Accessing hosts in metagroup children from Ansible Playbook

Question

I'm trying sort out my inventory.yaml file to arrange hosts by groups and then call them in an Ansible playbook.

The inventory.yaml file looks like this:

---
all:
  hosts:
    children:
      MY_Lab:
        Ubuntu_18:
          hosts:
            BWT_BKP_A:
              ansible_host: "10.2.8.19"

            BWT_BKP_B:
              ansible_host: "10.2.8.22"

            BWT_BKP_C:
              ansible_host: "10.2.9.12"
        vars:
          ansible_connection: ssh
          ansible_user: administrator
          ansible_ssh_pass: P@ssword
          ansible_sudo_pass: P@ssword

From my Ansible playbook I'd like to access hosts on Ubuntu_18 section, but I can't:

name: Test connectivity
  hosts: BWT_BKP_A
  vars:
   ansible_python_interpreter: /usr/bin/python3
  tasks:
    - name: Ping test
      ping:

I get the following error:

 ansible-playbook ping-test.yaml -i inventory.yaml
[WARNING]: Could not match supplied host pattern, ignoring: BWT_BKP_A

PLAY [Test connectivity] *****************************************************************************************************
skipping: no hosts matched

If I try the whole group, like :

hosts: Ubuntu_18

I get the same error.

Not sure what I'm missing. I'm using ansible 2.9.12

larsks larsks · Accepted Answer · 2020-09-08T23:34:52

You have an error in your inventory file. The children key should be a peer of hosts, not a child, and every time you are trying to create a "subgroup" you need another children: key.

Using this as my test inventory:

---
all:
  children:
    MY_Lab:
      children:
        Ubuntu_18:
          hosts:
            BWT_BKP_A:
              ansible_host: "127.0.0.1"

            BWT_BKP_B:
              ansible_host: "127.0.0.1"

            BWT_BKP_C:
              ansible_host: "127.0.0.1"

I can run:

$ ansible -i hosts.yml -m ping MY_Lab
BWT_BKP_B | SUCCESS => {
    "ansible_facts": {
        "discovered_interpreter_python": "/usr/bin/python"
    },
    "changed": false,
    "ping": "pong"
}
BWT_BKP_A | SUCCESS => {
    "ansible_facts": {
        "discovered_interpreter_python": "/usr/bin/python"
    },
    "changed": false,
    "ping": "pong"
}
BWT_BKP_C | SUCCESS => {
    "ansible_facts": {
        "discovered_interpreter_python": "/usr/bin/python"
    },
    "changed": false,
    "ping": "pong"
}

Or:

$ ansible -i hosts.yml -m ping BWT_BKP_A
BWT_BKP_A | SUCCESS => {
    "ansible_facts": {
        "discovered_interpreter_python": "/usr/bin/python"
    },
    "changed": false,
    "ping": "pong"
}

Etc.

Accessing hosts in metagroup children from Ansible Playbook

1 Answers