How to pass vars in nested Ansible playbook? - ansible

Question

I have a nested ansible playbook (master) file and I want to call included playbook (slave) with their own JSON vars.
Master.yaml
- name: this is a play at the top level of a file
hosts: local
connection: local
tasks:
- debug: msg=hello
- include: slave_first.yaml
- include: slave_second.yaml
slave_first.yaml should make use of "vars/slave_first_vars.json" file and slave_second.yaml should make use of "vars/slave_second_vars.json" file.

Answer 1

When including playbooks you can only override variables with vars statement, like:
- include: slave_first.yaml
vars:
myvar: foo
- include: slave_second.yaml
vars:
myvar: foo
There are no other options for PlaybookInclude.
If you need to load variables from files, you have to use vars_files or include_vars inside your slave playbooks.

Answer 2

In your scenario, I'll use like this, master.yml:
- hosts: localhost
connection: local
tasks:
- include: slave_first.yml
vars:
VAR_FILE: "slave_first_vars"
- include: slave_second.yml
vars:
VAR_FILE: "slave_second_vars"
While slave_first.yml and slave_second.yml are like this, in my case both are same but you get an idea that how you can use them:
slave_first.yml:
---
- include_vars: "{{ VAR_FILE }}.yml"
- debug:
msg: "{{ DOMAIN_NAME }}"
slave_second.yml:
---
- include_vars: "{{ VAR_FILE }}.yml"
- debug:
msg: "{{ DOMAIN_NAME }}"
Now come to the different variable part:
slave_first_vars.yml: in your case it will be json
---
DOMAIN_NAME: "first.com"
slave_second_vars.yml:
---
DOMAIN_NAME: "second.com"
Then you can run and verify that if work as expected:
➤ansible-playbook -i localhost, master.yml
PLAY [localhost] **********************************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] **********************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [include_vars] **********************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [debug] **********************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"changed": false,
"msg": "first.com"
}
TASK [include_vars] **********************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [debug] **********************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"changed": false,
"msg": "second.com"
}
PLAY RECAP **********************************************************************************
localhost : ok=5 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0
Hope that might help you!