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The ansible-local Packer provisioner configures Ansible to run on the machine by Packer from local Playbook and Role files. Playbooks and Roles can be uploaded from your local machine to the remote machine.	docs	Ansible Local - Provisioners	docs-provisioners-ansible-local

Ansible Local Provisioner

Type: ansible-local

The ansible-local Packer provisioner configures Ansible to run on the machine by Packer from local Playbook and Role files. Playbooks and Roles can be uploaded from your local machine to the remote machine. Ansible is run in local mode via the ansible-playbook command.

-> Note: Ansible will not be installed automatically by this provisioner. This provisioner expects that Ansible is already installed on the machine. It is common practice to use the shell provisioner before the Ansible provisioner to do this.

Basic Example

The example below is fully functional.

{
  "type": "ansible-local",
  "playbook_file": "local.yml"
}

Configuration Reference

The reference of available configuration options is listed below.

Required:

• playbook_file (string) - The playbook file to be executed by ansible. This file must exist on your local system and will be uploaded to the remote machine.

Optional:

• command (string) - The command to invoke ansible. Defaults to "ANSIBLE_FORCE_COLOR=1 PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1 ansible-playbook". Note, This disregards the value of -color when passed to packer build. To disable colors, set this to PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1 ansible-playbook.

• extra_arguments (array of strings) - An array of extra arguments to pass to the ansible command. By default, this is empty. These arguments will be passed through a shell and arguments should be quoted accordingly. Usage example:

"extra_arguments": [ "--extra-vars \"Region={{user `Region`}} Stage={{user `Stage`}}\"" ]

• inventory_groups (string) - A comma-separated list of groups to which packer will assign the host 127.0.0.1. A value of my_group_1,my_group_2 will generate an Ansible inventory like:

[my_group_1]
127.0.0.1
[my_group_2]
127.0.0.1

• inventory_file (string) - The inventory file to be used by ansible. This file must exist on your local system and will be uploaded to the remote machine.

When using an inventory file, it's also required to --limit the hosts to the specified host you're buiding. The --limit argument can be provided in the extra_arguments option.

An example inventory file may look like:

[chi-dbservers]
db-01 ansible_connection=local
db-02 ansible_connection=local

[chi-appservers]
app-01 ansible_connection=local
app-02 ansible_connection=local

[chi:children]
chi-dbservers
chi-appservers

[dbservers:children]
chi-dbservers

[appservers:children]
chi-appservers

• playbook_dir (string) - a path to the complete ansible directory structure on your local system to be copied to the remote machine as the staging_directory before all other files and directories.

• playbook_paths (array of strings) - An array of directories of playbook files on your local system. These will be uploaded to the remote machine under staging_directory/playbooks. By default, this is empty.

• galaxy_file (string) - A requirements file which provides a way to install roles with the ansible-galaxy cli on the remote machine. By default, this is empty.

• group_vars (string) - a path to the directory containing ansible group variables on your local system to be copied to the remote machine. By default, this is empty.

• host_vars (string) - a path to the directory containing ansible host variables on your local system to be copied to the remote machine. By default, this is empty.

• role_paths (array of strings) - An array of paths to role directories on your local system. These will be uploaded to the remote machine under staging_directory/roles. By default, this is empty.

• staging_directory (string) - The directory where all the configuration of Ansible by Packer will be placed. By default this is /tmp/packer-provisioner-ansible-local/<uuid>, where <uuid> is replaced with a unique ID so that this provisioner can be run more than once. If you'd like to know the location of the staging directory in advance, you should set this to a known location. This directory doesn't need to exist but must have proper permissions so that the SSH user that Packer uses is able to create directories and write into this folder. If the permissions are not correct, use a shell provisioner prior to this to configure it properly.

Default Extra Variables

In addition to being able to specify extra arguments using the extra_arguments configuration, the provisioner automatically defines certain commonly useful Ansible variables:

• packer_build_name is set to the name of the build that Packer is running. This is most useful when Packer is making multiple builds and you want to distinguish them slightly when using a common playbook.

• packer_builder_type is the type of the builder that was used to create the machine that the script is running on. This is useful if you want to run only certain parts of the playbook on systems built with certain builders.

• packer_http_addr If using a builder that provides an http server for file transfer (such as hyperv, parallels, qemu, virtualbox, and vmware), this will be set to the address. You can use this address in your provisioner to download large files over http. This may be useful if you're experiencing slower speeds using the default file provisioner. A file provisioner using the winrm communicator may experience these types of difficulties.