# Ansible variables acess in host\_vars/file **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [December 3, 2014, 9:08am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-variables-acess-in-host-vars-file/16946 "2014-12-03T09:08:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Amanda\_Galligan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Amanda\_Galligan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Amanda_Galligan)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2014, 9:08am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-variables-acess-in-host-vars-file/16946/1 "2014-12-03T09:08:08Z")
Currently have a playbook that is creating template configs for our cisco switches. Most generic variables are kept in group\_vars and we're currently using individual host\_var file per switch to store variables unique to each sw e.g hostname, IP address etc.. Our host\_var structure is as follows: host\_vars/tor01.a01 host\_vars/tor02.a01 Within the INI inventory we reference each switch as follows: [cisco\_tor] tor01.a01 tor02.a01 Is it possible to create a single file instead in host\_vars that contains a dict of all switches and access those variables in ansible play instead? host\_vars/tor\_switches Similiar to example looping over hashes given on Ansible documentaion? Ive tried to do this by including with\_dict: tor\_switches in playbook but it errors during play run with "with\_dict must contain dict" Should this be referenced in role/task/main.yml instead? Amanda ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2014, 10:31pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-variables-acess-in-host-vars-file/16946/2 "2014-12-04T22:31:18Z")
You can use inventory groups as lists to iterate over - debug: with\_items: groups [‘cisco\_switches’ ---
**Author:** ![Amanda\_Galligan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Amanda\_Galligan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Amanda_Galligan)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2014, 7:31pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-variables-acess-in-host-vars-file/16946/3 "2014-12-08T19:31:38Z")
Brian Can you elaborate please? Im relatively new to using Ansible so not sure where the with\_items should be placed? Does this go into playbook or task YAML file within role? My playbook is very simple and looks like this currently my inventory file is underneath. [vagrant@dev4 RTR-TEMPLATE]$ more site.yml ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2014, 7:39pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-variables-acess-in-host-vars-file/16946/4 "2014-12-08T19:39:55Z")
ansible has 2 iterators, the main one is the play, it iterates over hosts - hosts: routers iterates over every host in the routers group the second iterator is with\_ which acts at task level - debug: msg={{item}}   with\_items:      - 1      - 2 this will iterate over 1 and 2 for every host in the play. sometimes you want to target hosts from a different group from the one you are targetting in play, most common examples is load balancers - hosts: webnodes   tasks:       - shell: disable node {{inventory\_hostname}}         delegate\_to: "{{item}}"         with\_items: groups['loadbalancers'] As to the specifics on how this fits with your setup that requries not as much the structure of your files but what is your intent, what you want to accomplish. ---
**Author:** ![Amanda\_Galligan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Amanda\_Galligan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Amanda_Galligan)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 6:01pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-variables-acess-in-host-vars-file/16946/5 "2014-12-09T18:01:52Z")
Brian so the basic idea is using ansible to build out switch templates leveraging variables that are specific to each switch device. For the purpose of this test I’ve made the template very simple I need to populate the variable {{ from inventory\_hostname }} and {{ip}} into the template below for each switch. The {{ inventory hostname }} variable is retrieved from iterating over the hosts:routers in the play as you mention above The {{ip}} variable is retrieved from host\_vars/tor01.a01.yml and host\_vars/tor01.a02.yml file See example below for one of these switches. Again this is being kept very simple for demo purposes. [vagrant@dev4 host\_vars]$ more tor01.a01.yml hostname: tor01.a01 ip : 10.1.1.1 [vagrant@dev4 host\_vars]$ The basic template is below: [vagrant@dev4 templates]$ more base.j2 ! hostname {{ inventory\_hostname}} ! ! interface GigabitEthernet0/0 ip access-group INTERNET in ip address {{ ip }} no ip redirects no ip proxy-arp ip nat outside ip virtual-reassembly duplex auto speed auto no cdp enable ! [vagrant@dev4 templates]$ When I run the playbook it combines the variables and the templates to create a populated file for each switch that can be uploaded to the device. [vagrant@dev4 RTR-TEMPLATE]$ ansible-playbook -i test site.yml PLAY [Generate router configuration files] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* TASK: [router | Generate configuration files] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* changed: [tor01.a02] changed: [tor01.a01] PLAY RECAP \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* tor01.a01 : ok=1 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=0 tor01.a02 : ok=1 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=0 This is fine as currently I only have two devices to template tor01.a01 and tor01.a02 but if this was several hundred devices I’d prefer to keep variables in single YAML file below and loop over this to extract the {{ip}} for each hostname? Is this currently possible with Ansible? I’ve tried to do this but can’t seem to access the variable {{ip}} within tor\_switches.yml and not sure how I load variables from this file into Ansible for use in playbook? [vagrant@dev4 RTR-TEMPLATE]$ cat host\_vars/tor\_switches.yml ---
**Author:** ![Toshio\_Kuratomi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/41988e/32.png) [@Toshio\_Kuratomi](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Toshio_Kuratomi)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 11:06pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-variables-acess-in-host-vars-file/16946/6 "2014-12-09T23:06:46Z")
If I understand correctly, you want: 1) One file that holds variable data for several related hosts. 2) In a play, you will create one file from a template on each of the hosts in a group 3) The template will contain variables specific to the host that were defined in the variable data file mentioned earlier. I think a solution would look something like this: (1) If the group you're working with is named "cisco\_tor", create a group\_var file for cisco\_tor. Do this by creating a group\_vars/ directory next to your host\_vars/ directory. Then adding a "cisco\_tor" file in there. Put your data structure into the file. For instance, you can just" mv host\_vars/tor\_switches.yml group\_vars/cisco\_tor" (2) Your playbook will look something like this: - hosts: cisco\_tor   gather\_facts: false   tasks:     - name: Create config file       template:         src: router.j2         dest: /etc/router.cfg (3) The template looks something like this: host={{ inventory\_hostname }} ip={{ hostname[inventory\_hostname].ip }} -Toshio ---
**Author:** ![Amanda\_Galligan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Amanda\_Galligan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Amanda_Galligan)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2014, 11:18am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-variables-acess-in-host-vars-file/16946/7 "2014-12-15T11:18:39Z")
Hey Toshio, Thanks very much that is exactly what I need see below. I’m able to access the dict within group\_vars/cisco\_tor.yml and extract variable {{ tor\_switch[inventory\_hostname].ip }} as per instructions you provided. End result is 3 switch device configs. Will port this back to my main Ansible tempting engine but looks like this is a working solution to my problems Amanda interface GigabitEthernet0/0 ip address {{ tor\_switch[inventory\_hostname].ip }} ip access-group INTERNET in no ip redirects no ip proxy-arp ip nat outside ip virtual-reassembly duplex auto speed auto no cdp enable [vagrant@dev4 RTR-TEMPLATE]$ more group\_vars/cisco\_tor.yml