Copying multiple files to hosts using ansible

Question

I have four different hosts. host1, host2, host3, host4

I am trying to update following files on the these hosts.

host1
/var/www/foo1

host2
/var/www/foo1
/var/tmp/foo1

host3
/var/www/foo1

host4
/var/tmp/foo1

I am able to write two different playbook with different inventory files and group vars to achieve this task.

Inventory file 1

[group_foo1]
host1
host2
host3

Group variable

File name: group_foo1

path:/var/www

Inventory file 2

[group_foo2]
host2
host4

Group variable

File name: group_foo2

path:/var/tmp

Task

name: copy the file
copy: src=foo1 dest={{path}}

I want to do this task using single playbook.

How it can be done?

Setup a vars file to include in your playbook. docs.ansible.com/ansible/index.html is a great resource — Coder-guy
– Coder-guy, Commented Mar 31, 2016 at 21:16

Valeriy Solovyov · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-20 18:15:03Z

2

You should use synchronize module:

# Synchronize two directories on one remote host.
synchronize:
    src: /first/absolute/path
    dest: /second/absolute/path
delegate_to: "{{ inventory_hostname }}"

ALso you can try to iterate in a tasks over all hosts:

with_items: groups['all']

answered Apr 20, 2016 at 18:15

Valeriy Solovyov

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Comments

Peter Kuilboer · Accepted Answer · 2023-07-28 09:12:16Z

You can put this in a single playbook and target the tasks to different hosts in one of the following ways:

1. Define groups in your Ansible inventory file and delegate tasks to specific hosts:

Put your hosts in groups, e.g.:

[www_hosts]
host1
host2
host3

[tmp_hosts]
host2
host4

And setup your playbook to delegate tasks to these groups like this:

- name: Copy the file to www_path
  ansible.builtin.copy:
    src: "foo1"
    dest: "/var/www"
  run_once: true
  delegate_to: "{{ item }}"
  loop: "{{ groups['www_hosts'] }}"

- name: Copy the file to tmp_path
  ansible.builtin.copy:
    src: "foo1"
    dest: "/var/tmp"
  run_once: true
  delegate_to: "{{ item }}"
  loop: "{{ groups['tmp_hosts'] }}"

Don't forget to set the run_once to true otherwise the same tasks will run (and be delegated to each host) on each host you target the playbook.

2. Setup variables as a condition to run tasks on specific hosts:

If you don't want your playbook to be dependent on a specific inventory setup you can also set it up in a variables file or section and run tasks selectively. E.g.:

Set up a vars/main.yml file (or vars-section) with:

www_hosts:
 - host1
 - host2
 - host3

tmp_hosts:
 - host2
 - host4

Make sure these vars gets loaded into your playbook/role and setup playbook tasks like this:

- name: Copy the file to www_path
  ansible.builtin.copy:
    src: "foo1"
    dest: "/var/www"
  when: ansible_fqdn in www_hosts

- name: Copy the file to tmp_path
  ansible.builtin.copy:
    src: "foo1"
    dest: "/var/tmp"
  when: ansible_fqdn in tmp_hosts

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Copying multiple files to hosts using ansible

2 Answers 2

Comments

1. Define groups in your Ansible inventory file and delegate tasks to specific hosts:

2. Setup variables as a condition to run tasks on specific hosts:

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Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Comments

1. Define groups in your Ansible inventory file and delegate tasks to specific hosts:

2. Setup variables as a condition to run tasks on specific hosts:

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