# Inventory plugin now available to read from ansible-commander, better setup instructions **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [September 13, 2012, 1:37am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/inventory-plugin-now-available-to-read-from-ansible-commander-better-setup-instructions/11888 "2012-09-13T01:37:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 1:37am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/inventory-plugin-now-available-to-read-from-ansible-commander-better-setup-instructions/11888/1 "2012-09-13T01:37:19Z")
See the updated setup instructions here -- [https://github.com/ansible/ansible-commander/blob/master/README.md](https://github.com/ansible/ansible-commander/blob/master/README.md) This is more setup than I'd actually like, but I think it's ok because you're only going to have to do it once. I also want people to understand a bit about how it works. (Seem reasonable?) I made a choice in doing this where the acom\_inventory.py plugin for ansible speaks REST to the ansible-commander server to get inventory data. This allows configuration of multiple remote ansible machines to point to a single ansible-commander as an inventory source. This is why you have to configure a limited shared secret key -- just so you don't share host variables with machines that don't have any business reading them. If you are not setting passwords in your variables, even this doesn't matter so much. Here it is (rough cut): [https://github.com/ansible/ansible-commander/blob/master/inventory\_script/acom\_inventory.py](https://github.com/ansible/ansible-commander/blob/master/inventory_script/acom_inventory.py) (and trivial config file): [https://github.com/ansible/ansible-commander/blob/master/inventory\_script/acom\_inventory.cfg](https://github.com/ansible/ansible-commander/blob/master/inventory_script/acom_inventory.cfg) Anyway, things are in place to allow the REST API to be used for inventory now -- at least in theory. Test if you like and let me know if there are quirks, but it will be much easier to test manually once the UI starts to allow us to muck with objects instead of throwing JSON at URLs. So yeah --The UI development can now begin, which I plan to work on some in the coming days. I'm going to start by getting some of the infrastructure in place and making sure the components I think I want to use are sane. The interface to edit users will come first, followed shortly by groups and hosts. I suspect once I get the basics off the ground, there's going to be tons of room for people to submit some neat stuff -- and from what I have seen so far, I am supremely impressed by a lot of your skills and am super excited about where this might go! Let me know if there are questions and please let me know if the setup process doesn't make a lot of sense. Thanks! --Michael ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 1:05pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/inventory-plugin-now-available-to-read-from-ansible-commander-better-setup-instructions/11888/2 "2012-09-13T13:05:09Z")
I was thinking about the setup process a bit. To simplify setup, it also occurs to me that we could easily make acom\_inventory plugin only speak locally for those that wanted it, this would probably be done by adding a "mode=" flag to both acom\_inventory.py and commander.py (to shut it off), where it wouldn't be remote (web servicey) except on machines that it needed to be remote. This would be suitable if you only ran Ansible from one machine. The REST API would be accessible anywhere (authenticated) but when ansible goes to fetch host data, it could just hit the database, meaning the inventory variables need not be surfaced. This also means that users don't have to initially set up as many settings, which yields quicker gains. (It also has the bonus points of being blazing fast and not even needing the flask component running) ---
**Author:** ![Romeo\_Theriault](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@Romeo\_Theriault](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Romeo_Theriault)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 8:38pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/inventory-plugin-now-available-to-read-from-ansible-commander-better-setup-instructions/11888/3 "2012-09-13T20:38:23Z")
Man you're fast! Do you have a day job 😉 But in regards to the installation, it looks completely reasonable to me. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 12:29am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/inventory-plugin-now-available-to-read-from-ansible-commander-better-setup-instructions/11888/4 "2012-09-14T00:29:24Z")
Thankfully, yes, I'm just fast! Good deal, thanks for looking it over.