simple problem has me stumped

[misterT1958]

I have a simple scenario that fails, but I can't figure out why.  Here's the command line invocation and the result:

[root@cluster-mgmt tasks]# ansible-playbook -i ./hosts main.yml

PLAY [CLUSTERS team downtime orchestration play] ********************************************************************************************************************

TASK [Gathering Facts] **********************************************************************************************************************************************

ok: [localhost]

TASK [set nagios downtime] ******************************************************************************************************************************************

fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {"msg": "The task includes an option with an undefined variable. The error was: 'myTestVar' is undefined\n\nThe error appears to have been in '/autofs/nccs-svm1_home1/tw58/SANDBOX/ANSIBLE_VARDIR/testVar/tasks/main.yml': line 9, column 5, but may\nbe elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.\n\nThe offending line appears to be:\n\n  tasks:\n  - name: set nagios downtime\n    ^ here\n"}

 [WARNING]: Could not create retry file '/autofs/nccs-svm1_home1/tw58/SANDBOX/ANSIBLE_VARDIR/testVar/tasks/main.retry'.         [Errno 13] Permission denied:

u'/autofs/nccs-svm1_home1/tw58/SANDBOX/ANSIBLE_VARDIR/testVar/tasks/main.retry'

PLAY RECAP **********************************************************************************************************************************************************

localhost                  : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=1

The playbook is simple:

---

# tasks file for testVar

- hosts: localhost

  name: CLUSTERS team downtime orchestration play

  gather_facts: true

  tasks:

  - name: set nagios downtime

    debug:

      msg: "the value of the variable {{ myTestVar }}"

and the variable definition file is even more simple:

[root@cluster-mgmt vars]# more main.yml

---

# vars file for testVar

myTestVar: 58

This is my directory tree:

[root@cluster-mgmt testVar]# tree

.

├── ansible.cfg

├── defaults

│   └── main.yml

├── files

├── handlers

│   └── main.yml

├── hosts

├── meta

│   └── main.yml

├── README.md

├── tasks

│   ├── ansible.cfg -> ../ansible.cfg

│   ├── hosts -> ../hosts

│   └── main.yml

├── templates

├── tests

│   ├── inventory

│   └── test.yml

└── vars

    └── main.yml

Been staring at this all day, trying different things, always get the "undefined variable"!!

Does anybody out there see the problem?

Thanks

T

[Vladimir Botka]

On Mon, 10 Feb 2020 13:18:24 -0800 (PST)
misterT1958 <tony.wa...@gmail.com> wrote:

> [root@cluster-mgmt tasks]# ansible-playbook -i ./hosts main.yml

> [...]

> The playbook is simple:
> ---
> # tasks file for testVar
>
> - hosts: localhost
> name: CLUSTERS team downtime orchestration play
> gather_facts: true
>
> tasks:
> - name: set nagios downtime
> debug:
> msg: "the value of the variable {{ myTestVar }}"

> [...]

> [root@cluster-mgmt testVar]# tree
> .
> ├── ansible.cfg
> ├── defaults
> │ └── main.yml
> ├── files
> ├── handlers
> │ └── main.yml
> ├── hosts
> ├── meta
> │ └── main.yml
> ├── README.md
> ├── tasks
> │ ├── ansible.cfg -> ../ansible.cfg
> │ ├── hosts -> ../hosts
> │ └── main.yml
> ├── templates
> ├── tests
> │ ├── inventory
> │ └── test.yml
> └── vars
> └── main.yml

You're mixing the concepts of a "Role"
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/user_guide/playbooks_reuse_roles.html#roles
and a "Playbook"
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/user_guide/playbooks.html

1) Move the directory "testVar" into the directory "roles". Remove "hosts" and
"ansible.cfg" from the role and put them into the current directory.

├── playbook.yml
├── hosts
├── ansible.cfg
├── roles
│ └── testVar

[root@cluster-mgmt testVar]# tree

├── defaults
│ └── main.yml
├── files
├── handlers
│ └── main.yml

├── meta
│ └── main.yml
├── README.md
├── tasks
│ └── main.yml

├── templates
├── tests
│ ├── inventory
│ └── test.yml
└── vars
└── main.yml

2) Make sure "ansible.cfg" points to the roles

$ grep roles ansible.cfg
roles_path = $PWD/roles

3) Create playbook.yml

- hosts: localhost
name: CLUSTERS team downtime orchestration play
gather_facts: true

roles:
- testVar

4) Remove the playbook directives from roles/testVar/tasks/main.yml

# tasks file for testVar

- name: set nagios downtime
debug:
msg: "the value of the variable {{ myTestVar }}"

5) Now the command should work

$ ansible-playbook -i hosts -c ansible.cfg playbook.yml

HTH,

-vlado

[misterT1958]

Ah,

now I see what you mean - got it working!  Thanks so much for the hand!

kind regards,

T