Ansible - manage installed apps and send output via email - variables are filling wrong

Question

so i have this playbook, which checking, if there are installed selected packages. nothing special there. Then i would like to send an output to my email, if everything went right etc.

---
 - name: Install basic apps
   hosts: some hosts from inventory
   become: yes
   tasks:
     - name: load global variables
       include_vars:
               file: /etc/ansible/vars/global.yml
               name: global

     - name: install MC
       apt:
               name: mc
               state: present
       register: mc

     - debug:
             var: mc

     - name: install HTOP
       apt:
               name: htop
               state: present
       register: htop

     - name: install TMUX
       apt:
               name: tmux
               state: present
       register: tmux

     - name: install VIM
       apt:
               name: vim
               state: present
       register: vim


     - name: send email
       mail:
             host: "{{ global.mail_server }}"
             port: "{{ global.mail_port }}"
             subject: basic apps instalation was run by {{ ansible_user_id }}
             subtype: html
             # body: targeted server:  {{ ansible_hostname }} 

             #      stav MC -   {{ mc.failed }} {{ mc.changed }} 

             #      stav HTOP - {{ htop }} 

             #      stav TMUX - {{ tmux }} 

             #      stav VIM  - {{ vim }}
             body: "{{ lookup('template', '/etc/ansible/templates/mail.j2') }}"
             from: adress
             to: adress
       run_once: true

simple Jinja template:

{% for host in play_hosts %}
{{ host }}: 

Midnight Commander

 - is there anything wrong? {{ mc.failed }}

 - any changes made? {{ mc.changed}}

Htop

 - is there anything wrong? {{ htop.failed }}

 - any changes made? {{ mc.changed}}

 
{% endfor %}

this is an output in my email:

host1: 
Midnight Commander
- is there anything wrong? False
- any changes made? True
Htop
- is there anything wrong? False
- any changes made? True
________________________________________
host2: 
Midnight Commander
- is there anything wrong? False
- any changes made? True
Htop
- is there anything wrong? False
- any changes made? True

but changes were made only on host1. If i make change at host2, there will be False everywhere. That means, variables registred from apt module are filled only from first host. What am i doing wrong here?

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 28 '18 at 22:21

I would be more sure about this, if I knew how exactly you are sending the emails. But I am assuming that you are doing it from host1.

The problem might be that you are not accessing the hostvars correctly in your email template.

This

{{ mc.failed }}

is effectively a shortcut for

{{ hostvars[inventory_hostname].mc.failed }}

It depends on which host you are running it from.

Try this in the template (using your host variable from above):

{{ hostvars[host].mc.failed }}

The docs on this topic can be found here: https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/user_guide/playbooks_variables.html#accessing-information-about-other-hosts-with-magic-variables

Ansible - manage installed apps and send output via email - variables are filling wrong

1 Answers1