# Using pre\_tasks to install a role right before using it on a managed node? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Tags:** ubuntu, galaxy-ng\ **Created:** [July 9, 2014, 9:37pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-pre-tasks-to-install-a-role-right-before-using-it-on-a-managed-node/15638 "2014-07-09T21:37:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Rowlands](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/22d042/32.png) [@Jonathan\_Rowlands](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Jonathan_Rowlands)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 9:37pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-pre-tasks-to-install-a-role-right-before-using-it-on-a-managed-node/15638/1 "2014-07-09T21:37:02Z")
I don’t know if this is a normal use-case but I am using [packer.io](http://packer.io) and the local ansible provisioner to build docker images. I wanted to use a pre\_task to actually install the role and then immediately use the role on a managed node. The problem is that _I think_ there is a sanity check that runs before the pre\_tasks actually gets called to make sure the referenced roles actually exist. So the play will fail with a message the role does not exist in which wouldn’t be true if the pre\_tasks ran first. Is my assumption of this sanity check correct and is there a recommended approach? I can have packer upload the role to my docker image if need be but I thought there might be a cleaner way. See the following simple example playbook: - name: Install openldap hosts: all sudo: True pre\_tasks: - name: Install the openldap role command: ansible-galaxy install bennojoy.openldap\_server creates=/etc/ansible/roles/bennojoy.openldap\_server roles: - role: bennojoy.openldap\_server openldap\_server\_domain\_name: [example.com](http://example.com) openldap\_server\_rootpw: passme openldap\_server\_enable\_ssl: true openldap\_server\_country: US openldap\_server\_state: Oregon openldap\_server\_location: Portland openldap\_server\_organization: IT root@archvile:~/packer/openldap\_server-packer# sudo packer build -var-file=variables.json packer.json docker output will be in this color. ==\> docker: Creating a temporary directory for sharing data… ==\> docker: Pulling Docker image: jgrowl/ubuntu-ansible docker: Pulling repository jgrowl/ubuntu-ansible ==\> docker: Starting docker container… docker: Run command: docker run -d -i -t -v /tmp/packer-docker258851345:/packer-files jgrowl/ubuntu-ansible /bin/bash docker: Container ID: aa033de85e2009aea6d808ce9dc2ca5ae0dab7008b1de9de890955cf38d39780 ==\> docker: Provisioning with Ansible… docker: Creating Ansible staging directory… docker: Creating directory: /tmp/packer-provisioner-ansible-local docker: Uploading main Playbook file… docker: Executing Ansible: cd /tmp/packer-provisioner-ansible-local && ansible-playbook /tmp/packer-provisioner-ansible-local/openldap\_server.yml -c local -i “127.0.0.1,” docker: ERROR: cannot find role in /tmp/packer-provisioner-ansible-local/roles/bennojoy.openldap\_server or /tmp/packer-provisioner-ansible-local/bennojoy.openldap\_server or /etc/ansible/roles/bennojoy.openldap\_server ==\> docker: Killing the container: aa033de85e2009aea6d808ce9dc2ca5ae0dab7008b1de9de890955cf38d39780 Build ‘docker’ errored: Error executing Ansible: Non-zero exit status: 1 ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca1)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 9:43pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-pre-tasks-to-install-a-role-right-before-using-it-on-a-managed-node/15638/2 "2014-07-09T21:43:53Z")
not a sanity check, the playbook gets ‘compiled’ before running.​ ---
**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:** [July 9, 2014, 10:49pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-pre-tasks-to-install-a-role-right-before-using-it-on-a-managed-node/15638/3 "2014-07-09T22:49:24Z")
yeah I can’t guarantee this will work even if it happened to work now. A better idea might be to have a requirements file and run “ansible-galaxy” (the CLI) against the requirements\_file to slurp it all in. See ansible-galaxy --help for details. If you have private roles, I recommend configuring the roles path in ansible.cfg, which it would be nice if this was exposed to Packer - not sure offhand if it is.