Using facts with Ansible Tower does not appear to work

[Jon Kent]

Hi,

I've been trying to get Ansible Tower to run a playbook/role which should update the /etc/hosts file across all hosts in a group.

I have the following playbook:

- name: Update hosts file if required

  hosts: all

  gather_facts: yes

  roles:

    - { role: hostfile }

and the following role:

---

- debug: var=ansible_default_ipv4.address

- name: node to ip mapping

  debug: var=hostvars[item].ansible_default_ipv4.address

  with_items: groups['all']

- name: Build Host file

  lineinfile: dest=/etc/hosts

              regex='.*{{ item }}$ }}'

              line="{{ hostvars[item].ansible_default_ipv4.address }} {{item}}"

              state=present

  when: hostvars[item].ansible_default_ipv4.address is defined

  with_items: groups['all']

  become: true

However, when Tower run this its skips the 2 hosts in the group.  From looking at the debug output it would appear that Tower is not caching the facts under hostvars as you can see from the output below:

TASK [setup] ******************************************************************* ok: [172.31.9.43] ok: [52.50.60.2] TASK [hostfile : debug] ******************************************************** ok: [172.31.9.43] => { "ansible_default_ipv4.address": "172.31.9.43" } ok: [52.50.60.2] => { "ansible_default_ipv4.address": "172.31.33.206" } TASK [hostfile : node to ip mapping] ******************************************* ok: [172.31.9.43] => (item=groups['all']) => { "hostvars[item].ansible_default_ipv4.address": "VARIABLE IS NOT DEFINED!", "item": "groups['all']" } ok: [52.50.60.2] => (item=groups['all']) => { "hostvars[item].ansible_default_ipv4.address": "VARIABLE IS NOT DEFINED!", "item": "groups['all']" } TASK [hostfile : Build Host file] ********************************************** skipping: [172.31.9.43] => (item=groups['all']) skipping: [52.50.60.2] => (item=groups['all']) PLAY RECAP ********************************************************************* 172.31.9.43 : ok=3 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 52.50.60.2 : ok=3 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0

I have a feeling that I'm missing something very obvious here.  Any ideas where I should look?

Thanks,

Jon

[Kai Stian Olstad]

On 16. nov. 2016 17:25, Jon Kent wrote:
> I've been trying to get Ansible Tower to run a playbook/role which should
> update the /etc/hosts file across all hosts in a group.
>
> I have the following playbook:
>
> - name: Update hosts file if required
> hosts: all
> gather_facts: yes
>
> roles:
> - { role: hostfile }
>
> and the following role:
>
> ---
>
> - debug: var=ansible_default_ipv4.address
>
> - name: node to ip mapping
> debug: var=hostvars[item].ansible_default_ipv4.address
> with_items: groups['all']

It you check your output you will see that your item i literally the
string groups['all']. But you need to write this as a variable

with_items: "{{ groups['all'] }}"

> - name: Build Host file
> lineinfile: dest=/etc/hosts
> regex='.*{{ item }}$ }}'
> line="{{ hostvars[item].ansible_default_ipv4.address }}
> {{item}}"
> state=present
> when: hostvars[item].ansible_default_ipv4.address is defined
> with_items: groups['all']
> become: true
>
> However, when Tower run this its skips the 2 hosts in the group. From
> looking at the debug output it would appear that Tower is not caching the
> facts under hostvars as you can see from the output below:
>
> TASK [setup]
> ******************************************************************* ok:
> [172.31.9.43] ok: [52.50.60.2] TASK [hostfile : debug]
> ******************************************************** ok: [172.31.9.43]
> => { "ansible_default_ipv4.address": "172.31.9.43" } ok: [52.50.60.2] => {
> "ansible_default_ipv4.address": "172.31.33.206" } TASK [hostfile : node to
> ip mapping] ******************************************* ok: [172.31.9.43]
> => (item=groups['all']) => { "hostvars[item].ansible_default_ipv4.address":

Here you see your item is "groups['all']" and not a hostname.

> I have a feeling that I'm missing something very obvious here. Any ideas
> where I should look?

Bare variables in with_items was deprecated before 2.2, in 2.2 it will
take a bare variable as a string.

--
Kai Stian Olstad

[Jon Kent]

Hi,

Many thanks for that, hoped it was straight forward.

All working now.

Many thanks,

Jon