Issue passing variables to Ansible from Packer

[D Welch]

I am trying to pass a single variable from Packer (0.10.0) to Ansible (2.0.2.0) and am having no luck. 

Here's my packer server.json file:

{

  "variables": {

    "aws_access_key": "XXX",

    "aws_secret_key": "XXX",

    "silo": "staging"

  },

  "builders": [{

    "type": "amazon-ebs",

    "access_key": "{{user `aws_access_key`}}",

    "secret_key": "{{user `aws_secret_key`}}",

    "region": "us-west-2",

    "source_ami": "XXX",

    "instance_type": "m1.small",

    "ssh_username": "ubuntu",

    "ami_name": "XXX {{timestamp}}"

  }],

  "provisioners": [

    {

      "type": "ansible",

      "playbook_file": "./server.yml",

      "extra_arguments": ["--extra-vars=\"silo={{user `silo`}}\"", "-vv"]

    }

  ]

}

Here's the top (relevant) portion of my Ansible YAML file:

---

- hosts: all

  sudo: yes

  gather_facts: no

 

  tasks:

    - name: Show silo name

      debug: var=silo

    - name: Show silo name (2)

      debug: msg="Silo is {{ silo }}."

When I run Packer, this is the output:

$ packer build server.json

amazon-ebs output will be in this color.

==> amazon-ebs: Prevalidating AMI Name...

==> amazon-ebs: Inspecting the source AMI...

==> amazon-ebs: Creating temporary keypair: packer 573fb51b-d86f-56a3-ee2f-453b9a2af8a2

==> amazon-ebs: Creating temporary security group for this instance...

==> amazon-ebs: Authorizing access to port 22 the temporary security group...

==> amazon-ebs: Launching a source AWS instance...

    amazon-ebs: Instance ID: i-9ede3445

==> amazon-ebs: Waiting for instance (i-9ede3445) to become ready...

==> amazon-ebs: Waiting for SSH to become available...

==> amazon-ebs: Connected to SSH!

==> amazon-ebs: Provisioning with Ansible...

==> amazon-ebs: SSH proxy: serving on 127.0.0.1:53000

==> amazon-ebs: Executing Ansible: ansible-playbook /Users/dwelch/src/automation/server.yml -i /var/folders/t7/lp4r7jb50m769y7z0bs5hf_80000gn/T/packer-provisioner-ansible769780155 --private-key /var/folders/t7/lp4r7jb50m769y7z0bs5hf_80000gn/T/ansible-key773453516 --extra-vars="silo=staging" -vv

    amazon-ebs: No config file found; using defaults

    amazon-ebs: [DEPRECATION WARNING]: Instead of sudo/sudo_user, use become/become_user and

    amazon-ebs: make sure become_method is 'sudo' (default).

    amazon-ebs: This feature will be removed in a

    amazon-ebs: future release. Deprecation warnings can be disabled by setting

    amazon-ebs: deprecation_warnings=False in ansible.cfg.

    amazon-ebs:

    amazon-ebs: PLAYBOOK: server.yml *****************************************************

    amazon-ebs: 1 plays in /Users/dwelch/src/automation/server.yml

    amazon-ebs:

    amazon-ebs: PLAY [all] *********************************************************************

    amazon-ebs:

    amazon-ebs: TASK [Show silo name] **********************************************************

    amazon-ebs: task path: /Users/dwelch/src/automation/server.yml:15

    amazon-ebs: ok: [default] => {

    amazon-ebs:     "silo": "VARIABLE IS NOT DEFINED!"

    amazon-ebs: }

    amazon-ebs:

    amazon-ebs: TASK [Show silo name (2)] ******************************************************

    amazon-ebs: task path: /Users/dwelch/src/automation/server.yml:19

    amazon-ebs: fatal: [default]: FAILED! => {"failed": true, "msg": "'silo' is undefined"}

    amazon-ebs:

    amazon-ebs: NO MORE HOSTS LEFT *************************************************************

    amazon-ebs: to retry, use: --limit @/Users/dwelch/src/automation/server.retry

    amazon-ebs:

    amazon-ebs: PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************

    amazon-ebs: default                    : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=1

    amazon-ebs:

==> amazon-ebs: shutting down the SSH proxy

==> amazon-ebs: Terminating the source AWS instance...

==> amazon-ebs: No AMIs to cleanup

==> amazon-ebs: Deleting temporary security group...

==> amazon-ebs: Deleting temporary keypair...

Build 'amazon-ebs' errored: Error executing Ansible: Non-zero exit status: exit status 2

What I have tried:

- Passing in extra vars using -e

- Single quotes, double quotes, etc. around silo=staging 

- Passing in extra vars using the JSON syntax option

- Passing in via environmental vars (causes Ansible to try to connect to localhost rather than the instance on AWS)

- Using a single string value instead of an array for the extra_arguments

- Running against a test script:

---

- hosts: all

  gather_facts: no

  tasks:

    - name: Test

      debug: var=test

ansible-playbook test.yml -vvv -e 'test=foobar'

This works without issue.

Any help is much appreciated!

-Don

[ai...@vcnc.co.kr]

Instead of 

"extra_arguments": ["--extra-vars=\"silo={{user `silo`}}\"", "-vv"]

you can use

"extra_arguments": ["-e", "silo={{user `silo`}}", "-vv"]