How to get a server's identifier

[Bevan Bennett]

We have a lot of config that wants to fill in templates based on a particular server's "number" within a certain group.

For example, if we have an inventory file with:

[fooservers]
steve
larry
frank
eleanor

...we then want to configure steve's templates with "foo01", larry with "foo02", frank with "foo03", etc.
In most cases I've been using the following pattern inside of templates:

{% for pt in groups.ptservers %}
{% if inventory_hostname == pt %}
 special_identifier = foo{{ '%02d' % loop.index }}
{% endif %}
{% endfor %}

This has worked well for limited use, but is there an easier way to store the server's associated loop_index for reuse at either the playbook or template level?
We have reached a point where we have a template that needs to use this value 27 times, and I don't want to have to clutter everything up with 27 loops...

I tried using {% set %} in the template inside of the loop. but set has local scope, so it's unusable afterwards.

Has anyone else come up with a good solution for this pattern or do I just need to make a really really ugly template?

[titlei...@gmail.com]

Can you just use a host variable in your inventory and then reference that in your template?

[fooservers]
steve special_identifier=01
larry special_identifier=02
frank special_identifier=03
eleanor special_identifier=04

Jay

[Chris Church]

Use set_fact to initially define the variable for each host, then you can reference the variable name wherever you need it later:

    

- hosts: fooservers

  tasks:

    - set_fact:

        foo_var: "{% for pt in groups.fooservers %}{% if inventory_hostname == pt %}foo{{ '%02d' % loop.index }}{% endif %}{% endfor %}"

    - debug: var=foo_var

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[Bevan Bennett]

Thanks Chris!
That's got it working!!!

@Jay: I was hoping to avoid that and just have servers magically renumber themselves as they get added and removed from inventory... it's one fewer thing that might get misconfigured...