# Reusing inventory config **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [June 4, 2014, 1:20am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/reusing-inventory-config/15398 "2014-06-04T01:20:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Michael\_Mahemoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Michael\_Mahemoff](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_Mahemoff)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2014, 1:20am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/reusing-inventory-config/15398/1 "2014-06-04T01:20:30Z")
As I have separate “staging” and “production” inventory files, I end up duplicating some group compositions (e.g. databases:children is mysql:children and redis:children, that kind of thing). I’m wondering if there’s a way to consolidate that logic, such as a directive to include a file. Or maybe some trick I’m missing here. ---
**Author:** ![James\_Cammarata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7c8e57/32.png) [@James\_Cammarata](https://forum.ansible.com/u/James_Cammarata)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2014, 2:08pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/reusing-inventory-config/15398/2 "2014-06-04T14:08:27Z")
If you’re dealing with any significant number of hosts (ie. more than a hundred), we generally recommend using a dynamic inventory script of some kind. Beyond that, the INI syntax doesn’t really allow for any includes unfortunately. ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Davies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Dick\_Davies](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Dick_Davies)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 7:05am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/reusing-inventory-config/15398/3 "2014-06-05T07:05:41Z")
I do the per environment inventories too (partly because they're datacenter/vagrant) and had a few groups just to target one-off plays. My per-environment settings usually tuck into [all:vars] in the inventory - I've no idea how I'm going to map that to a dynamic inventory yet, probably a lot of set\_fact roles to set everything up. I keep them in step by diffing ☹ Re: the group composition - I needed that for some one-off plays, it turns out you can target multiple groups in a play with something like ..... - hosts: mysql:redis   sudo: yes   tasks: ..... ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan1)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 12:34pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/reusing-inventory-config/15398/4 "2014-06-06T12:34:16Z")
Don’t do “all:vars”, use a “group\_vars/all” file instead. Not only is it cleaner for a static inventory, but it’s usable with dynamic ones as well. ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Davies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Dick\_Davies](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Dick_Davies)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 1:08pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/reusing-inventory-config/15398/5 "2014-06-06T13:08:09Z")
Yeah we're about to try some of the cloud providers, I know this is going to bite us. problem with group\_vars/all is that it's 'in the tree' - I'm trying to find a way to have preprod\_hosts and production\_hosts contain everything environment-specific, so we can ensure roles/ group\_vars/ etc. don't vary across different environments. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan1)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2014, 3:29pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/reusing-inventory-config/15398/6 "2014-06-08T15:29:58Z")
“problem with group\_vars/all is that it’s ‘in the tree’ - I’m trying to find a way to” You can keep this alongside your inventory (which most people do) rather than alongside your playbook, if you like. ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Davies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Dick\_Davies](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Dick_Davies)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2014, 3:42pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/reusing-inventory-config/15398/7 "2014-06-09T15:42:22Z")
Ah, mine are all lumped in together, like this: ansible-mystack:$ tree -L 1 . ├── Vagrantfile ├── ansible.cfg ├── group\_vars ├── preprod\_hosts ├── prod\_hosts ├── roles ├── site.yml └── vagrant\_hosts Are you talking about having a group\_vars per inventory then? Trying to figure out how that would look.