Ansible read variables from bash - bash

Question

I created 2 playbooks:
deploy VM(centos8) into ESX
join VM to AD
Inside of them are plenty variables which are useful only for one specific VM (beside info about ESX)
---
- name: create vm from template on ESX
hosts: localhost
gather_facts: no
become: yes
tasks:
- name: clone the template
vmware_guest:
hostname: "IP.."
username: "user"
password: "password"
validate_certs: false
name: ll-ansible
template: ll
datacenter: "LAB KE"
folder: "OIR"
resource_pool: "pool"
cluster: "PROD cluster"
networks:
- name: IS-VLAN1102
device_type: vmxnet3
vlan: IS-VLAN1102
ip: ip.ip.ip.ip
netmask: 255.255.255.0
gateway: gw.gw.gw.gw
customization:
hostname: ll-ansible
timezone: timezone
domain: domain
dns_servers:
- ip.ip.ip.ip
- ip.ip.ip.ip
disk:
- size: 60gb
type: default
datastore: Dell-OIR
- size: 10gb
type: default
datastore: Dell-OIR
hardware:
memory_mb: 4096
num_cpus: 4
num_cpu_cores_per_socket: 2
boot-firmware: efi
state: poweredon
wait_for_ip_address: yes
register: vm
- debug: msg "{{ vm }}"
My question is:
Is there a way to make a script which will read all necessary variables for deploying VM from command line and fill fields in playbook and then run playbook.
Or if is it possible make it only within ansible possibilities.

Answer 1

There are many ways to send variables to playbook.
Let's start from these 3 most popular options:
env vars
ansible-playbook CLI arguments
var files
See also all 22 options: Understanding variable precedence
Option 1: use lookup('env') in the playbook
Just use "{{ lookup('env', 'ENV_VAR_NAME')}}"
E.g., for your case:
---
- name: create vm from template on ESX
hosts: localhost
gather_facts: no
become: yes
tasks:
- name: clone the template
vmware_guest:
hostname: "{{ lookup('env', 'IP_ADDRESS')}}"
Option 2: pass var through CLI args
You may pass Env var value using --extra-vars CLI argument
For your case:
playbook.yml
...
- name: clone the template
vmware_guest:
hostname: "{{ ip_address }}"
user: "{{ user }}"
usage:
ansible-playbook playbook.yml --extra-vars="user={{ lookup('env', 'USER') }}, ip_address='10.10.10.10'"
Option 3: use vars_files in the playbook
For your case:
playbook.yml:
---
- name: create vm from template on ESX
hosts: localhost
gather_facts: no
become: yes
vars_files:
- "vars/vars.yml"
tasks:
- name: clone the template
vmware_guest:
hostname: "{{ hostname }}"
vars/vars.yml:
---
hostname: "host.example.com"
Let's combine them all:
Suppose you have two different environments:
staging for staging environment
prod for productive environment
Then we create two different vars files:
vars/staging.yml
---
hostname: "staging.domain.com"
vars/prod.yml
---
hostname: "prod.domain.com"
playbook.yml:
---
- name: create vm from template on ESX
y6uu hosts: localhost
gather_facts: no
become: yes
vars_files:
- "vars/{{ env }}.yml"
tasks:
- name: clone the template
vmware_guest:
hostname: "{{ hostname }}"
Usage
run playbook with staging vars:
ansible-playbook playbook.yml --extra-vars=staging
run playbook with prod vars:
ansible-playbook playbook.yml --extra-vars=prod