Ansible: Can I execute role from command line?

Question

Suppose I have a role called "apache"

Now I want to execute that role on host 192.168.0.10 from the command line from Ansible host

ansible-playbook -i  "192.168.0.10" --role  "path to role"

Is there a way to do that?

score 112 · Answer 1 · edited Jan 07 '23 at 15:18

112

With ansible 2.7 you can do this:

$ ansible localhost --module-name include_role --args name=<role_name>
localhost | SUCCESS => {
    "changed": false,
    "include_variables": {
        "name": "<role_name>"
    }
}
localhost | SUCCESS => {
    "msg": "<role_name>"
}

This will run role from /path/to/ansible/roles or configured role path.

Read more here: https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/43131

edited Jan 07 '23 at 15:18

Oliver Salzburg

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answered Oct 19 '18 at 08:09

Julius Žaromskis

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This does not really answer the question because there's no reference to the external role YAML file @kari implemented and wants to include. I have the same question. Yet after reading this answer, I only understand that it is feasible. I just don't know how. – Kola Feb 18 '19 at 12:04
Hopefully I have clarified the answer @Kola – Julius Žaromskis Feb 18 '19 at 14:23
1

This is broken in Ansible 2.8. It just logs cryptic error messages like `'ERROR! 'async_val' is not a valid attribute for a IncludeRole'.` – Christian Ciach May 27 '19 at 13:46
1

This solution seems to work for me with ansible 2.8.2. It does seem to have a problem with exposing variables to other roles included within the original role (which is not a problem in a playbook). I tried changing to `-a "name= public=yes"`, but that didn't help. – user2066480 Aug 22 '19 at 11:23
1

To understand what -m and -a does see https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/user_guide/modules_intro.html Basically, this is how modules can be started from command line (`-m `) with key=value pairs as arguments (`-a key=value`) – andymel Sep 26 '20 at 18:27
4

one caveat is that ad-hoc cli commands don't have access to the `ansible_facts` which the role might need. To work around it, you can use caching: `ANSIBLE_CACHE_PLUGIN=jsonfile ANSIBLE_CACHE_PLUGIN_CONNECTION=/tmp/ansible-cache ansible -m setup yourHostname` and then `ANSIBLE_CACHE_PLUGIN=jsonfile ANSIBLE_CACHE_PLUGIN_CONNECTION=/tmp/ansible-cache ansible -m include_role .....` – petrtvaruzek Mar 07 '21 at 05:08

score 105 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 14 '16 at 21:03

105

I am not aware of this feature, but you can use tags to just run one role from your playbook.

roles:
    - {role: 'mysql', tags: 'mysql'}
    - {role: 'apache', tags: 'apache'}

ansible-playbook webserver.yml --tags "apache"

answered Jul 14 '16 at 21:03

abuzze

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score 26 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 17 '16 at 08:49

26

There is no such thing in Ansible, but if this is an often use case for you, try this script.
Put it somewhere within your searchable PATH under name ansible-role:

#!/bin/bash

if [[ $# < 2 ]]; then
  cat <<HELP
Wrapper script for ansible-playbook to apply single role.

Usage: $0 <host-pattern> <role-name> [ansible-playbook options]

Examples:
  $0 dest_host my_role
  $0 custom_host my_role -i 'custom_host,' -vv --check
HELP
  exit
fi

HOST_PATTERN=$1
shift
ROLE=$1
shift

echo "Trying to apply role \"$ROLE\" to host/group \"$HOST_PATTERN\"..."

export ANSIBLE_ROLES_PATH="$(pwd)/roles"
export ANSIBLE_RETRY_FILES_ENABLED="False"
ansible-playbook "$@" /dev/stdin <<END
---
- hosts: $HOST_PATTERN
  roles:
    - $ROLE
END

answered Jul 17 '16 at 08:49

Konstantin Suvorov

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I have created a "create an ansible-role" tool proposal, we will see: https://github.com/ansible/proposals/issues/131 – jhutar Jul 20 '18 at 05:53
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Looks like it's been implemented in Ansible 2.7: https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/43131 – EM0 Aug 10 '18 at 08:00
1

Yes, please try `ansible localhost -m include_role -a name=myrole` - works for me! – jhutar May 06 '19 at 20:54
`ansible localhost -m include_role -a name=myrole` is broken since ansible 2.8. It just logs cryptic error messages like `'ERROR! 'async_val' is not a valid attribute for a IncludeRole'.` – Christian Ciach May 27 '19 at 13:41
This was re-fixed in [cd95843](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/commit/cd95843ea5f1bff40225b0430cfbb379cbe53661) – Brad Solomon Sep 10 '21 at 12:52

score 18 · Answer 4 · answered May 23 '17 at 21:40

18

You could also check ansible-toolbox repository. It will allow you to use something like

ansible-role --host 192.168.0.10 --gather --user centos --become my-role

answered May 23 '17 at 21:40

Sasha Miroshnychenko

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score 16 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 17 '17 at 08:50

I have written a small Ansible plugin, called auto_tags, that dynamically generates for each role in your playbook a tag of the same name. You can find it here.

After installing it (instructions are in the gist above) you could then execute a specific role with:

ansible-playbook -i "192.168.0.10" --tags "name_of_role"

score 5 · Answer 6 · edited Jan 09 '21 at 20:43

Since in ansible 2.4 two options are available: import_role and include_role.

wohlgemuth@leela:~/workspace/rtmtb-ansible/kvm-cluster$ ansible localhost -m import_role -a name=rtmtb
 [WARNING]: No inventory was parsed, only implicit localhost is available

localhost | CHANGED => {
    "changed": true, 
    "checksum": "d31b41e68997e1c7f182bb56286edf993146dba1", 
    "dest": "/root/.ssh/id_rsa.github", 
    "gid": 0, 
    "group": "root", 
    "md5sum": "b7831c4c72f3f62207b2b96d3d7ed9b3", 
    "mode": "0600", 
    "owner": "root", 
    "size": 3389, 
    "src": "/home/wohlgemuth/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1561491049.46-139127672211209/source", 
    "state": "file", 
    "uid": 0
}
localhost | CHANGED => {
    "changed": true, 
    "checksum": "1972ebcd25363f8e45adc91d38405dfc0386b5f0", 
    "dest": "/root/.ssh/config", 
    "gid": 0, 
    "group": "root", 
    "md5sum": "f82552a9494e40403da4a80e4c528781", 
    "mode": "0644", 
    "owner": "root", 
    "size": 147, 
    "src": "/home/wohlgemuth/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1561491049.99-214274671218454/source", 
    "state": "file", 
    "uid": 0
}

ansible.builtin.import_role – Import a role into a play

ansible.builtin.include_role – Load and execute a role

But no facts are gathered, so this is not equivalent to using a playbook. — reinierpost, Dec 09 '21 at 19:15

score 5 · Answer 7 · edited Sep 19 '19 at 20:19

Have you tried that? it's super cool. I'm using 'update-os' instead of 'apache' role to give a more meaningful example. I have a role called let's say ./roles/update-os/ in my ./ I add a file called ./role-update-os.yml which looks like:

#!/usr/bin/ansible-playbook
---
- hosts: all
  gather_facts: yes
  become: yes
  roles:
  - update-os

Make this file executable (chmod +x role-update-os.yml). Now you can run and limit to whatever you have in your inventory ./update-os.yml -i inventory-dev --limit 192.168.0.10 the limit you can pass the group names as well.

--limit web,db > web and db is the group defined in your inventory
--limit 192.168.0.10,192.168.0.201

$ cat inventory-dev
[web]
192.168.0.10

[db]
192.168.0.201

Note that you can configure ssh-keys and sudoers policy to be able to execute without having to type password - ideal for automation, there are security implications with this. therefore you have to analyze your environment to see whether it's suitable.

score 4 · Answer 8 · answered Mar 11 '21 at 09:31

4

Yes, import_role is an ansible module and as such it may be invoked through ansible command. The following executes role pki on my_server

ansible my_server -m import_role \
                  -a "name=pki tasks_from=gencert" \
                  -e cn=etcdctl \
                  -e extended_key_usage=clientAuth

answered Mar 11 '21 at 09:31

olopopo

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As a caveat, note that while this invocation works, it will *not* implicitly gather facts; so, if you have a role with a task that references something like `ansible_date_time`, this invocation will fail. I'm not sure if there's a workaround to that; it seems like you'd just need to use an 'entry-point' playbook instead. – Brad Solomon Sep 10 '21 at 12:53

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Mar 21 '22 at 17:46

You can create the playbook files from the command line:

Install the role (if not already installed)

ansible-galaxy install git+https://github.com/user/apache-role.git

Create playbook and hosts files

cat >> playbook.yml <<EOL
---
- name: Run apache
  hosts: all
  roles:
    - apache-role
EOL

cat >> hosts <<EOL
192.168.0.10
EOL

Run ansible
```
ansible-playbook playbook.yml -i hosts
```
Delete the files
```
rm playbook.yml hosts
```

Ansible: Can I execute role from command line?

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