I have created my own custom library, I added my custom library in the common folder of my repository. In that I need to pass variables dynamically. It's a confidential password, so I am using "vault" in ansible.
In that my requirement is how to pass include_vars in the tasks\main.yml before hosts.
e.g: mytasks.yml
- include_vars: sample_vault.yml
- include: sample_tasks.yml
- hosts: localhost
tasks:
name: "free task"
command: ls -a
my directory structure like this:
myfolder
- common
-library
-my file.py
- sample_tasks.yml
- mytasks
-mytasks.yml(my main master playbook file)
-sample_vault.yml (note:i create this using vault for confidential purpose)
- roles
-myrole
Here I need to run sample_tasks file using a variables passed in sample_vault.yml file before I execute the hosts tasks using ansible. If I use extra variable means password is visible so I don't need that.
When I use include_vars in my tasks/main.yml file, it shows the following error:
ERROR! 'include_vars' is not a valid attribute for a Play
You can't use include_vars this way, it's only available for use under tasks.
If sample_tasks.yml is a list of tasks, you also can't use it on playbook level. See my other answer for explanation.
You can use vars_files like this:
- hosts: localhost
vars_files:
- sample_vault.yml
tasks:
name: "free task"
command: ls -a
Or pass a file as extra variables:
ansible-playbook --ask-vault-pass -e #sample_vault.yml myplaybook.yml
Related
Ansible Version: 2.8.3
I have the following hosts.yaml file for use in Ansible
I have applications that I want to deploy on potentially both rp_1 and rp_2
---
all:
vars:
docker_network_name: devopsNet
http_protocol: http
http_host: ansiblenode01_new.example.com
http_url: "{{ http_protocol }}://{{ http_host }}:{{ http_port }}/{{ http_context }}"
hosts:
ansiblenode01_new.example.com:
ansiblenode02_new.example.com:
children:
##################################################################
rp_1:
children:
httpd:
hosts:
ansiblenode01_new.example.com:
vars:
number_of_tools: 6
outside_port: 443
jenkins:
hosts:
ansiblenode01_new.example.com:
vars:
http_port: 4444
http_context: jenkins
artifactory:
hosts:
ansiblenode01_new.example.com:
vars:
http_port: 8000
http_context: artifactory
rp_2:
children:
httpd:
hosts:
ansiblenode02_new.example.com:
vars:
number_of_tools: 4
outside_port: 7090
jenkins:
hosts:
ansiblenode02_new.example.com:
vars:
http_port: 7990
http_context: jenkins
artifactory:
hosts:
ansiblenode02_new.example.com:
vars:
http_port: 8000
http_context: artifactory
The following python wrapper script is calling ansible-playbook in a loop to deploy the applications
#!/usr/bin/python
import yaml
import os
import getpass
with open('hosts.yaml') as f:
var = yaml.load(f)
sudo_pass = getpass.getpass(prompt="Please enter sudo password: ")
# Running individual ansible-playbook deployment for each application listed and uncommented under 'applications' object.
for network in var['all']['children']:
for app in var['all']['children'][network]['children']:
os.system('ansible-playbook deploy.yml --extra-vars "application='+app+' ansible_sudo_password='+sudo_pass+'"')
The problem I recognize is that both Ansible and Python will use the hosts.yaml file, but not use it the way I thought it would as I'm not too familiar with Ansible.
The hosts.yaml was written in a format that is required by Ansible.
The Python script will open the yaml file, make a dictionary out of it, and step through the dictionary and look for the application names to pass to the command line call. The problem is then that Python only passes the name of the app as a string to the invocation of ansible-playbook, the dictionary structure obviously doesn't get passed, so Ansible will then open the hosts.yaml file as well, but all it does is step through the yaml and look for the first occurrence of the app name that was passed as an argument when ansible-playbook was invoked, completely disregarding the structure I've created in the yaml file.
So basically only the rp_1 group in the yaml file will be executed since Ansible, I think reads through the yaml from top down and stops at the first occurrence, therefore all or parts of the rp_2 group will never be processed by Ansible if the group contains all or some of the same apps as rp_1, therefore running the same deployment twice.
Is there a way to invoke Ansible or some ways to set the playbooks up so that Ansible will recognize that in my hosts file, I have networks (rp_1, rp_2) that I want to setup and executes the playbooks in the grouping that I've created in the yaml file?
Ansible already has this built-in. You do not need a wrapper script.
To run the deploy.yml playbook on all hosts in your hosts.yaml (this is called "inventory" btw.) do this:
ansible-playbook -i hosts.yaml deploy.yml -bK
To only run it on rp_1, do this:
ansible-playbook -i hosts.yaml deploy.yml --limit rp_1 -bK
-b makes ansible become root
-K will make ansible ask for the password to become root
-i <file> specifies the inventory file
--limit <host/group> limits the execution to certain hosts or groups, you can also add more than one, as a comma-separated list (e.g., pr_1,rp_2)
You can also specify a list of hosts/groups in your playbook like this:
- name: do whatever you like
hosts:
- rp_1
- rp_2
become: yes
tasks:
- debug:
msg: "I'm running on {{ inventory_hostname }}!"
Further reading:
Discovering variables: facts and magic variables
How to build your inventory
Special variables
Using variables
Ansible examples
Accessing variables of "other" hosts: on serverfault and stackoverflow
I have an Ansible playbook that performs various tasks based on environment variables that have been set on the system running Ansible. For example:
- hosts: all
tasks:
- name: Download allowlist
command: "some_command {{ lookup('env', 'ALLOWLIST_URL') }}"
when: "lookup('env', 'ALLOWLIST_URL') is defined"
Currently, I provide all the environment variables from outside the playbook, through a wrapper script:
export ALLOWLIST_URL="..."
export SOME_OTHER_VAR="..."
ansible-playbook -i hosts playbook.yaml
However, I'd like to be able to include these environment variables automatically into Ansible, either through a command line switch, an additional task in the playbook, or another means, so that I can get rid of the wrapper entirely.
To clarify, I'd prefer a way of doing something like this (this is not a real command and only intended to demonstrate what I'm looking for):
ansible-playbook --include-env-vars ENVFILE -i hosts playbook.yml
Or, if it's within the playbook, something like this (again, include_env_vars is not a real module and only intended as a demonstration):
tasks:
- name: Include env vars
include_env_vars:
from: ENVFILE
Is such a thing possible?
I am trying to set up Ansible to be able to run a playbook according to what inventory group the host is in. For example, in the inventory, we have:
[group1]
host1.sub.domain.tld ansible_host=10.0.0.2
...
[group1:vars]
whatsmyplaybook=build-server.yml
Then we want to make a simple playbook that will more or less redirect to the playbook that is in the inventory:
---
- name: Load Playbook from inventory
include: "{{hostvars[server].whatsmyplaybook}}"
Where the "server" variable would be the host's FQDN, passed in from the command line:
ansible-playbook whatsmyplaybook.yml -e "server=host1.sub.domain.tld"
Our reasoning for this would be to have a server bootstrap itself from a fresh installation (PXE boot), where it will only really know its FQDN, then have a firstboot script SSH to our Ansible host and kick off the above command. However, when we do this, we get the below error:
ERROR! 'hostvars' is undefined
This suggests that the inventory is not parsed until a host list is provided, which sucks a lot. Is there another way to accomplish this?
A bit strange workflow, honestly.
Your setup doesn't work, because most of variables are not defined during playbook parse time.
You may be more lucky with defining single playbook with different plays for different groups (no need to set group var, just use correct host pattern (group name in my example)) and execute it limiting to specific host:
site.yml:
---
- hosts: group1
tasks:
- include: build-web-server-tasks.yml
- hosts: group2
tasks:
- include: build-db-server-tasks2.yml
command to provision specific server:
ansible-playbook -l host1.sub.domain.tld site.yml
You can develop your own dynamic inventory file so that all machines which needs to be bootstrapped will automatically added into your inventory and group respectively with out an manual entry in to the inventory file.
For developing dynamic inventory you can follow the below link:
http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/dev_guide/developing_inventory.html
You can include multiple playbooks targeted to different groups as follows.
---
- hosts: all
tasks:
- include: build-web-server-tasks.yml
where: inventory_hostname in groups['group1']
- include: build-db-server-tasks2.yml
where: inventory_hostname in groups['group2']
inventory_hostname is the name of the hostname as configured in Ansible’s inventory host file. This can be useful for when you don’t want to rely on the discovered hostname ansible_hostname or for other mysterious reasons. If you have a long FQDN, inventory_hostname_short also contains the part up to the first period, without the rest of the domain.
My playbook (/home/user/Ansible/dist/playbooks/test.yml):
- hosts: regional_clients
tasks:
- shell: /export/home/user/ansible_scripts/test.sh
register: shellout
- debug: var=shellout
- hosts: web_clients
tasks:
- shell: /var/www/html/webstart/release/ansible_scripts/test.sh
register: shellout
- debug: var=shellout
- command: echo catalina.sh start
register: output
- debug: var=output
The [regional_clients] group is specified in /home/user/Ansible/webproj/hosts and the [web_clients] group is specified in /home/user/Ansible/regions/hosts.
Is there a way I could make the above work? Currently, running the playbook will fail since neither [regional_clients] or [web_clients] are defined in the default inventory file /home/user/Ansible/dist/hosts.
Yes, you can write a simple shell script:
#!/bin/sh
cat /home/user/Ansible/webproj/hosts /home/user/Ansible/regions/hosts
and call it as a dynamic inventory in Ansible:
ansible-playbook -i my_script test.yml
This question, however, looks to me like a problem with your organisation, not a technical one. If your environment is so complex and maintained by different parties, then use some kind of configuration database (and a dynamic inventory in Ansible which would retrieve the data), instead of individual files in user's paths.
I am trying to craft a list of environment variables to use in tasks that may have slightly different path on each host due to version differences.
For example, /some/common/path/v_123/rest/of/path
I created a list of these variables in variables.yml file that gets imported via roles.
roles/somerole/varables/main.yml contains the following
somename:
somevar: 'coolvar'
env:
SOME_LIB_PATH: /some/common/path/{{ unique_part.stdout }}/rest/of/path
I then have a task that runs something like this
- name: Get unique path part
shell: 'ls /some/common/path/'
register: unique_part
tags: workflow
- name: Perform some actions that need some paths
shell: 'binary argument argument'
environment: somename.env
But I get some Ansible errors about variables not being defined.
Alternatively I tried to predefine the unique_part.stdout in hopes of register overwriting predefined variable, but then I got other ansible errors - failure to template.
Is there another way to craft these variables based on command returns?
You can also use facts:
http://docs.ansible.com/set_fact_module.html
# Prepare unique variables
- hosts: myservers
tasks:
- name: Get unique path part
shell: 'ls /some/common/path/'
register: unique_part
tags: workflow
- name: Add as Fact per for each hosts
set_fact:
library_path: "{{ unique_part.stdout }}"
# launch roles that use those unique variables
- hosts: myservers
roles:
- somerole
This way you can dynamicaly add variable to your hosts before using them.
The vars files gets evaluated when it is read by Ansible. Your only chance would be to include a placeholder which you then later have to replace yourself, like this:
somename:
somevar: 'coolvar'
env:
SOME_LIB_PATH: '/some/common/path/[[ unique_part.stdout ]]/rest/of/path'
And then later in your playbook you can replace that placeholder:
- name: Perform some actions that need some paths
shell: 'binary argument argument'
environment: '{{ somename.env | replace("[[ unique_part.stdout ]]", unique_part.stdout) }}'