Error when using group_vars

[cslayton65]

I am just getting started with Ansible and intend to mainly use Ansible for networking. When I include my vars directly in the hosts.yml file, my playbook works. When I move the vars to group_vars, the playbook fails with the error: FAILED! => {“msg”: "The conditional check ‘ansible_network_os == ‘cisco.nxos.nxos’’ failed. The error was: error while evaluating conditional (ansible_network_os == ‘cisco.nxos.nxos’): ‘ansible_network_os’ is undefined.

HOSTS.YML with VARS
nxos:
  hosts:
    switch1:
      ansible_host: switch1.example.com
    switch2:
      ansible_host: switch2.example.com
  vars:
    ansible_become: yes
    ansible_become_method: enable
    ansible_network_os: cisco.nxos.nxos
    ansible_user: <username>
    ansible_password: !vault |
          $ANSIBLE_VAULT;1.1;AES256
		  <encrypted password>
		  
GROUP_VARS/nxos
vars:
  ansible_become: yes
  ansible_become_method: enable
  ansible_network_os: cisco.nxos.nxos
  ansible_user: <username>
  ansible_password: !vault |
        $ANSIBLE_VAULT;1.1;AES256
		<encrypted password>
		
PLAYBOOK
---
- name: "Demonstrate connecting to NEXUS switches"
  hosts: nxos
  gather_facts: no
  connection: ansible.netcommon.network_cli

  tasks:
    ###
    # Collect data
    #
    - name: Gather facts (nxos)
      cisco.nxos.nxos_facts:
      when: ansible_network_os == 'cisco.nxos.nxos'

 ###
    # Demonstrate variables
    #
    - name: Display some facts
      debug:
        msg: "The hostname is {{ ansible_net_hostname }} and the OS is {{ ansible_net_version }}"

• Set at group_vars one tag (the experts follow the tags, so the right people will find you if you tag)

[cslayton65]

I believe I have solved this myself. I had to remove “vars:” from the group_vars/nxos file.

[Dustin]

host_var and group_var files are read directly as variables. You don’t need to preface the list of variables with the “vars:” line.

You are correct in your assumption of the solution.