel gave me the idea o a bash wrapper that creates a temp yml where the host: field is replaced with the argument.. it's not pretty but it works. (same works for a dynamical generation of a playbook from a series of tasks)
and the proper ansible way to do it i just found it here:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/18195217/624734
What is the correct way to do this?
Use all as the target of the playbook, and then constrain the hosts it applies to via the inventory, or the --limit that you mentioned
- hosts: all
# and now the rest of your playbook
You can try the below approach if you want to restrict hosts:all in your ansible script.
- hosts: "{{ host_group }}"
# Rest of your playbook
And you can have a specific group in your hosts file which you can use for testing.
For example,
[test]
192.168.1.1 # Test host
# Rest of your inventory file
And trigger the ansible playbook in the following order,
ansible-playbook -i hosts main.yml -e host_group="test"

Ansible: overwrite inventory's ansible_host from command line

I have a simple inventory in hosts:
dockermachine ansible_host=10.10.10.10
I need to be able to provide any other IP I wish from the command line, overwriting the default, something like:
ansible-playbook -i hosts#dockermachine.ansible_host=11.11.11.11 site.yml
How can I do this?
If your inventory is really that simple, you can probably live without the hostname. Remove the entry from your current default inventory. Make sure your playbook is targeted against the all group and launch your playbook with a single host ip inventory:
ansible-playbook -i 10.10.10.11, my_playbook.yml
Note: the trailing comma after the IP is not a mistake, it needs to be there so that the IP after -i parameter is interpreted as a comma separated list of hosts and not as an inventory file path.

How to make sure that ansible playbook uses hostname from different file or uses it from command line?

I have an ansible playbook that I run from below command line and it works fine.
ansible-playbook -e 'host_key_checking=False' -e 'num_serial=10' test.yml -u golden
It works on the hosts specified in /etc/ansible/hosts file. But is there any way to pass hostnames directly on the command line or generate new file with hostname line by line in it so that my ansible works on that hostnames instead of working from default /etc/ansible/hosts file?
Below is my ansible file:
# This will copy files
---
- hosts: servers
serial: "{{ num_serial }}"
tasks:
- name: copy files to server
shell: "(ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no abc.host.com 'ls -1 /var/lib/workspace/data/*' | parallel -j20 'scp -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no abc.host.com:{} /data/holder/files/procs/')"
- name: sleep for 3 sec
pause: seconds=3
Now I wanted to generate new file which will have all the servers line by line and then my ansible play book work on that file instead? Is this possible?
I am running ansible 2.6.3 version.
The question has been answered probably but will just answer again to add more points.
Always look for command line for help related to the arguments or any info needed.
ansible-playbook --help | grep inventory
-i INVENTORY, --inventory=INVENTORY, --inventory-file=INVENTORY
specify inventory host path or comma separated host
list. --inventory-file is deprecated
The support of ansible inventory in file format is with two extensions:
yml
ini --> specifying ini extension is not mandatory.
The inventory link provides more info on the format and should be referred before choosing any format to implement.
Adding #HermanTheGermanHesse answer's so that all the possible points are covered.
In case the above is not used/you don't want to use. Ansible at last will refer the ansible.cfg for the hosts and variable definition.
[defaults]
inventory = path/to/hosts
From here:
The ansible.cfg file will be chosen in this order:
ANSIBLE_CONFIG environment variable
/ansible.cfg
~/.ansible.cfg
/etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
You can use the -i flag to specify the inventory to use. For example:
ansible-playbook -i hosts play.yml
A way to specify the inventory file to use is to set inventory in the ansible.cfg-file as such:
[defaults]
inventory = path/to/hosts
From here:
The ansible.cfg file will be chosen in this order:
ANSIBLE_CONFIG environment variable
./ansible.cfg
~/.ansible.cfg
/etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
EDIT
From your comment:
[WARNING]: Could not match supplied host pattern, ignoring: servers PLAY [servers]
It seems that ansible doesn't recognize hosts passed with the -i Flag as belonging to a group. Since you mentioned in chat that you generate a list with the passed hosts, I'd suggest creating a file where the list of hosts to passed is made to belong to a group callerd [servers] and passing the path to it with the -i Flag.

How to add multiple inventory files in command line while executing a playbook

I am having a playbook with two different plays
Sample.yml
- name : Play1
hosts: Host1
tasks:
...
- name: Play2
hosts: Host2
tasks:
...
I need to run this playbook with two different hosts(Host1 and Host2) and these two different hosts are present in two separate files(Hostfile1 and Hostfile2) under inventory/ directory.
inventory/
Hostfile1
Hostfile2
.
.
HostfileN
I want to know how to include two different hosts file while running the playbook. I know by including the entire folder (inventory/) in command line we can achieve this but I have lot of hosts files inside inventory/ folder so this option will load unused hosts file.
I tried to run like below
ansible-playbook -i inventory/Hostfile1,Hostfile2 sample.yml
But this didn't work. So, do anyone know how to run the playbook by providing multiple hosts file in command line?
Just simply provide -i multiple times
ansible-playbook -i inventory/Hostfile1 -i inventory/Hostfile2 sample.yml
I wanted to clarify the above answer. The reason the proposal doesn't work is that if ansible sees a ',' in the value of the -i flag, it treats this as an inventory list. Using your example:
ansible-playbook -i inventory/Hostfile1,Hostfile2 sample.yml
Ansible will attempt to run the playbook "sample.yml" on the machines "inventory/Hostfile1" and "Hostfile2".
That's why you must specify -i multiple times.

Resources