Access variable in other play - Ansible

Question

Ansible Version: 2.4.2.0

From here and here, I was able write below playbook

$ cat test.yml 
- name: Finding Master VMs
  hosts: all-compute-host
  remote_user: heat-admin
  tasks:
  - name: Getting master VM's hostname
    shell: hostname
    register: hostname_output

- name: Access in different play
  hosts: localhost
  connection: local

  tasks:
  - name: Testing vars
    debug: var='{{ hostvars[item]['hostname_output']['stdout'] }}'
    with_items: groups['all-compute-host']

I don't want use gather_facts: true and access hostname from it. Getting below error when I try to above playbook

-----------OUTPUT REMOVED----------------
TASK [Testing vars] *******************************************************************************************************************
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {"msg": "The task includes an option with an undefined variable. The error was: u\"hostvars['groups['all-compute-host']']\" is undefined\n\nThe error appears to have been in '/tmp/test.yml': line 18, column 5, but may\nbe elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.\n\nThe offending line appears to be:\n\n  tasks:\n  - name: Testing vars\n    ^ here\n\nexception type: <class 'ansible.errors.AnsibleUndefinedVariable'>\nexception: u\"hostvars['groups['all-compute-host']']\" is undefined"}
    to retry, use: --limit @/tmp/test.retry
-----------OUTPUT REMOVED----------------

I tried below things

debug: var=hostvars[item]['hostname_output']['stdout']
debug: var=hostvars.item.hostname_output.stdout'

I have also tried direct host group instead of iterating item like below

debug: var=hostvars.all-compute-host.hostname_output.stdout'
debug: var=hostvars['all-compute-host']['hostname_output']['stdout']

ok: [localhost] => {
    "hostvars['all-compute-host']['hostname_output']['stdout']": "VARIABLE IS NOT DEFINED!"
}

I have also try direct host name.But no use

debug: var='hostvars.compute01.hostname_output.stdout'

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 29 '19 at 12:52

The problem is with your debug statement:

tasks:
  - name: Testing vars
    debug: var='{{ hostvars[item]['hostname_output']['stdout'] }}'
    with_items: groups['all-compute-host']

There are two issues:

The value of the var argument to the debug module is evaluated in a Jinja templating context. That means you must not use the {{...}} template markers.
On the hand, the argument to with_items does need the {{...}} markers; without that, you're iterating over a list consisting of a single item, the literal string groups['all-compute-host'].

With both of those problems fixed (and a few minor stylistic changes), you get:

tasks:
  - name: Testing vars
    debug:
      var: hostvars[item].hostname_output.stdout
    with_items: "{{ groups['all-compute-host'] }}"

Access variable in other play - Ansible

1 Answers1