# Ansible playbook ping conditional statement **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Tags:** ubuntu\ **Created:** [June 7, 2018, 11:21pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-playbook-ping-conditional-statement/27743 "2018-06-07T23:21:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Andrew\_Morgan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/50afbb/32.png) [@Andrew\_Morgan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Andrew_Morgan)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2018, 11:21pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-playbook-ping-conditional-statement/27743/1 "2018-06-07T23:21:10Z")
Hello all, I am trying to get this playbook to work where it runs a task based on the OS type, debian/ubuntu or centos/redhat .My ansible version is 2.4.2.0, I am using ubuntu. I have a mixture of OS in my environment and I want to ping them, but my issue is how do I get it to work when the user to ping with has to be specified at the command line…example: ` ansible-playbook -i ec2.py --private-key /var/lib/rundeck/.ssh/key ping.yml ` The above wont work , but when I specify the user -u ec2-user , it pings the centos nodes, and if I -u ubuntu, it pings the debian nodes. How can I get the condition to take place in the playbook ` tasks: - name: Ping ubuntu remote\_user: ubuntu become: yes ping: when: ansible\_distribution == ‘Debian’ or ansible\_distribution == ‘Ubuntu’ - name: Ping centos remote\_user: ec2-user become: yes ping: when: ansible\_distribution == ‘Centos’ ` Thank you ---
**Author:** ![Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Kai_Stian_Olstad)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2018, 6:51pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-playbook-ping-conditional-statement/27743/2 "2018-06-08T18:51:33Z")
> I am trying to get this playbook to work where it runs a task based on the > OS type, debian/ubuntu or centos/redhat .My ansible version is 2.4.2.0, I > am using ubuntu. > > I have a mixture of OS in my environment and I want to ping them, but my > issue is how do I get it to work when the user to ping with has to be > specified at the command line..example: > > ansible-playbook -i ec2.py --private-key /var/lib/rundeck/.ssh/key ping.yml I don't have any experience with ec2/ec2.py so I can't help you with that. > The above wont work , but when I specify the user -u ec2-user , it pings > the centos nodes, and if I -u ubuntu, it pings the debian nodes. How can I > get the condition to take place in the playbook > > tasks: >     - name: Ping ubuntu >       remote\_user: ubuntu >       become: yes >       ping: >       when: ansible\_distribution == 'Debian' or ansible\_distribution == > 'Ubuntu' > >     - name: Ping centos >       remote\_user: ec2-user >       become: yes >       ping: >       when: ansible\_distribution == 'Centos' remote\_user is a setting for the ansible.cfg, environment variable or play so you can't use that on task. On task you can use become\_user, but become is only relevant when you are already logged inn. You need to set the parameters before Ansible logs in with ssh, this can be done with ansible\_user variable. If your ec2.py can create separate group for each OS you can use the group\_vars to set the ansible\_user. But the easiest would be to have the same across all platforms. ---
**Author:** ![Andrew\_Morgan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/50afbb/32.png) [@Andrew\_Morgan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Andrew_Morgan)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 2:32pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-playbook-ping-conditional-statement/27743/3 "2018-06-12T14:32:16Z")
thank you