Passing register variable to a role called by playbook?

[ji...@pristine.io]

I am launching one-off ec2 instance for development purposes and in the main playbook I am launching an EC2 instance then assigning an elastic IP. Once all of that is done I am configuring the server via a role. I am able to capture the elastic IP via register but how do I call it from the role? Or more specifically how can I call it in a configuration template from within the role that is applied?

Here's an example:

launch-server.yml:

- name: Launch ec2 instance

  hosts: localhost

  gather_facts: False

  vars:

    key_name: ssh-key

    instance_type: t2.medium

    group_id: sg-f834234

    image: ami-b234234

    region: us-east-1

    vpc_subnet_id: subnet-65wer234

  tasks:

    - name: Launch instance

      local_action: ec2 key_name={{ key_name }} group_id={{ group_id }} instance_type={{ instance_type }} image={{ image }} wait=true region={{ region }} vpc_subnet_id={{ vpc_subnet_id }} instance_tags='{"Name":"ec2-instance"}'

      register: ec2

    - name: allocate a new elastic IP without associating it to anything

      action: ec2_eip region=us-east-1

      register: eiptest

    - name: output the IP

      debug: msg="Allocated IP is {{ eiptest.public_ip }}" <--- this prints the elastic IP to the screen.

    - name: Add new instance to host group

      local_action: add_host hostname={{ item.private_ip }} groupname=launched

      with_items: ec2.instances

    - name: Wait for SSH to come up

      local_action: wait_for host={{ item.private_ip }} port=22 delay=60 timeout=320 state=started

      with_items: ec2.instances

- name: Configure instance

  hosts: launched

  sudo: True

  gather_facts: True

  roles:

    - myrole

In the template from within the role it doesn't know about eiptest.public_ip so it fails and reading the docs it seems that var will be destroyed at the end of the play that calls the role. If I run ansible hostname -m setup I don't see any entries for the elastic IP assigned to the instance.

I've tried a number of things and read through the docs but not having much luck. I would like to keep the roles separate from the plays that launch the instances if at all possible.

Thanks!

[ji...@pristine.io]

Quick correction on this. I pasted the wrong data where it says "name: allocate a new elastic IP without associating it to anything" The play actually looks like this:

    - name: Associate a new Elastic IP to instance

      ec2_eip: region=us-east-1 in_vpc=yes "instance_id={{ item }}"

      with_items: ec2.instance_ids

      register: eiptest

[Michael DeHaan]

Perhaps I'm not completely following the question:

" I am able to capture the elastic IP via register but how do I call it from the role?"

Basically any variable already registered can be used like "{{ foo }}" in subsequent roles/tasks/whatever -- so maybe you could help me understand where the point of confusion is?

Want to help, just a bit unclear on it.  Thanks!

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[ji...@pristine.io]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the reply. 

I have a playbook that launches an EC2 instance and associates an elastic IP to that instance I then use register to capture that IP:

    - name: Associate a new Elastic IP to instance

      ec2_eip: region=us-east-1 in_vpc=yes "instance_id={{ item }}"

      with_items: ec2.instance_ids

      register: eiptest

I used the debug technique to print out the IP just to make sure it was working:

    - name: Output the IP

      debug: msg="The elastic IP is {{ eiptest }}"

Here's the output:

TASK: [Output the IP] *********************************************************

ok: [localhost] => {

    "msg": "The elastic IP is {'msg': 'All items completed', 'changed': True, 'results': [{u'public_ip': u'255.100.104.57', 'item': u'i-32d230d2', u'changed': True, 'invocation': {'module_name': u'ec2_eip', 'module_args': u'region=us-east-1 in_vpc=yes \"instance_id=asdfadf\"'}}]}"

}

I tried a number of things and for some reason I can't get it to print "The elastic IP is 255.100.104.57" using "The elastic IP is {{ eiptest.public_ip }}". I had it working before but now I can only get it to dump the full dict above. 

In any case at the end of the play I call the role which attempts to use a j2 template to put a config in place. From the configuration file:

external-ip="{{ eiptest.public_ip }}"

And the error message:

ASK: [boom | Copy boom configuration] ****************************************

fatal: [10.10.10.10] => {'msg': "AnsibleUndefinedVariable: One or more undefined variables: 'eiptest' is undefined", 'failed': True}

Hope all of this makes sense. I am using version 1.7.2 currently. 

Thanks!

On Wednesday, December 10, 2014 2:11:41 PM UTC-6, ji...@pristine.io wrote:

[ji...@pristine.io]

Okay I fixed the first issue in my previous post so:

- name: Output the IP

  debug: msg="The elastic IP is {{ eiptest.results[0].public_ip }}"

Now displays:

TASK: [Output the IP] *********************************************************

ok: [localhost] => {

    "msg": "The elastic IP is 255.10.10.10"

}

But it doesnt carry over when the role is run. I tried turning off gather_facts before the role is called thinking maybe it was being overwritten or discarded but that didn't work either.

I am also having a similar issue where we run a script that generates an API key and I save the output to a register: but I can't get the nested value of "key". But I'll save that for another post :)

Once I wrap my head around the best way to access data in lists / dicts properly via Ansible I'll be off and running. 

[Toshio Kuratomi]

I tried to simplify this down and replicate it but wasn't able to.
Here's my playbooks and role, maybe you can spot an important
difference:


$ cat var.yml
---
- name: first
hosts: localhost
tasks:
- name: set a variable
action: ping
register: eiptest

- name: second
sudo: True
gather_facts: True
hosts: localhost
roles:
- var


$ tree roles
roles
└── var
├── tasks
│ └── main.yml
└── templates
└── test.j2

$ cat roles/var/tasks/main.yml
---
# tasks file for var
- name: use a variable in a template from a role
template:
src: 'test.j2'
dest: /var/tmp/var-test

$ cat roles/var/templates/test.j2
{{ eiptest.ping }}

$ ansible-playbook var.yml -K
[...]
$ cat /var/tmp/var-test
pong

-Toshio

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[ji...@pristine.io]

Looks good to me. But I am still fighting through this on my end.

It seems like it should be pretty straightforward. 

- Launch the instance

- Allocate elastic IP then use the register keyword to save it to a var. (I even tried set_fact with no luck)

- In the template add {{ var.public_ip }}.

It will print the correct IP during a playbook run using debug but when it gets to the point of building the config from the template it seems the variable no longer exists.

I am going to try some other things or just put everything in the same one-off play.

Thanks for the replies.

On Wednesday, December 10, 2014 2:11:41 PM UTC-6, ji...@pristine.io wrote:

[ji...@pristine.io]

Alright I have no idea what I am missing here but this is not working.

I added everything from the role into the same playbook that launches the server and it still has no clue what the variable is when I try to use it in a j2 template.

Keep in mind here there are two stages to this playbook. The local actions that LAUNCH the ec2 instance and then I configure the remote instance that was launched. All in the same play. Whereas before I was just launching then calling a role to run on it. I create groupname=launched then when it comes time to configure I use hosts: launched and everything else works but my vars don't carry over.

Here are the relevant bits:

    - name: Associate a new Elastic IP to instance

      ec2_eip: region=us-east-1 in_vpc=yes "instance_id={{ item }}"

      with_items: ec2.instance_ids

      register: eiptest

    - name: Set elastic IP fact

      set_fact: elasticIP="{{ eiptest.results[0].public_ip }}"

    - name: Output the IP

      debug: msg="The elastic IP is {{ elasticIP }}"  <--- This prints out the IP properly. No problem. Example: "msg": "The elastic IP is 104.104.104.104"

    - name: Add new instance to host group

      local_action: add_host hostname={{ item.private_ip }} groupname=launched

      with_items: ec2.instances

    - name: Wait for SSH to come up

      local_action: wait_for host={{ item.private_ip }} port=22 delay=60 timeout=320 state=started

      with_items: ec2.instances

After SSH comes up the play continues with the following:

- name: Install and configure server

  hosts: launched

  remote_user: ec2-user

  sudo: yes

  tasks:

        - name: Copy rpm packages for installation

        copy: src=packages/{{ item }} dest=/tmp/{{ item }}

        with_items:

        - a-linux-rpm-el6.x86_64.rpm

        - another-rpm-el6.x86_64.rpm

      - name: Copy configuration file

        template: src=config.conf.j2 dest=/etc/linuxstuff/config.conf

        notify:

        - restart server

And finally IN the config file itself is this line:

external-ip="{{ elasticIP }}"  NOTE: I have tried many different quote styles here

And I get this error:

TASK: [Copy server configuration] ***********************************************

fatal: [10.10.10.10 => {'msg': "AnsibleUndefinedVariable: One or more undefined variables: 'elasticIP' is undefined", 'failed': True}

fatal: [10.10.10.10] => {'msg': "AnsibleUndefinedVariable: One or more undefined variables: 'elasticIP' is undefined", 'failed': True}

[ji...@pristine.io]

I resolved this by doing the following:

Instance launch stage:

- Setting the fact for the elastic IP

- Writing the IP to a file using shell:

After calling the role when SSH is available:

- cat the same file and register result to a new variable (delegate_to: localhost)

- Set a new fact

- great success

On Wednesday, December 10, 2014 2:11:41 PM UTC-6, ji...@pristine.io wrote: