# Refactor Playbook to loop over hosts individually **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [August 22, 2018, 2:40pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/refactor-playbook-to-loop-over-hosts-individually/28396 "2018-08-22T14:40:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Caleb\_Guerrero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Caleb\_Guerrero](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Caleb_Guerrero)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2018, 2:40pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/refactor-playbook-to-loop-over-hosts-individually/28396/1 "2018-08-22T14:40:06Z")
All, I am trying to refactor my playbook to run an ios command across a group of hosts… My challenge is that the command is specific to individual hosts in the group. As it stands, my playbook initial task is ran against all hosts in my group and looping over every item in my list. My intent is to run the ios command that pertains to the host and not have to have several plays or tasks in 1 playbook. Is that possible? Below is my inventory list and playbook. Feedback would be greatly appreciated! [ios] Til\_INET\_EDC-2-WDC\_7kb\_Core.xxx.org Til-Site-RTR-1 Til-Site-RTR-2 Til-Site-RTR-3 Til-Site-SW1 Til-Site-SW2 Til-Stratix-5700 Til-Stratix-8000 Til-Stratix-8300 NIS-Til-4506 Til-WDC-Core Til\_INET\_WDC-2-WDC\_7ka\_Core.xxx.org ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/1X/1882d9a01da5d8996a862359b0913cc568a39b84.svg) [@system](https://forum.ansible.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2018, 2:49pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/refactor-playbook-to-loop-over-hosts-individually/28396/2 "2018-08-22T14:49:47Z")
Plays are what map hosts to tasks, there are a couple of other ways you can single out a host, but a Play is the optimal path to do this. Having multiple plays in a playbook was always the original intention (why its named playbook), but if you insist on avoiding an additional play, here are a couple of options: - when: inventory\_hostname == 'specific host' or - run\_once: True, and make sure that host is always the first host in the selection for the play. ---
**Author:** ![Arden\_Shackelford](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@Arden\_Shackelford](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Arden_Shackelford)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2018, 2:52pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/refactor-playbook-to-loop-over-hosts-individually/28396/3 "2018-08-22T14:52:50Z")
Couldn’t you set what you needed as a host specific variable in your inventory file and simply call that variable in the appropriate place? ---
**Author:** ![Caleb\_Guerrero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Caleb\_Guerrero](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Caleb_Guerrero)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2018, 3:02pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/refactor-playbook-to-loop-over-hosts-individually/28396/4 "2018-08-22T15:02:33Z")
Yeah in my scenario I would have 12+ plays for this development environment. I was mainly looking for other options that would shorten the size of the playbook if I had to run a similar command across hundreds of hosts. With the when conditional, I would still need individual plays per host correct? Also, will the run\_once action run the first item in the for loop for the first host, then my 2nd item in the for loop for the second host in the group, etc? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/1X/1882d9a01da5d8996a862359b0913cc568a39b84.svg) [@system](https://forum.ansible.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2018, 3:08pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/refactor-playbook-to-loop-over-hosts-individually/28396/5 "2018-08-22T15:08:03Z")
No, i misread and didn't realize the 'per item/host' relation ship, using a variable on a task as Arden suggests would work better in that case. ---
**Author:** ![Caleb\_Guerrero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Caleb\_Guerrero](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Caleb_Guerrero)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2018, 3:18pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/refactor-playbook-to-loop-over-hosts-individually/28396/6 "2018-08-22T15:18:59Z")
Actually after re-reading your post Brian. I can have 1 play with multiple tasks set to run\_once or use a when conditional; I could also just use multiple plays to accomplish this. I was hopeful there was a way to use a for loop to loop over specific hosts running the task individually per host; however I am thinking that would make this too complex.I plan to use a role for this and break up my tasks in the tasks/main.yml file. ---
**Author:** ![Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Kai_Stian_Olstad)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2018, 3:41pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/refactor-playbook-to-loop-over-hosts-individually/28396/7 "2018-08-22T15:41:16Z")
If I understand correctly, you would like to run the fist command on fist host, the second command on the second host and so on? If so you could do something like this      - name: Restore base configs        ios\_command:          commands:            - command: 'configure replace {{ item.command }}'              prompt: '[no]'              answer: y        when: intentory\_hostanme == item.host        with\_items:          - command: nvram:Til-EDC-INET\_base            host: Til\_INET\_EDC-2-WDC\_7kb\_Core.xxx.org          - command: nvram:Til-Site-RTR-1\_base            host: Til-Site-RTR-1            ...        register: result        tags: ios ---
**Author:** ![Caleb\_Guerrero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Caleb\_Guerrero](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Caleb_Guerrero)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2018, 3:46pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/refactor-playbook-to-loop-over-hosts-individually/28396/8 "2018-08-22T15:46:42Z")
Yes that is exactly what I was looking for Kai. Would I still specify the entire group ‘ios’ in the hosts section of the playbook? ---
**Author:** ![Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Kai_Stian_Olstad)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2018, 3:53pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/refactor-playbook-to-loop-over-hosts-individually/28396/9 "2018-08-22T15:53:07Z")
Yes. ---
**Author:** ![Arden\_Shackelford](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@Arden\_Shackelford](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Arden_Shackelford)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2018, 6:47pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/refactor-playbook-to-loop-over-hosts-individually/28396/10 "2018-08-22T18:47:54Z")
Just for the sake of actually getting the code I had in mind out, incase anyone else might find this solution helpful. I’m showing two Inventory ` [ios] [Til\_INET\_EDC-2-WDC\_7kb\_Core.xxx.org](http://til_inet_edc-2-wdc_7kb_core.xxx.org/) host\_command=nvram:Til-EDC-INET\_base Til-Site-RTR-1 host\_command=nvram:Til-Site-RTR-1\_base … ` Playbook ` ---
**Author:** ![Caleb\_Guerrero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Caleb\_Guerrero](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Caleb_Guerrero)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2018, 7:15pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/refactor-playbook-to-loop-over-hosts-individually/28396/11 "2018-08-22T19:15:50Z")
Thanks for the feedback everyone! Arden, that looks like a solid solution also. Considering this code is in a dev environment, I will play around with the various methods specified.