Ansible playbook to handle both Linux and Windows hosts

Question

Trying to write one playbook that checks whether a set of files exist on a set of servers (both Linux and Windows hosts), and if they do, then to replace the files.

Here is what i have so far:

---
- hosts: "{{hosts}}"
  vars:
    scripts:
      - check_blackout.pl
      - check_empty.pl
  tasks:
    - name: windows stat
      with_items: "{{scripts}}"
      win_stat: path=D:\scripts\{{item}}
      register: windows_stat
      when: "'windows' in group_names"
    - name: other stat
      with_items: "{{scripts}}"
      stat: path=/usr/local/bin/{{item}}
      register: other_stat
      remote_user: "{{script_owner | default(ansible_user)}}"
      when: "'windows' not in group_names"
    - name: windows debug
      with_items: "{{windows_stat.results}}"
      debug: var={{item.item}}
      when: "{{item.stat.exists}}"
    - name: other debug
      with_items: "{{other_stat.results}}"
      debug: var={{item.item}}
      when: "{{item.stat.exists}}"
...

When I run this against a Windows and Linux host for testing, I get the following:

[ansible@vmhklftpscdv1 ~]$ ansible-playbook test.yml -e "hosts=vmhkge1jasdev01,jdeesbkup" --ask-vault-pass
Vault password: 

PLAY [vmhkge1jasdev01,jdeesbkup] ************************************************************************************************************************************************

TASK [Gathering Facts] **********************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [vmhkge1jasdev01]
ok: [jdeesbkup]

TASK [windows stat] *************************************************************************************************************************************************************
skipping: [jdeesbkup] => (item=check_blackout.pl) 
skipping: [jdeesbkup] => (item=check_empty.pl) 
ok: [vmhkge1jasdev01] => (item=check_blackout.pl)
ok: [vmhkge1jasdev01] => (item=check_empty.pl)

TASK [other stat] ***************************************************************************************************************************************************************
skipping: [vmhkge1jasdev01] => (item=check_empty.pl) 
skipping: [vmhkge1jasdev01] => (item=check_blackout.pl) 
ok: [jdeesbkup] => (item=check_blackout.pl)
ok: [jdeesbkup] => (item=check_empty.pl)

TASK [windows debug] ************************************************************************************************************************************************************
skipping: [vmhkge1jasdev01] => (item={'_ansible_parsed': True, u'stat': {u'exists': False}, '_ansible_item_result': True, '_ansible_no_log': False, u'changed': False, 'item': u'check_empty.pl', 'invocation': {'module_name': u'win_stat'}}) 
skipping: [vmhkge1jasdev01] => (item={'_ansible_parsed': True, u'stat': {u'exists': False}, '_ansible_item_result': True, '_ansible_no_log': False, u'changed': False, 'item': u'check_blackout.pl', 'invocation': {'module_name': u'win_stat'}}) 
fatal: [jdeesbkup]: FAILED! => {"failed": true, "msg": "The conditional check '{{item.stat.exists}}' failed. The error was: error while evaluating conditional ({{item.stat.exists}}): 'dict object' has no attribute 'stat'\n\nThe error appears to have been in '/home/ansible/test.yml': line 19, column 7, but may\nbe elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.\n\nThe offending line appears to be:\n\n      when: \"'windows' not in group_names\"\n    - name: windows debug\n      ^ here\n"}

TASK [other debug] **************************************************************************************************************************************************************
fatal: [vmhkge1jasdev01]: FAILED! => {"failed": true, "msg": "The conditional check '{{item.stat.exists}}' failed. The error was: error while evaluating conditional ({{item.stat.exists}}): 'dict object' has no attribute 'stat'\n\nThe error appears to have been in '/home/ansible/test.yml': line 23, column 7, but may\nbe elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.\n\nThe offending line appears to be:\n\n      when: \"{{item.stat.exists}}\"\n    - name: other debug\n      ^ here\n"}
        to retry, use: --limit @/home/ansible/test.retry

PLAY RECAP **********************************************************************************************************************************************************************
jdeesbkup                  : ok=2    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=1   
vmhkge1jasdev01            : ok=2    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=1   

[ansible@vmhklftpscdv1 ~]$ 

Any ideas how I can get this working?
I've tried various combinations including checking the group membership before checking the results:

  when: "'windows' in group_names and {{item.stat.exists}}"

However Ansible still seems to check the item.stat field even when the first part of the condition is false.

Or is my fundamental approach wrong, should I be splitting these tasks up into different playbooks?

Answer 1

Yes, you are right. with_items is evaluated before when. You can add a default empty list to avoid the error:

- name: other debug
  with_items: "{{other_stat.results | default([]) }}"
  debug: var={{item}}
  when: "{{item.stat.exists | default(false)}}"

Answer 2

Got it working, here is successful playbook and output:

---
- hosts: "{{hosts}}"
  vars:
    scripts:
      - run.pl
  tasks:
    - name: win_stat
      with_items: scripts
      win_stat: path="D:\scripts\{{item}}"
      register: "win_result"
      when: "'windows' in group_names"
    - name: other_stat
      with_items: scripts
      stat: path="/usr/local/bin/{{item}}"
      register: "other_result"
      when: "'windows' not in group_names"
    - debug: var=win_result
    - debug: var=other_result
    - with_items: "{{ win_result.results }}"
      debug: msg="{{item.item}}"
      when: "not (item.skipped | default(false))"
    - with_items: "{{ other_result.results}}"
      debug: msg="{{item.item}}"
      when: "not (item.skipped | default(false))"
...


[ansible@vmhklftpscdv1 ~]$ ansible-playbook debug.yml -e "hosts=jdeesbkup,vmhkge1jasdev01" --ask-vault-pass
Vault password: 

PLAY [jdeesbkup,vmhkge1jasdev01] **************************************************************************************************************************

TASK [Gathering Facts] ************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [jdeesbkup]
ok: [vmhkge1jasdev01]

TASK [win_stat] *******************************************************************************************************************************************
skipping: [jdeesbkup] => (item=scripts) 
ok: [vmhkge1jasdev01] => (item=scripts)

TASK [other_stat] *****************************************************************************************************************************************
skipping: [vmhkge1jasdev01] => (item=scripts) 
ok: [jdeesbkup] => (item=scripts)

TASK [debug] **********************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [jdeesbkup] => {
    "win_result": {
        "changed": false, 
        "msg": "All items completed", 
        "results": [
            {
                "_ansible_item_result": true, 
                "_ansible_no_log": false, 
                "changed": false, 
                "item": "scripts", 
                "skip_reason": "Conditional check failed", 
                "skipped": true
            }
        ]
    }
}
ok: [vmhkge1jasdev01] => {
    "win_result": {
        "changed": false, 
        "msg": "All items completed", 
        "results": [
            {
                "_ansible_item_result": true, 
                "_ansible_no_log": false, 
                "_ansible_parsed": true, 
                "changed": false, 
                "invocation": {
                    "module_name": "win_stat"
                }, 
                "item": "scripts", 
                "stat": {
                    "exists": false
                }
            }
        ]
    }
}

TASK [debug] **********************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [jdeesbkup] => {
    "other_result": {
        "changed": false, 
        "msg": "All items completed", 
        "results": [
            {
                "_ansible_item_result": true, 
                "_ansible_no_log": false, 
                "_ansible_parsed": true, 
                "changed": false, 
                "invocation": {
                    "module_args": {
                        "checksum_algorithm": "sha1", 
                        "follow": false, 
                        "get_attributes": true, 
                        "get_checksum": true, 
                        "get_md5": true, 
                        "get_mime": true, 
                        "path": "/usr/local/bin/scripts"
                    }, 
                    "module_name": "stat"
                }, 
                "item": "scripts", 
                "stat": {
                    "exists": false
                }
            }
        ]
    }
}
ok: [vmhkge1jasdev01] => {
    "other_result": {
        "changed": false, 
        "msg": "All items completed", 
        "results": [
            {
                "_ansible_item_result": true, 
                "_ansible_no_log": false, 
                "changed": false, 
                "item": "scripts", 
                "skip_reason": "Conditional check failed", 
                "skipped": true
            }
        ]
    }
}

TASK [debug] **********************************************************************************************************************************************
skipping: [jdeesbkup] => (item={'skipped': True, '_ansible_no_log': False, 'skip_reason': u'Conditional check failed', '_ansible_item_result': True, 'item': u'scripts', 'changed': False}) 
ok: [vmhkge1jasdev01] => (item={'_ansible_parsed': True, u'stat': {u'exists': False}, '_ansible_item_result': True, '_ansible_no_log': False, u'changed': False, 'item': u'scripts', 'invocation': {'module_name': u'win_stat'}}) => {
    "item": {
        "changed": false, 
        "invocation": {
            "module_name": "win_stat"
        }, 
        "item": "scripts", 
        "stat": {
            "exists": false
        }
    }, 
    "msg": "scripts"
}

TASK [debug] **********************************************************************************************************************************************
---
- hosts: "{{hosts}}"
  vars:
    scripts:
      - run.pl
  tasks:
    - name: win_stat
      with_items: scripts
      win_stat: path="D:\scripts\{{item}}"
      register: "win_result"
      when: "'windows' in group_names"
    - name: other_stat
      with_items: scripts
      stat: path="/usr/local/bin/{{item}}"
      register: "other_result"
      when: "'windows' not in group_names"
    - debug: var=win_result
    - debug: var=other_result
    - with_items: "{{ win_result.results }}"
      debug: msg="{{item.item}}"
      when: "not (item.skipped | default(false))"
    - with_items: "{{ other_result.results}}"
      debug: msg="{{item.item}}"
      when: "not (item.skipped | default(false))"
#      when: "'windows' in group_names and  {{item.stat.exists}}"
#    - name: win_test
#      with_items: {{win_result.results}}
#      debug: var="{{item}}"
#      when: "'windows' in group_names and  {{item.stat.exists}}"

    ~                                                                                                                                                          
    ~                                                                                                                                                          
    ~                                                                                                                                                          
    skipping: [vmhkge1jasdev01] => (item={'skipped': True, '_ansible_no_log': False, 'skip_reason': u'Conditional check failed', '_ansible_item_result': True, 'item': u'scripts', 'changed': False}) 
    ok: [jdeesbkup] => (item={'_ansible_parsed': True, u'stat': {u'exists': False}, '_ansible_item_result': True, '_ansible_no_log': False, u'changed': False, 'item': u'scripts', 'invocation': {'module_name': u'stat', u'module_args': {u'checksum_algorithm': u'sha1', u'get_checksum': True, u'follow': False, u'path': u'/usr/local/bin/scripts', u'get_md5': True, u'get_mime': True, u'get_attributes': True}}}) => {
        "item": {
            "changed": false, 
            "invocation": {
                "module_args": {
                    "checksum_algorithm": "sha1", 
                    "follow": false, 
                    "get_attributes": true, 
                    "get_checksum": true, 
                    "get_md5": true, 
                    "get_mime": true, 
                    "path": "/usr/local/bin/scripts"
                }, 
                "module_name": "stat"
            }, 
            "item": "scripts", 
            "stat": {
                "exists": false
            }
        }, 
        "msg": "scripts"
    }

    PLAY RECAP ************************************************************************************************************************************************
    jdeesbkup                  : ok=5    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0   
    vmhkge1jasdev01            : ok=5    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0