Unable to get value of a variable from another Play in Ansible

Question

I wish to obtain the value of "fdet_APP" variable of Play 2 into Play 3.

Below is my playbook which case be used as a testcase:

- name: "Play 1"
  hosts: localhost
  tasks:
   - add_host: name={{ item }}
                        groups=dest_nodes
                        ansible_user={{ USER }}
     with_items: "{{ Dest_IP.split(',') }}"

- name: "Play 2"
  hosts: dest_nodes
  user: "{{ USER }}"
  tasks:
   - set_fact:
       fdet_APP: "Yellow"

- name: "Play 3"
  hosts: localhost
  user: "{{ USER }}"
  vars:
    dbfiledet: "{{ hostvars['dest_nodes']['fdet_APP'] }}"

  tasks:
   - debug: msg="{{ dbfiledet.stdout }}"

I get the below error for my attempt:

playbook RUN command:

ansible-playbook variabletest.yml -e "USER=user1 Dest_IP=10.17.44.26,10.17.54.26"

[WARNING]: provided hosts list is empty, only localhost is available. Note that the implicit localhost does not match 'all'

PLAY [Play 1]

TASK [Gathering Facts] ************************************************************************************************************************************** ok: [localhost]

TASK [add_host] ********************************************************************************************************************************************* changed: [localhost] => (item=10.17.44.26) changed: [localhost] => (item=10.17.54.26)

PLAY [Play 2]

TASK [Gathering Facts] ************************************************************************************************************************************** ok: [10.17.54.26] ok: [10.17.44.26]

TASK [set_fact] ********************************************************************************************************************************************* ok: [10.17.44.26] ok: [10.17.54.26]

PLAY [Play 3]

TASK [Gathering Facts] ************************************************************************************************************************************** ok: [localhost]

TASK [debug] ************************************************************************************************************************************************ fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {"msg": "The task includes an option with an undefined variable. The error was: \"hostvars['dest_nodes']\" is undefined\n\nThe error appears to be in 'variabletest.yml': line 36, column 6, but may\nbe elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.\n\nThe offending line appears to be:\n\n\n - debug: msg=\"{{ dbfiledet.stdout }}\"\n ^ here\nWe could be wrong, but this one looks like it might be an issue with\nmissing quotes. Always quote template expression brackets when they\nstart a value. For instance:\n\n with_items:\n - {{ foo }}\n\nShould be written as:\n\n with_items:\n - \"{{ foo }}\"\n"}

PLAY RECAP

10.17.44.26 : ok=2 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
10.17.54.26 : ok=2 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0 localhost
: ok=3 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=1 skipped=0
rescued=0 ignored=0

I'm on the latest version of ansible and python 2.7.5

Can someone suggest what is wrong and how can i get the value for the variable in Play 3 please ?

Matt P Matt P · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-22T22:40:50

hostvars are tied to a single Ansible managed host, not an inventory group. Try running debug: var=hostvars to see what I mean. In your case dest_nodes is an inventory group, not a host.

If just want to pull the variable from any host in the group, try:

- debug:
    msg: "{{ hostvars[groups.dest_nodes|first]['fdet_APP'] }}"

If you are looking to parse the value for all hosts in the group, then you'll need to implement either a loop or a json_query filter

Unable to get value of a variable from another Play in Ansible

1 Answers