Stopping ansible from a playbook (site.yml) - ansible

Question

I have re-written the question to be more specific instead of using a generic example of what I am trying to achieve, as per #Zeitounator's suggestion.
I use ansible to spin up VM's in VMware by adding a new entry in the hosts.ini file and running ansible-playbook -i inventory/dev/hosts.ini --limit SomeGroup playbooks/site.yml
The vmware role (calledvmware) will
* check to see if the VM already exists.
* If it does, then obviously it does not create the VM.
* If it does not exist, then it will create the VM from a template.
To destroy a VM, I run this: ansible-playbook -i inventory/dev/hosts.ini --limit SomeGroup playbooks/site.yml -e 'vmware_destroy=true'
That works as intended. Now for my issue.
When this variable is set (vmware_destroy=true), it will destroy the VM successfully, BUT ansible will attempt to carry on with the rest of the playbook on the host that has just been destroyed. Obviously it fails. The playbook does actually stop due to the failure. But not gracefully.
Here is an example of the flow of logic:
$ cat playbooks/site.yml
---
- hosts: all
gather_facts: no
roles:
- { role: vmware, tags: vmware }
- hosts: all
gather_facts: yes
roles:
- { role: bootstrap, tags: bootstrap }
- { role: common, tags: common }
- hosts: AppServers
gather_facts: no
roles:
- { role: application }
# and so on.
$ cat playbooks/roles/vmware/main.yml
---
# Checks to see if the VM exists already.
# A variable `found_vm` is registered in this task.
- import_tasks: find.yml
# Only import this task when all of the `when` conditions are met.
- import_tasks: destroy.yml
when:
- vmware_destroy is defined
- vmware_destroy # Meaning 'True'
- found_vm
# If the above is true, it will not import this task.
- import_tasks: create.yml
when:
- found_vm.failed
- vmware_destroy is not defined
So, the point is, when I specify -e 'vmware_destroy=true', ansible will attempt to run the rest of the playbook and fail.
I don't want ansible to fail. I want it to stop gracefully after completing the vmware role based on -e 'vmware_destroy=true flag provided on the command line.
I am aware I can use a different playbook for this, something like:
ansible-playbook -i inventory/dev/hosts.ini --limit SomeGroup playbooks/VMWARE_DESTROY.yml. But I would rather use a variable as opposed to a separate playbook. If there is a strong argument to split out the playbook in this way, please provide references.
Please let me know if more clarification is needed.
Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

A playbook is the top Ansible abstraction layer (playbook -> role -> task -> ...). There are 2 more layers in AWX (workflow -> job template -> playbook ...) to control the playbooks. To follow the architecture either AWX, or any other tool to interface Ansible (ansible-runner, or scripts for example) should be used to control the playbooks.
Controlling of the playbooks inside Ansible is rather awkward. Create 2 playbooks vmware-create.yml and vmware-destroy.yml
$ cat vmware-create.yml
- hosts: all
gather_facts: yes # include cached variables
tasks:
- block:
- debug:
msg: Don't create VM this time. End of play.
- meta: end_play
when: not hostvars['localhost'].vmware_create
- debug:
msg: Create VM.
$ cat vmware-destroy.yml
- hosts: all
gather_facts: yes # include cached variables
tasks:
- block:
- debug:
msg: Don't destroy VM this time. End of play.
- meta: end_play
when: not hostvars['localhost'].vmware_destroy
- debug:
msg: Destroy VM.
and import them into the playbook vmware_control.yml. See below
$ cat vmware-control.yml
- hosts: localhost
vars:
vmware_create: true
vmware_destroy: false
tasks:
- set_fact:
vmware_create: "{{ vmware_create }}" # cache variable
- set_fact:
vmware_destroy: "{{ vmware_destroy }}" # cache variable
- import_playbook: vmware-create.yml
- import_playbook: vmware-destroy.yml
Control the flow with the variables vmware_create and vmware_destroy. Run vmware_control.yml at localhost and declare hosts: all inside vmware-create.yml and vmware-destroy.yml.