# Ansible.windows.win\_hostname: does not update the Ansible environment **URL:** \ **Category:** Get Help\ **Tags:** windows, collections\ **Created:** [December 30, 2023, 7:00pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-windows-win-hostname-does-not-update-the-ansible-environment/3110 "2023-12-30T19:00:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ekim1975](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/ekim1975/32/3629_2.png) [@ekim1975](https://forum.ansible.com/u/ekim1975)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2023, 7:00pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-windows-win-hostname-does-not-update-the-ansible-environment/3110/1 "2023-12-30T19:00:10Z")
This should automatically updat the ansing ansible\_hostname I am thinking but it is not. name: rename host ansible.windows.win\_hostname: name: “{{ comp\_name }}” register: res ---
**Author:** ![jbericat](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/jbericat/32/627_2.png) [@jbericat](https://forum.ansible.com/u/jbericat)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2023, 11:33pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-windows-win-hostname-does-not-update-the-ansible-environment/3110/2 "2023-12-30T23:33:09Z")
Hello @ekim1975 welcome to the Ansible Community Forum! With the little information you did provide is hard to guess what you’re trying to achieve, but I’ll give it a try. Should we understand that you do want to use your ansible inventory hostnames to rename a set of Windows target hosts? If that’ so, instead of using `ansible_hostname`, I believe you need to use `inventory_hostname` instead (I’m blindly supposing you already parsed `ansible_hostname` into `comp_name` from the remote node’s facts in a prior task on your playbook, which btw will result in no chages at all, since you will be assigning the very same hostname that node had during fact gathering). That is because in Ansible (provided you did enable the `gather_facts` keyword on your play) [ansible\_hostname](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/playbook_guide/playbooks_vars_facts.html#ansible-facts) is a fact obtained from the remote node itself. On the other hand, [inventory\_hostname](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/reference_appendices/special_variables.html#term-inventory_hostname) is what we know as a [magic variable](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/reference_appendices/special_variables.html#magic-variables) - One that in this particular case gets the current inventory hostname value for each instance of a playbook task. So, maybe you should be trying something like this instead? ```yaml - name: rename host ansible.windows.win_hostname: name: “{{ inventory_hostname }}” register: res ``` ---
**Author:** ![ekim1975](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/ekim1975/32/3629_2.png) [@ekim1975](https://forum.ansible.com/u/ekim1975)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2023, 3:13am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-windows-win-hostname-does-not-update-the-ansible-environment/3110/3 "2023-12-31T03:13:09Z")
Hi Jordi! It is a pleasure to have joined this Ansible forum. I look forward to interacting with this community. I have been using Ansible for about a year so I am still somewhat of a novice. In regards to my question. I do set the {{ comp\_name }} in my playbook (ex: DARTH-VADER) of what i want to change the name to… I am just dealing with a single node, which is an AWS ec2 instance. I tried to use “inventory\_host”, that you mention above but that returns the IP address. ansible\_host also returns the IP address. This is good because I had a heck of a time finding a method of returning JUST the ip address without the single quotes and brackets. I was using this: {{ ansible\_all\_ipv4\_addresses | regex\_replace(“[']”,“”) }} I can use it in some places in my playbook and roles, but in other places Ansible complains. ---
**Author:** ![jbericat](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/jbericat/32/627_2.png) [@jbericat](https://forum.ansible.com/u/jbericat)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2023, 6:27am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-windows-win-hostname-does-not-update-the-ansible-environment/3110/4 "2023-12-31T06:27:54Z")
Ah yes of course, you should build your inventory accordingly in order to set the inventory hostname instead of the IP. For example, you may use the names of the hosts as an alias in your inventory, and then assign an IP address to the `ansible_host` host\_var, like this: ```yaml --- kvm_guests: hosts: win10-vm: ansible_host: 192.168.30.30 ``` Then you will be able to use the `inventory_hostname` magic var to dynamically assign it’s host name to the remote nodes. Anyway, now that I got more information in regards of your original question, I believe I understand better what you wanted to achieve 🙂 Did you reboot your windows node AFTER renaming it? Be aware that the hostname change will not be effective until you reboot the node (as noted on the [ansible.windows.win\_hostname](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/ansible/windows/win_hostname_module.html#ansible-collections-ansible-windows-win-hostname-module) module docs), so if you gather facts without rebooting, you won’t notice the change on them… Here is an example to illustrate better what I just said: ```yml --- - name: "Ansible.windows.win_hostname: does not update the Ansible environment" hosts: all gather_facts: true vars: comp_name: new-win10-vm tasks: - name: Rename host ansible.windows.win_hostname: name: "{{ comp_name }}" - name: Get host facts before rebooting ansible.builtin.setup: register: pre_facts - name: Show facts for the current host BEFORE rebooting -> {{ inventory_hostname }} ansible.builtin.debug: var: pre_facts.ansible_facts.ansible_hostname - name: Reboot windows node ansible.windows.win_reboot: - name: Get host facts after rebooting ansible.builtin.setup: register: post_facts - name: Show updated facts for the current host AFTER rebooting -> {{ inventory_hostname }} ansible.builtin.debug: var: post_facts.ansible_facts.ansible_hostname ... ``` Now, if you check the gathered facts before and after rebooting: ```auto PLAY [Ansible.windows.win_hostname: does not update the Ansible environment] *************************************************************************************************** TASK [Rename host] ************************************************************************************************************************************************************* changed: [win10-vm] TASK [Get host facts before rebooting] ***************************************************************************************************************************************** ok: [win10-vm] TASK [Show facts for the current host BEFORE rebooting -> win10-vm] ************************************************************************************************************ ok: [win10-vm] => { "pre_facts.ansible_facts.ansible_hostname": "win10-vm" } TASK [Reboot windows node] ***************************************************************************************************************************************************** changed: [win10-vm] TASK [Get host facts after rebooting] ****************************************************************************************************************************************** ok: [win10-vm] TASK [Show updated facts for the current host AFTER rebooting -> win10-vm] ***************************************************************************************************** ok: [win10-vm] => { "post_facts.ansible_facts.ansible_hostname": "new-win10-vm" } PLAY RECAP ********************************************************************************************************************************************************************* win10-vm : ok=6 changed=2 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0 ``` Hope it helps! ---
**Author:** ![jbericat](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/jbericat/32/627_2.png) [@jbericat](https://forum.ansible.com/u/jbericat)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2023, 6:58am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-windows-win-hostname-does-not-update-the-ansible-environment/3110/5 "2023-12-31T06:58:30Z")
Now, for the same price I can answer this one also 😃 > [@ekim1975](#): > > I had a heck of a time finding a method of returning JUST the ip address without the single quotes and brackets. I was using this: {{ ansible\_all\_ipv4\_addresses | regex\_replace(“[']”,“”) }} I can use it in some places in my playbook and roles, but in other places Ansible complains. I’d suggest you using the regex plugins as a last resort resource. To get the IPv4 address from the `ansible_facts` dict, you can do it in different ways: If you know for sure that the remote node has only one IP address, you can get it directly from the list of `ip_addresses`, as it will be always its first element: ```yml - name: get host IP address ansible.builtin.debug: var: ansible_facts.ip_addresses | first ``` However, if you got several nic’s on the remote node, you might want to filter by interface name, or whatever suits you better. For that the `selectattr` jinja2 filter comes super handy: ```yaml - name: Get host IP address using interface name ansible.builtin.debug: var: interface[0].ipv4.address vars: interface: "{{ ansible_facts.interfaces | selectattr('interface_name', 'eq', 'Intel(R) 82574L Gigabit Network Connection #2') }}" ``` (On the second case, notice that `interface` will always be a list of only one element after filtering with `selectattr`, so we get the first element with [0]) cheers ---
**Author:** ![ekim1975](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/ekim1975/32/3629_2.png) [@ekim1975](https://forum.ansible.com/u/ekim1975)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 12:50am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-windows-win-hostname-does-not-update-the-ansible-environment/3110/6 "2024-01-01T00:50:08Z")
The host name thing worked: post\_facts.ansible\_facts.ansible\_hostname But the IP did not not: ansible\_facts.ip\_addresses note that it still returned the single quotes and brackets [‘1234:567:890:12345’, ‘10.11.12.13’] ---
**Author:** ![jbericat](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/jbericat/32/627_2.png) [@jbericat](https://forum.ansible.com/u/jbericat)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 3:28pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-windows-win-hostname-does-not-update-the-ansible-environment/3110/7 "2024-01-01T15:28:52Z")
> [@ekim1975](#): > > note that it still returned the single quotes and brackets [‘1234:567:890:12345’, ‘10.11.12.13’] That is because what you got there is a **list**. In short, on Ansible we have different data structures; variables, lists and dictionaries. Vars can store one, and only one element / value (a string, integer, etc). A list is a collection of **indexed** elements, which can be of different types. Dicts are collections of key:value elements - That is, elements that can be referenced by a key. Let’s focus on lists, since that’s what we got on ansible\_facts.ip\_addresses. A list can be set using different formats, which are equivalent: **raw** ```yaml my_list: ["element_1","element_2","element_N"] ``` **yaml** ```yaml my_list: - element_1 element_2 element_N ``` Now, if you wanted to show the first element of this list, you should use its index to do so, like: ```auto - name: get host IP address ansible.builtin.debug: var: ansible_facts.ip_addresses[0] ``` For the second element: ```auto - name: get host IP address ansible.builtin.debug: var: ansible_facts.ip_addresses[1] ``` etc. You can also use jinja filters to get the first or last element of the list instead of indexes, which adds readibility to our code: ```auto - name: get host IP address ansible.builtin.debug: var: ansible_facts.ip_addresses | first ``` Summing- up, if you wanted to show the IP address on the list you did provide, you should be using either [1] index, or the `last` jinja filter, like this: ```auto - name: get host IP address ansible.builtin.debug: var: ansible_facts.ip_addresses[1] - name: get host IP address ansible.builtin.debug: var: ansible_facts.ip_addresses | last ``` PS: In your list → `["1234:567:890:12345", "10.11.12.13"]` the element with index `[0]` doesn’t look as an IPv4, so I’m using the `[1]` index to illustrate it better. On my first example I’ve used the index [0] or the `first` filter because what I do get from my windows node facts is just an IP address, so its a list of only one element. Anyway, I hope that with this explanation you got the point. If you did not, feel free to ask 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ekim1975](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/ekim1975/32/3629_2.png) [@ekim1975](https://forum.ansible.com/u/ekim1975)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2024, 8:15pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-windows-win-hostname-does-not-update-the-ansible-environment/3110/8 "2024-01-04T20:15:40Z")
That makes sense now. Thanks!