How to make Ansible display the host name before asking for the sudo password? - ansible

Question

I have an Ansible playbook to update my Debian based servers. For simplicity and security reasons, I don't want to use a vault for the passwords and I also don't want to store them in a publically accessible config file. So I ask for the password for every client with
become: yes
become_method: sudo
Now, when the playbook runs, it seems the first thing Ansible does is ask for the sudo password, but I don't know for which server (the passwords are different). Is there a way to get Ansible to print the current host name before it asks for the password?
The update playbook is similar to this:
---
- hosts:
all
gather_facts: no
vars:
verbose: false
log_dir: "log/dist-upgrade/{{ inventory_hostname }}"
pre_tasks:
- block:
- setup:
rescue:
- name: "Install required python-minimal package"
raw: "apt-get update && apt-get install -y --force-yes python-apt python-minimal"
- setup:
tasks:
- name: Update packages
apt:
update_cache: yes
upgrade: dist
autoremove: yes
register: output
- name: Check changes
set_fact:
updated: true
when: not output.stdout | search("0 upgraded, 0 newly installed")
- name: Display changes
debug:
msg: "{{ output.stdout_lines }}"
when: verbose or updated is defined
- block:
- name: "Create log directory"
file:
path: "{{ log_dir }}"
state: directory
changed_when: false
- name: "Write changes to logfile"
copy:
content: "{{ output.stdout }}"
dest: "{{ log_dir }}/dist-upgrade_{{ ansible_date_time.iso8601 }}.log"
changed_when: false
when: updated is defined
connection: local
(source: http://www.panticz.de/Debian-Ubuntu-mass-dist-upgrade-with-Ansible)

Answer 1

Your above become configuration does not make ansible ask you for a become password: it just advises it to use become with the sudo method (which will work without any password if your have the correct keys configured for example).
If you are asked for a become password, it's because (it's a guess but I'm rather confident...) you used the --ask-become-pass option when running ansible-playbook.
In this case, you are prompted only once at the beginning of the playbook operations and this default become password will be used on all servers you connect to except if you defined an other one in your inventory for a specific host/group.
If you have different become passwords depending on your machines, you don't really have an other option: you need to declare those passwords in your inventory (and it is strongly advised to use ansible-vault encryption) or use some other mechanisms to get them out of an external application (hashicorp vault, dynamic inventory, cyberark...)