Ansible set_fact across plays - ansible

Question

I have to run an ansible playbook to execute the following tasks
1) Calculate date in YYYY_MM_DD format and then use this prefix to download some file from aws to my local machine. The filename is of the following format 2015_06_04_latest_file.csv
2) I have to then create a folder by the name 2015_06_04 into multiple hosts and upload this file there.
This is my current playbook -
---
- hosts: 127.0.0.1
connection: local
sudo: yes
gather_facts: no
tasks:
- name: calculate date
shell: date "+%Y_%m_%d" --date="1 days ago"
register: output
- name: set date variable
set_fact: latest_date={{ item }}
with_items: output.stdout_lines
- local_action: command mkdir -p /tmp/latest_contracts/{{ latest_date }}
- local_action: command /root/bin/aws s3 cp s3://primarydatafolder/data/{{ latest_date }}_latest_data.csv /tmp/latest_contracts/{{ latest_date }}/ creates=/tmp/latest_contracts/{{ latest_date }}/latest_data.csv
register: result
ignore_errors: true
- local_action: command /root/bin/aws s3 cp s3://secondarydatafolder/data/{{ latest_date }}_latest_data.csv /tmp/latest_contracts/{{ latest_date }}/ creates=/tmp/latest_contracts/{{ latest_date }}/latest_data.csv
when: result|failed
# remove the date prefix from the downloaded file
- local_action: command ./rename_date.sh {{ latest_date }}
ignore_errors: true
- hosts: contractsServers
sudo: yes
gather_facts: no
tasks:
- name: create directory
file: path={{item.path}} state=directory mode=0775 owner=root group=root
with_items:
- {path: '/var/mukul/contracts/{{ latest_date }}' }
- {path: '/var/mukul/contracts/dummy' }
- name: copy dummy contracts
copy: src=dummy dest=/var/mukul/contracts/
- name: delete previous symlink
shell: unlink /var/mukul/contracts/latest
ignore_errors: true
- name: upload the newly created latest date folder to the host
copy: src=/tmp/latest_contracts/{{ latest_date }} dest=/var/mukul/contracts/
- name: create a symbolic link to the folder on the host and call it latest
action: file state=link src=/var/mukul/contracts/{{ latest_date }} dest=/var/mukul/contracts/latest
As per ansible's documentation on set_fact variable, this variable latest_date should be available across plays. However, ansible fails with the following message
failed: [192.168.101.177] => (item={'path': u'/var/mukul/contracts/{# latest_date #}'}) => {"failed": true, "item": {"path": "/var/mukul/contracts/{# latest_date #}"}}
msg: this module requires key=value arguments (['path=/var/mukul/contracts/{#', 'latest_date', '#}', 'state=directory', 'mode=0775', 'owner=root', 'group=root'])
It looks as if the second playbook is unable to get the value of the latest_date fact. Can you please tell me where i'm making a mistake?

Answer 1

Facts are host specific. As the documentation about set_fact says, "[v]ariables [set with set_fact] are set on a host-by-host basis".
Instead, I'd try using run_once as defined in Delegation, rolling updates, and local actions, like this:
- hosts: contractsServers
tasks:
- name: Determine date
local_action: shell: date "+%Y_%m_%d" --date="1 days ago"
register: yesterday
always_run: True
changed_when: False
run_once: True
- name: Do something else locally
local_action: ...
register: some_variable_name
always_run: True
changed_when: False
run_once: True
- name: Do something remotely using the variables registered above
...

Answer 2

You could enable fact-caching. You will need to set up a local redis instance where facts then will be stored.