Hostvars to pull specific variables

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1

Hello,

I am trying to use hostvars to get an inventory hostname and a specific variable. The goal of this is to get from the app group, get each unique servers client_name. The below command works for just the first line as I am fairly confident the 0 means first item in the inventory file.

I need to get it to be a per line item of the inventory file so that each servers client name is read out. I have tried a couple variations but I can’t seem to get this correct. Can anyone provide any insight as to what I might be doing wrong.

“{{ hostvars[groups[‘apps’][0]][‘client_name’] }}”

inventory file
[apps]
server1 instance_user=fondinst client_name=fondprd1 server_ip=
server2 instance_user=kumcinst client_name=kumcprd1 `server_ip=
[proxy]
proxy1

Playbook

  • hosts: 127.0.0.1
    connection: local
    gather_facts: no

  • hosts: app
    tasks:

  • name: debug
    debug: msg={{ client_name }}

  • hosts: proxy
    tasks:

  • name: debug
    debug: msg=“{{ hostvars[groups[‘apps’][0]][‘client_name’] }}”
    Summary
    Correct syntax for hostvars calling from a certain group, for an inventory_hostname name, getting a variable
    Linux Rhel6

Ansible version 2.4.4.4

component name:
Ansible

2

You need to loop over groups['apps'] with with_items.

  - debug: msg="{{ item['client_name'] }}"
    with_items: "{{ groups['apps'] }}"

3

When running the command it stated there was an undefined variable I made the below changes to the playbook

=> {“msg”: "The task includes an option with an undefined variable. The error was: ‘ansible.utils.unsafe_proxy.AnsibleUnsafeText object’ has no attribute ‘client_name’\n\nThe error appears to have been in ‘/etc/ansible/testing/prod_inov2.yml’

inventory file
[apps]
server1 instance_user=fondinst client_name=fondprd1 server_ip=
server2 instance_user=kumcinst client_name=kumcprd1 `server_ip=
[proxy]
proxy1

  • hosts: 127.0.0.1
    connection: local
    gather_facts: no

  • hosts: apps
    tasks:

  • name: debug
    debug: msg={{ client_name }}

  • hosts: proxy
    tasks:

  • debug: msg=“{{ item[‘client_name’] }}”
    with_items: “{{ groups[‘apps’] }}”

4

Sorry about that it should of course be

  - debug: msg="{{ hostvars[item]['client_name'] }}"
    with_items: "{{ groups['apps'] }}"

5

Yeah that worked for a debugging scenario so awesome and thanks for that. Might you have any idea how to use those called variables to edit text files? Namely here is the bigger playbook I am trying within the proxy role. I am trying to have it change the name of the .conf file as well as manipulate text within the prod_proxy_conf.j2. It keeps stating that there is an undefined variable however any thoughts?

proxy role main.yml

  • name: " Proxy | Setup Proxy"
    template:
    src: /etc/ansible/files/proxy_files/prod_proxy_conf.j2
    dest: /etc/httpd/conf.d/ “{{ hostvars[item][‘client_name’] }}”.conf
    with_items: “{{ groups[‘app’] }}”

  • name: Proxy | Restart Proxy
    command: apachectl graceful

  • name: Clone template and customize
    delegate_to: 127.0.0.1
    vmware_guest:
    hostname: “{{ vcenter_hostname }}”
    username: “{{ vcenter_username }}”
    password: “{{ vcenter_password }}”
    folder: “NECO-App”
    validate_certs: “false”
    datacenter: “{{ vcenter_datacenter }}”
    cluster: “{{ vcenter_cluster }}”
    state: “poweredon”
    name: “{{ inventory_hostname }}”
    template: “{{ app_vsphere_template }}”
    networks:

  • name: “{{ app_network }}”
    ip: “{{ server_ip }}”
    netmask: “{{ servers_netmask }}”
    gateway: “{{ app_gateway }}”
    domain: “{{ app_domain }}”
    dns_servers:

  • “{{ dns_lookup }}”
    wait_for_ip_address: yes

  • name: add to in memory inventory
    add_host:
    hostname: “{{ item }}”
    groups: new
    with_items: “{{ groups.app }}”
    tasks:
    roles:

  • { role: common }

  • { role: create_instance }

  • { role: setup_tpms }

  • { role: upgrade_jboss }

  • hosts: proxy
    tasks:
    roles:

  • { role: proxy }

6

Yeah that worked for a debugging scenario so awesome and thanks for that.
Might you have any idea how to use those called variables to edit text
files? Namely here is the bigger playbook I am trying within the proxy
role. I am trying to have it change the name of the .conf file as well as
manipulate text within the prod_proxy_conf.j2. It keeps stating that there
is an undefined variable however any thoughts?

Without the actual output it's impossible to help.

proxy role main.yml
- name: " Proxy | Setup Proxy"
   template:
     src: /etc/ansible/files/proxy_files/prod_proxy_conf.j2
     dest: /etc/httpd/conf.d/ "{{ hostvars[item]['client_name'] }}".conf

You can't use double quotes in dest, unless you filename actually contains quotes.
  dest: /etc/httpd/conf.d/{{ hostvars[item]['client_name'] }}.conf