Can Ansible reference pre-existing CloudFormation stacks?

[vjorg...@sixfivelabs.com]

Hi! I have an ansible playbook that looks something like the one below (edited for brevity). I have another CloudFormation stack created by another process outside my control that creates many common references. Is there a way to make "common_stack" a variable such that "{{ common_stack.stack_outputs.<NameOfAnOutput> }}" behaves as though the other stack had been created inside this playbook? I have the ARN and stack name, if that helps. If not, how have others solved this problem? Best, Vincent

---

- name: Provision {{ app_name }}

  hosts: localhost

  connection: local

  gather_facts: False

  vars:

    app_name: "new_app"
    region: "us-east-1"

    common_stack_arn: "arn:aws:cloudformation:us-east-1:<account>:stack/stack-common/<hyphen-separated_hexadecimals>"

    stack_common: # I don't know how to do this part

  tasks:

    - name: "{{ app_name }} cloudformation"

      cloudformation:

        stack_name: "stack-{{ app_name }}"

        state: "present"

        region: "{{ aws_region }}"

        disable_rollback: true

        template: "cloudformation.json"

        template_parameters:

          AppName: "{{ app_name }}"

          InstanceType: "{{ stack_common.stack_outputs.InstanceType }}"

          SecurityGroupId:  "{{ stack_common.stack_outputs.CommonSecurityGroup }}"

          VpcId: "{{ stack_common.stack_outputs.VpcId }}"

        tags:

          Stack: "{{ app_name }}"