Ansible: Can I execute role from command line? - ansible

Question

Suppose I have a role called "apache"
Now I want to execute that role on host 192.168.0.10 from the command line from Ansible host
ansible-playbook -i "192.168.0.10" --role "path to role"
Is there a way to do that?

Answer 1

With ansible 2.7 you can do this:
$ ansible localhost --module-name include_role --args name=<role_name>
localhost | SUCCESS => {
"changed": false,
"include_variables": {
"name": "<role_name>"
}
}
localhost | SUCCESS => {
"msg": "<role_name>"
}
This will run role from /path/to/ansible/roles or configured role path.
Read more here:
https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/43131

Answer 2

I am not aware of this feature, but you can use tags to just run one role from your playbook.
roles:
- {role: 'mysql', tags: 'mysql'}
- {role: 'apache', tags: 'apache'}
ansible-playbook webserver.yml --tags "apache"

Answer 3

There is no such thing in Ansible, but if this is an often use case for you, try this script.
Put it somewhere within your searchable PATH under name ansible-role:
#!/bin/bash
if [[ $# < 2 ]]; then
cat <<HELP
Wrapper script for ansible-playbook to apply single role.
Usage: $0 <host-pattern> <role-name> [ansible-playbook options]
Examples:
$0 dest_host my_role
$0 custom_host my_role -i 'custom_host,' -vv --check
HELP
exit
fi
HOST_PATTERN=$1
shift
ROLE=$1
shift
echo "Trying to apply role \"$ROLE\" to host/group \"$HOST_PATTERN\"..."
export ANSIBLE_ROLES_PATH="$(pwd)/roles"
export ANSIBLE_RETRY_FILES_ENABLED="False"
ansible-playbook "$#" /dev/stdin <<END
---
- hosts: $HOST_PATTERN
roles:
- $ROLE
END

Answer 4

You could also check ansible-toolbox repository. It will allow you to use something like
ansible-role --host 192.168.0.10 --gather --user centos --become my-role

Answer 5

I have written a small Ansible plugin, called auto_tags, that dynamically generates for each role in your playbook a tag of the same name. You can find it here.
After installing it (instructions are in the gist above) you could then execute a specific role with:
ansible-playbook -i "192.168.0.10" --tags "name_of_role"

Answer 6

Have you tried that? it's super cool. I'm using 'update-os' instead of 'apache' role to give a more meaningful example. I have a role called let's say ./roles/update-os/ in my ./ I add a file called ./role-update-os.yml which looks like:
#!/usr/bin/ansible-playbook
---
- hosts: all
gather_facts: yes
become: yes
roles:
- update-os
Make this file executable (chmod +x role-update-os.yml). Now you can run and limit to whatever you have in your inventory ./update-os.yml -i inventory-dev --limit 192.168.0.10 the limit you can pass the group names as well.
--limit web,db > web and db is the group defined in your inventory
--limit 192.168.0.10,192.168.0.201
$ cat inventory-dev
[web]
192.168.0.10
[db]
192.168.0.201
Note that you can configure ssh-keys and sudoers policy to be able to execute without having to type password - ideal for automation, there are security implications with this. therefore you have to analyze your environment to see whether it's suitable.

Answer 7

Since in ansible 2.4 two options are available: import_role and include_role.
wohlgemuth#leela:~/workspace/rtmtb-ansible/kvm-cluster$ ansible localhost -m import_role -a name=rtmtb
[WARNING]: No inventory was parsed, only implicit localhost is available
localhost | CHANGED => {
"changed": true,
"checksum": "d31b41e68997e1c7f182bb56286edf993146dba1",
"dest": "/root/.ssh/id_rsa.github",
"gid": 0,
"group": "root",
"md5sum": "b7831c4c72f3f62207b2b96d3d7ed9b3",
"mode": "0600",
"owner": "root",
"size": 3389,
"src": "/home/wohlgemuth/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1561491049.46-139127672211209/source",
"state": "file",
"uid": 0
}
localhost | CHANGED => {
"changed": true,
"checksum": "1972ebcd25363f8e45adc91d38405dfc0386b5f0",
"dest": "/root/.ssh/config",
"gid": 0,
"group": "root",
"md5sum": "f82552a9494e40403da4a80e4c528781",
"mode": "0644",
"owner": "root",
"size": 147,
"src": "/home/wohlgemuth/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1561491049.99-214274671218454/source",
"state": "file",
"uid": 0
}
ansible.builtin.import_role – Import a role into a play
ansible.builtin.include_role – Load and execute a role

Answer 8

Yes, import_role is an ansible module and as such it may be invoked through ansible command. The following executes role pki on my_server
ansible my_server -m import_role \
-a "name=pki tasks_from=gencert" \
-e cn=etcdctl \
-e extended_key_usage=clientAuth

Answer 9

You can create the playbook files from the command line:
Install the role (if not already installed)
ansible-galaxy install git+https://github.com/user/apache-role.git
Create playbook and hosts files
cat >> playbook.yml <<EOL
---
- name: Run apache
hosts: all
roles:
- apache-role
EOL
cat >> hosts <<EOL
192.168.0.10
EOL
Run ansible
ansible-playbook playbook.yml -i hosts
Delete the files
rm playbook.yml hosts