Create hash variable in playbook for use by with_dict

[Derek Olsen]

I'm hoping someone can help me learn how to work with ansible to achieve the following.   This is my first forray into ansible (1.9.4).  I

I am assigning a list variable called 'datadog_checks' to different roles.  Nodes which are in the etcd group would get the following 'datadog_checks' variable.

datadog_checks:

  - etcd

  - kubelet

  Each datadog check has 2 file copies associated with it.   The etcd check

  has the following file copies

  etcd.py -> /etc/dd-agent-container/checks.d/etcd.py

  etcd.yaml -> /etc/dd-agent-container/conf.d/etcd.conf

  This same pattern occurs for every check in the datadog_checks list.  I was hoping to dynamically create a hash based on the datadog_checks list like this.

  datadog_checks_hash = []

  for x in datadog_checks:

       datadog_checks_hash.append({ 'file' : x + '.py', 'path' : '/etc/dd-agent-container/checks.d'})

       datadog_checks_hash.append({ 'file' : x + '.yaml', 'path' : '/etc/dd-agent-container/conf.d'})

And then iterate over the hash like this

- name: create datadog checks

  copy: src="{{ item.file}}" dest="{{ item.path}}{{ item.file}}" mode=0644

  with_dict: "{{ datadog_checks_hash }}"

I'm stuck trying to figure out what my options are for creating the datadog_checks_hash.   From what i've read I can't do this in the playbook itself.  Is this suited for doing in a jinja template?    

Any pointers or ideas appreciated.