Is it possible to get facts from host which are not in the current play?

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1

Hi

I have a inventory ( hosts ):
[webservers]
web-1
web-2

[nfsserver]
nfs-1

I then have a nfs role ( nfs.yml) :

  • hosts: nfsserver
    user: root
    any_errors_fatal: yes
    roles:
  • role: common
  • role: nfsserver

For various reasons ( like getting IP of all the webservers in order to set FW rules ) I need to access facts for web-1 and web-2, but not execute any tasks on these webservers.
Is that possible to force loading of facts for groups which are not in the current play?

The only way I can figure how to do that is a bit lame:

  • let nfs.yml also include webservers in hosts: statement ( “hosts: webservers:nfsserver” )
  • set some variable for nfs-1 ( like “nfsserver=true” in inventory file)
  • in every action in roles/nfsserver/tasks/main.yml include a “when: nfsserver is defined and nfsserver == ‘true’”

If not using roles at all, this is not a problem as you can include multiple playbooks, where each playbook has it’s “hosts:” definition. In order to load facts for all hosts, you therefore may just include one playbook with “hosts: webservers:nfsservers”, but with no actions ( or a dummy one… )

Best regards,
Vidar

2

You can hit all hosts in a separate play in the playbook, then apply
your roles only to a select group of hosts in a later play. The facts
will be available throughout the entire playbook run and not be
limited to only the hosts you specified in the second play. So instead
of your example above, you would get:

- hosts: all
  gather_facts: yes

- hosts: nfsserver
  user: root
  any_errors_fatal: yes
  roles:
    - role: common
    - role: nfsserver

3

Ahh....
I was not aware of the fact that you could define 2 plays in the same
file like that....
It works like a charm.. Thanx!

Best regards,
Vidar