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133 lines
4.5 KiB
ReStructuredText
.. _developing_inventory:
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Developing Dynamic Inventory Sources
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====================================
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.. contents:: Topics
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:local:
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As described in :ref:`dynamic_inventory`, Ansible can pull inventory information from dynamic sources, including cloud sources. You can also create a new dynamic inventory provider by creating a script or program that can output JSON in the correct format when invoked with the proper arguments. There is no restriction on the language used for creating a dynamic inventory provider.
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.. _inventory_script_conventions:
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Script Conventions
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``````````````````
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Dynamic inventory providers must accept the ``--list`` and ``--host <hostname>`` arguments.
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When the dynamic inventory provider is called with the single argument ``--list``, the script must output to stdout a JSON-encoded hash or dictionary containing all of the groups to be managed. Each group's value should be either a hash or dictionary containing a list of each host, any child groups, and potential group variables, or simply a list of hosts::
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{
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"group001": {
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"hosts": ["host001", "" "host002"],
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"vars": {
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"var1": true
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},
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"children": ["group002"]
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},
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"group002": {
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"hosts": ["host003","host004"],
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"vars": {
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"var2": 500
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},
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"children":[]
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}
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}
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If any of the elements of a group are empty they may be omitted from the output.
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When called with the argument ``--host <hostname>`` (where <hostname> is a host from above), the script must print either an empty JSON hash/dictionary, or a hash/dictionary of variables to make available to templates and playbooks. For example::
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{
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"VAR001": "VALUE",
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"VAR002": "VALUE",
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}
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Printing variables is optional. If the inventory provider does not do this, it should print an empty hash or dictionary.
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.. _inventory_script_tuning:
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Tuning the External Inventory Script
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````````````````````````````````````
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.. versionadded:: 1.3
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The stock inventory script system detailed above works for all versions of
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Ansible, but calling ``--host`` for every host can be rather inefficient,
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especially if it involves API calls to a remote subsystem. In Ansible 1.3 or
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later, if the inventory script returns a top level element called "_meta", it
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is possible to return all of the host variables in one inventory provider call.
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When this meta element contains a value for "hostvars", the inventory script
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will not be invoked with ``--host`` for each host. This results in a
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significant performance increase for large numbers of hosts, and also makes
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client-side caching easier to implement for the inventory provider.
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The data to be added to the top level JSON dictionary looks like this::
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{
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# results of inventory script as above go here
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# ...
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"_meta": {
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"hostvars": {
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"host001": {
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"var001" : "value"
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},
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"host002": {
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"var002": "value"
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}
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}
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}
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}
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To satisfy the requirements of using ``_meta``, to prevent ansible from calling your inventory with ``--host`` you must at least populate ``_meta`` with an empty ``hostvars`` dictionary. For example::
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{
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# results of inventory script as above go here
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# ...
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"_meta": {
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"hostvars": {}
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}
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}
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.. _replacing_inventory_ini_with_dynamic_provider:
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If you intend to replace an existing inventory ini file with a dynamic provider,
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it must return a JSON object which contains an 'all' group that includes every
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host in the inventory as a member and every group in the inventory as a child.
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It should also include an 'ungrouped' group which contains all hosts which are not members of
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any other group. A skeleton example of this JSON object is::
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{
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"_meta": {
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"hostvars": {}
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},
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"all": {
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"children": [
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"ungrouped"
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]
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},
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"ungrouped": {}
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}
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.. seealso::
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:doc:`developing_api`
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Python API to Playbooks and Ad Hoc Task Execution
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:doc:`developing_modules`
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How to develop modules
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:doc:`developing_plugins`
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How to develop plugins
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`Ansible Tower <https://ansible.com/ansible-tower>`_
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REST API endpoint and GUI for Ansible, syncs with dynamic inventory
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`Development Mailing List <http://groups.google.com/group/ansible-devel>`_
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Mailing list for development topics
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`irc.freenode.net <http://irc.freenode.net>`_
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#ansible IRC chat channel
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