diff --git a/template b/template
index 3421f497ccc..0b13422d5ab 100755
--- a/template
+++ b/template
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ for x in items:
 source  = params['src']
 dest    = params['dest']
 metadata = params.get('metadata', '/etc/ansible/setup') 
-
+module_vars = params.get('vars')
  
 # raise an error if there is no template metadata
 if not os.path.exists(metadata):
@@ -71,6 +71,19 @@ except:
    })
    sys.exit(1)
 
+if module_vars:
+    try:
+        f = open(module_vars)
+        vars = json.loads(f.read())
+        data.update(vars)
+        f.close()
+    except:
+        print json.dumps({
+            "failed" : 1,
+            "msg"    : "Failed to parse/load %s." % module_vars
+        })
+        sys.exit(1)
+
 if not os.path.exists(source):
     print json.dumps({
         "failed" : 1,