I have an ansible playbook, where I'd like a variable I register on one machine to be available on another.
In my case, I'd like to run a command on localhost
, in this case git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD
, so I can make a note of the current git branch, and sha1, and register this output, so I can refer to it later when working any machine in the main
group, in the second play.
However, it's not clear to me how I register a variable on localhost, so I can access it from main. When I try to access the variable in the second play I get this message:
TASK: [debug msg={{ app_git_sha1.stdout }}] ***********************************
fatal: [main] => One or more undefined variables: 'app_git_sha1' is undefined
Here's the play I'm using. Is there anything obvious I should be doing?
---
- hosts: localhost
connection: local
gather_facts: no
tasks:
- name: register current branch
command: git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD
register: git_branch
sudo: no
when: vagrant
tags:
- debugsha
- debug: msg={{ git_branch.stdout }}
tags:
- debugsha
- name: register the SHA1 of the branch being deployed
command: git rev-parse origin/{{ git_branch.stdout }}
register: app_git_sha1
sudo: no
tags:
- slack
- debugsha
- debug: msg={{ app_git_sha1.stdout }}
tags:
- debugsha
- hosts: main
sudo: yes
roles:
- role: productscience.deploy_user
# TODO reprovision using these roles, for consistency
# - role: app.essentials
# - role: zenoamaro.postgresql
- role: productscience.papertrailapp
- role: jdauphant.nginx
tasks:
- include: setup.yml
# - include: db.yml
- name: checkout source control when deploying to remote servers
include: source.yml
when: not vagrant
tags:
- deploy
- include: django.yml
tags:
- deploy
- name: include vagrant specific dependencies for local development
include: vagrant.yml
when: vagrant
handlers:
- name: restart postgres
sudo: yes
service: name=postgresql state=restarted
- name: start restart uwsgi
sudo: yes
service: name={{ app }} state=restarted
- hosts: localhost
connection: local
gather_facts: no
tasks:
- name: register the SHA1 of the branch being deployed
when: not vagrant
command: git rev-parse origin/{{ git_branch }}
register: git_sha
tags:
- slack
- name: Send notification message via Slack all options
when: not vagrant
tags:
- slack
local_action:
module: slack
token: "{{ wof_slack_token }}"
msg: "Deployment of `{{ git_branch }}` to {{ app_url }} completed with sha `{{ git_sha.stdout }}`"
channel: "#wof"
username: "Ansible deploy-o-tron"
The problem you're running into is that you're trying to reference facts/variables of one host from those of another host. You need to keep in mind that in Ansible, the variable app_git_sha1
assigned to the host localhost
is distinct from the variable app_git_sha1
assigned to the host main
or any other host. If you want to access one hosts facts/variables from another host then you need to explicitly reference it via the hostvars
variable. There's a bit more of a discussion on this in this question.
Suppose you have a playbook like this:
- hosts: localhost
tasks:
- command: /bin/echo "this is a test"
register: foo
- hosts: localhost
tasks:
- debug: var=foo
This will work because you're referencing the host localhost
and localhosts
's instance of the variable foo
in both plays. The output of this playbook is something like this:
PLAY [localhost] **************************************************************
GATHERING FACTS ***************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK: [command /bin/echo "this is a test"] ************************************
changed: [localhost]
PLAY [localhost] **************************************************************
GATHERING FACTS ***************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK: [debug var=foo] *********************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"var": {
"foo": {
"changed": true,
"cmd": [
"/bin/echo",
"this is a test"
],
"delta": "0:00:00.004585",
"end": "2015-11-24 20:49:27.462609",
"invocation": {
"module_args": "/bin/echo \"this is a test\"",
"module_complex_args": {},
"module_name": "command"
},
"rc": 0,
"start": "2015-11-24 20:49:27.458024",
"stderr": "",
"stdout": "this is a test",
"stdout_lines": [
"this is a test"
],
"warnings": []
}
}
}
If you modify this playbook slightly to run the first play on one host and the second play on a different host, you'll get the error that you encountered. The solution is to use Ansible's built-in hostvars
variable to have the second host explicitly reference the first hosts variable. So modify the first example like this:
- hosts: localhost
tasks:
- command: /bin/echo "this is a test"
register: foo
- hosts: anotherhost
tasks:
- debug: var=foo
when: foo is defined
- debug: var=hostvars['localhost']['foo']
when: hostvars['localhost']['foo'] is defined
The output of this playbook shows that the first task is skipped because foo
is not defined by the host anotherhost
. But the second task succeeds because it's explicitly referencing localhosts
's instance of the variable foo
:
TASK: [debug var=foo] *********************************************************
skipping: [anotherhost]
TASK: [debug var=hostvars['localhost']['foo']] **************************
ok: ['anotherhost'] => {
"var": {
"hostvars['localhost']['foo']": {
"changed": true,
"cmd": [
"/bin/echo",
"this is a test"
],
"delta": "0:00:00.005950",
"end": "2015-11-24 20:54:04.319147",
"invocation": {
"module_args": "/bin/echo \"this is a test\"",
"module_complex_args": {},
"module_name": "command"
},
"rc": 0,
"start": "2015-11-24 20:54:04.313197",
"stderr": "",
"stdout": "this is a test",
"stdout_lines": [
"this is a test"
],
"warnings": []
}
}
}
So, in a nutshell, you want to modify the variable references in your main
playbook to reference the localhost
variables in this manner:
{{ hostvars['localhost']['app_git_sha1'] }}
Use a dummy host and its variables
For example to pass K8S token and hash from the master to the workers.
On master
- name: "Cluster token"
shell: kubeadm token list | cut -d ' ' -f1 | sed -n '2p'
register: K8S_TOKEN
- name: "CA Hash"
shell: openssl x509 -pubkey -in /etc/kubernetes/pki/ca.crt | openssl rsa -pubin -outform der 2>/dev/null | openssl dgst -sha256 -hex | sed 's/^.* //'
register: K8S_MASTER_CA_HASH
- name: "Add K8S Token and Hash to dummy host"
add_host:
name: "K8S_TOKEN_HOLDER"
token: "{{ K8S_TOKEN.stdout }}"
hash: "{{ K8S_MASTER_CA_HASH.stdout }}"
- name:
debug:
msg: "[Master] K8S_TOKEN_HOLDER K8S token is {{ hostvars['K8S_TOKEN_HOLDER']['token'] }}"
- name:
debug:
msg: "[Master] K8S_TOKEN_HOLDER K8S Hash is {{ hostvars['K8S_TOKEN_HOLDER']['hash'] }}"
On worker
- name:
debug:
msg: "[Worker] K8S_TOKEN_HOLDER K8S token is {{ hostvars['K8S_TOKEN_HOLDER']['token'] }}"
- name:
debug:
msg: "[Worker] K8S_TOKEN_HOLDER K8S Hash is {{ hostvars['K8S_TOKEN_HOLDER']['hash'] }}"
- name: "Kubeadmn join"
shell: >
kubeadm join --token={{ hostvars['K8S_TOKEN_HOLDER']['token'] }}
--discovery-token-ca-cert-hash sha256:{{ hostvars['K8S_TOKEN_HOLDER']['hash'] }}
{{K8S_MASTER_NODE_IP}}:{{K8S_API_SERCURE_PORT}}
I have had similar issues with even the same host but across different plays. This thing to remember is facts not variables the things persistent across plays. Here is how I get round the problem.
#!/usr/local/bin/ansible-playbook --inventory=./inventories/ec2.py
---
- name: "TearDown Infrastructure !!!!!!!"
hosts: localhost
gather_facts: no
vars:
aws_state: absent
vars_prompt:
- name: "aws_region"
prompt: "Enter AWS Region:"
default: 'eu-west-2'
tasks:
- name: Make vars persistant
set_fact:
aws_region: "{{aws_region}}"
aws_state: "{{aws_state}}"
- name: "TearDown Infrastructure hosts !!!!!!!"
hosts: monitoring.ec2
connection: local
gather_facts: no
tasks:
- name: set the facts per host
set_fact:
aws_region: "{{hostvars['localhost']['aws_region']}}"
aws_state: "{{hostvars['localhost']['aws_state']}}"
- debug:
msg="state {{aws_state}} region {{aws_region}} id {{ ec2_id }} "
- name: last few bits
hosts: localhost
gather_facts: no
tasks:
- debug:
msg="state {{aws_state}} region {{aws_region}} "
results in
Enter AWS Region: [eu-west-2]:
PLAY [TearDown Infrastructure !!!!!!!] ***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
TASK [Make vars persistant] **************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
PLAY [TearDown Infrastructure hosts !!!!!!!] *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
TASK [set the facts per host] ************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX]
TASK [debug] *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [XXXXXXXXXXX] => {
"changed": false,
"msg": "state absent region eu-west-2 id i-0XXXXX1 "
}
PLAY [last few bits] *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
TASK [debug] *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"changed": false,
"msg": "state absent region eu-west-2 "
}
PLAY RECAP *******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
XXXXXXXXXXXXX : ok=2 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0
localhost : ok=2 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0