Is it possible to notify a group of services instead of individual in Ansible?

Question

- name: be sure check-http.rb is copied
  copy:
    src: /tmp/sensu-plugins-http/bin/check-http.rb
    dest: /etc/sensu/plugins/check-http.rb
    remote_src: true
    owner: sensu
    group: sensu
    mode: 0500
  notify:
    - restart sensu-api
    - restart sensu-client
    - restart sensu-server

- name: be sure check_websites.json is copied
  template:
    src: check_websites.j2
    dest: "{{ sensu_conf_d }}/check_websites.json"
  register: check_websites_config
  notify:
    - restart sensu-api
    - restart sensu-client
    - restart sensu-server

Instead of repeating:

notify:
  - restart sensu-api
  - restart sensu-client
  - restart sensu-server

is it possible to make it concise, e.g.:

notify:
  - restart sensu-services

Expected answer

@knowhy suggested this solution, but I am looking for a solution that is able to combine multiple restarts in a handler and not in the tasks directory

Have you looked at: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/31618967/how-do-i-write-an-ansible-handler-with-multiple-tasks — Henrik Pingel, Aug 10 '16 at 17:55
@knowhy That seems even more complicated than the existing playbook! — Michael Hampton, Aug 10 '16 at 18:00
@michael-hampton You are right about that. Probably bad advice ... But the only mechanism I'm aware of which comes close to the question asked. — Henrik Pingel, Aug 10 '16 at 18:03

score 7 · Answer 1 · edited Jul 27 '23 at 04:47

There is with the listen attribute.

notify:
  - "restart sensu-services"


handlers:
- name: restart sensu api
  listen: "restart sensu-services"
  service: name=sensu-api state=restarted
  ignore_errors: true

- name: restart sensu service
  listen: "restart sensu-services"
  service: name=sensu-service state=restarted
  ignore_errors: true

- name: restart sensu client
  listen: "restart sensu-services"
  service: name=sensu-client state=restarted
  ignore_errors: true

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 06 '23 at 03:42

There is no such functionality available in Ansible as of today.

There are some more or less ugly workarounds (as linked in the question) which I won't repeat here.

The best solution I can think of would be to write a handler which combines these tasks. Assuming that the handler in the question asked, just restarts services, a with_items loop could be used like this:

- name: restart sensu-services
  service:
    name: "{{ item }}"
    state: restarted
  with_items:
    - sensu-api
    - sensu-client
    - sensu-server

There is an open feature request to support blocks as handlers. That would be a good abstraction for this usecase.

Is it possible to notify a group of services instead of individual in Ansible?

2 Answers2