How to use variables defined in a group_vars directory of a role?

[Jörg Kastning]

Hello,

I would like to copy some files specified by a group_var. But while running my playbook I got the fatal error that the variable given is undefined. But first things first. My directory structure looks like:

roles/mgmt/
|-- files
|   |-- foo
|   `-- bar
|-- group_vars
|   `-- mgmt
|-- handlers
|   `-- main.yml
|-- tasks
|   `-- main.yml
`-- templates
    `-- example.j2

I use a inventory file for staging which lies next to the directory roles and contains a specific group among other things:

# ls -l
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root  root  4096 Aug  3  2016 group_vars
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root  root  4096 Jul 14  2016 host_vars
-rw-r--r--. 1 root  root  2962 Feb 20 15:23 hosts
drwxr-xr-x. 7 root  root  4096 Feb 20 13:30 roles
-rw-r--r--. 1 root  root   169 Feb 20 15:19 mgmt.yml
-rw-r--r--. 1 root  root   284 Feb 20 14:37 staging

# cat staging
[mgmt]
rhel-t2.example.com

My mgmt.yml looks as follows:

---
- hosts: all
  tasks:
    - name: Group by OS
      group_by: key=os_{{ ansible_distribution }}
      changed_when: False

- hosts: os_RedHat
  roles:
    - mgmt

The role 'mgmt' should apply to all hosts in my inventory that run with an Red Hat Enterprise Linux on it. My tasks file from 'roles/mgmt/tasks/main.yml' contains:

---
  - name: upload mgmtuser files
    copy:
      src: /data/ansible/roles/mgmt/files/{{ item }}
      dest: /opt/dest/
      owner: 0
      group: 0
      mode: 0644
    with_items: "{{ mgmtusers }}"

And the content of my 'roles/mgmt/group_vars/mgmt' is:

---
mgmtusers:
  - bar

Running the playbook mgmt.yml gives the following output:

# ansible-playbook -i staging mgmt.yml

PLAY [all] *********************************************************************
TASK [setup] *******************************************************************ok: [rhel-t2.example.com]

TASK [Group by OS] *************************************************************ok: [rhel-t2.example.com]

PLAY [os_RedHat] ***************************************************************
TASK [setup] *******************************************************************ok: [rhel-t2.example.com]

TASK [mgmt : upload mgmtuser files] ***********************************************fatal: [rhel-t2.example.com]: FAILED! => {"failed": true, "msg": "'mgmtusers' is undefined"}
        to retry, use: --limit @/data/ansible/mgmt.retry

PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************rhel-t2.example.com : ok=3    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=1

Why does ansible not recognize the variable mgmtusers set in roles/mgmt/groups_vars/mgmt? Did I make an mistake somewhere in the syntax or is there something I did not think about yet?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Best regards,
Joerg

[Brian Coca]

group/host vars directories need to be adjacent to play or inventory,
they are not supported inside roles.


----------
Brian Coca

[Jörg Kastning]

Yes, you are absolutly right. What a stupid mistake.

Thanks.

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[Brian Coca]

No, they should work, but they must match a group existing in
inventory, not a role name, and then your play has to use hosts that
are in that group. If you want a role to always load specific vars you
can use defaults/main.yml or vars/main.yml depending on low/high
precedence you want.


----------
Brian Coca