Ansible troubleshooting - undefined variable
How to reproduce the undefined variable error in Ansible, troubleshooting, and fix to be able to successfully print the value of a variable on screen.
Today we’re going to talk about Ansible troubleshooting, specifically about the undefined variable errors. I’m Luca Berton and welcome to today’s episode of Ansible Pilot.
demo
The best way of talking about Ansible troubleshooting is to jump in a live demo to show you practically the undefined variable error and how to solve it!
error code
- underfinedvariable_error.yml
---
- name: debug module demo
hosts: all
tasks:
- name: debug message
ansible.builtin.debug:
msg: "{{ fruit }}"
error execution
$ ansible-playbook troubleshooting/undefinedvariable_error.yml
PLAY [file module demo] ***************************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ****************************************************************************
ok: [demo.example.com]
TASK [debug message] ******************************************************************************
fatal: [demo.example.com]: FAILED! => {"msg": "The task includes an option with an undefined variable. The error was: 'fruit' is undefined\n\nThe error appears to be in '/Users/lberton/prj/github/ansible-pilot/troubleshooting/undefinedvariable_error.yml': line 5, column 7, but may\nbe elsewhere in the file depending on the exact syntax problem.\n\nThe offending line appears to be:\n\n tasks:\n - name: debug message\n ^ here\n"}
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
demo.example.com : ok=1 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=1 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
fix code
- underfinedvariable_fix.yml
---
- name: debug module demo
hosts: all
vars:
fruit: "apple"
tasks:
- name: debug message
ansible.builtin.debug:
msg: "{{ fruit }}"
fix execution
$ ansible-playbook troubleshooting/undefinedvariable_fix.yml
PLAY [debug module demo] **************************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ****************************************************************************
ok: [demo.example.com]
TASK [debug message] ******************************************************************************
ok: [demo.example.com] => {
"msg": "apple"
}
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
demo.example.com : ok=2 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
Recap
Now you know how to troubleshoot the most common Ansible undefined variable error. Subscribe to the YouTube channel, Medium, Website and Twitter to not miss the next episode of the Ansible Pilot.
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