Inventory Configuration Question

[Anthony Bond]

I have been using Ansible in a limited fashion and have configured a static inventory. I'm trying to build onto this inventory by adding groups_vars and host_vars for individual cluster groups. Problem is Ansible isn't picking up the required group_vars. Does anyone see why my group_vars wouldn't be loading with this inventory structure. I'm only testing with the dev3 group before filling out the remaining group_vars directories.

Command: ansible -m debug dev3 -i /ansible/inventory -a "var=hostvars[inventory_hostname]"

inventory/

├── batch

│   ├── group_vars

│   ├── hosts

│   └── host_vars

├── dev0

│   ├── group_vars

│   ├── hosts

│   └── host_vars

├── dev1

│   ├── group_vars

│   ├── hosts

│   └── host_vars

├── dev2

│   ├── group_vars

│   ├── hosts

│   └── host_vars

├── dev3

│   ├── group_vars

│   │   ├── dev3

│   │   │   └── vars.yml

│   │   └── dev3_db

│   ├── hosts

│   └── host_vars

├── dev4

│   ├── group_vars

│   ├── hosts

│   └── host_vars

├── dev5

│   ├── group_vars

│   ├── hosts

│   └── host_vars

├── dev6

│   ├── group_vars

│   ├── hosts

│   └── host_vars

└── dev7

    ├── group_vars

    ├── hosts

    └── host_vars

Current Sample Output:

dev1.domain.com | SUCCESS => {

    "hostvars[inventory_hostname]": {

        "ansible_check_mode": false,

        "ansible_version": {

            "full": "2.1.2.0",

            "major": 2,

            "minor": 1,

            "revision": 2,

            "string": "2.1.2.0"

        },

        "group_names": [

            "dev3"

        ],

        "groups": {

            "all": [

                "test1.domain.com",

                "test2.domain.com",

                "test3.domain.com",

                "dev1.domain.com",

                "dev2.domain.com",

                "dev3.domain.com",

                "dev4.domain.com"

            ],

            "dev3": [

                "dev1.domain.com",

                "dev2.domain.com",

                "dev3.domain.com",

                "dev4.domain.com",

                "dev5.domain.com"

            ],

            "ungrouped": []

        },

        "inventory_dir": "/ansible/inventory",

        "inventory_file": null,

        "inventory_hostname": "dev3.domain.com",

        "inventory_hostname_short": "dev3",

        "omit": "__omit_place_holder__998cd0b3347833ef6af77480e6387c8135a35469",

        "playbook_dir": "."

    }

}

Expected Output with the addition of my group_vars

             "app_location": "east",

        "db_connection": "some string value",

dev1.domain.com | SUCCESS => {

    "hostvars[inventory_hostname]": {

        "ansible_check_mode": false,

        "ansible_version": {

            "full": "2.1.2.0",

            "major": 2,

            "minor": 1,

            "revision": 2,

            "string": "2.1.2.0"

        },

        "app_location": "east",

        "db_connection": "some string value",

        "group_names": [

            "dev3"

        ],

        "groups": {

            "all": [

                "test1.domain.com",

                "test2.domain.com",

                "test3.domain.com",

                "dev1.domain.com",

                "dev2.domain.com",

                "dev3.domain.com",

                "dev4.domain.com"

            ],

            "dev3": [

                "dev1.domain.com",

                "dev2.domain.com",

                "dev3.domain.com",

                "dev4.domain.com",

                "dev5.domain.com"

            ],

            "ungrouped": []

        },

        "inventory_dir": "/ansible/inventory",

        "inventory_file": null,

        "inventory_hostname": "dev3.domain.com",

        "inventory_hostname_short": "dev3",

        "omit": "__omit_place_holder__998cd0b3347833ef6af77480e6387c8135a35469",

        "playbook_dir": "."

    }

}

I do know that running the below command will produce the desired data that I'm expecting, but now I don't have all of my hosts that I want. I'm probably trying to over organize my hosts by breaking all my groups out into small clusters of groups. What I found odd is Ansible can read the hosts files located in the individual cluster directories but it won't recognize the group_vars unless I move my group_vars under /ansible/inventory..

ansible -m debug dev403 -i /ansible/inventory/dev403 -a "var=hostvars[inventory_hostname]"