Need help with dynamic inventory. Can't figure out how to use (in general).

[slekkus75]

Hi, have been fiddling around this morning run playbooks against a dynamically generated inventory. I think, I need a multistep form for this, but before I figure that out, I do not see how get the plugin to work.
It is the following plugin I would like to use: https://github.com/freeipa/ansible-freeipa/blob/master/plugins/inventory/freeipa.py

So installed the "anwsible-freeipa" collection using the maintenance forms included with ansibleforms, that succeeded and can find the plugin . But how do I generate the inventory and pass this to a subsequent playbook?

multistep form:

name: "Update Linux Servers"

roles:
  - admin
  
credentials:
  idmacreds: idm_admin
  
type: multistep
steps:
- type: ansible
  name: "Generate Inventory"
  playbook: linuxupdates_geninv.yaml
  key: linuxupdates_inventory

- type: ansible
  name: "Update Linux VMs"
  playbook: updatelinux.yaml
  inventory: linuxupdates_inventory

categories:
  - LinuxUpdate

fields:
  - name: dummy
    type: dummy

linuxupdates_geninv.yaml:

plugin: freeipa
server: server
ipaadmin_password: {{ idmacreds.password }} 
verify: ca.crt

Also added enable_plugins setting in ansible.cfg:

[defaults]
stdout_callback = yaml
COLLECTIONS_PATHS=/usr/share/ansible/collections/ansible_collections:/etc/ansible/collections/ansible_collections
host_key_checking = False
enable_plugins=freeipa

[ansibleguy76]

why not use multiple plays instead. this way you stay within the same playbook run.

play 1 generates the dynamic inventory (probably targeting localhost)

play 2 then targets the generated hosts.

[slekkus75]

Yeah, now that you mention it, multistep isn't necessary. But how do I utilize the plugin?
I should use this in play1?

plugin: freeipa
server: server
ipaadmin_password: {{ idmacreds.password }} 
verify: ca.crt

Above needs to be ran with ansible-inventory and need to pass the above as a yaml input, after which I could use a returned group in "hosts:" in the next play. If I run the above yaml as documented by the plugin maintainer from the docker cli, I get this:

/app/dist/persistent/repositories/redacted-playbooks/inventory # cat dyn.freeipa_ipaservers.yaml
plugin: freeipa
server: idm.redacted.local
ipaadmin_password: secret

/app/dist/persistent/repositories/redacted-playbooks/inventory # ansible-inventory -i dyn.freeipa_ipaservers.yaml --graph
[DEPRECATION WARNING]: [defaults]collections_paths option, does not fit var naming standard, use the singular form collections_path instead. This feature will be removed
from ansible-core in version 2.19. Deprecation warnings can be disabled by setting deprecation_warnings=False in ansible.cfg.
[WARNING]: * Failed to parse /app/dist/persistent/repositories/redacted-playbooks/inventory/dyn.freeipa_ipaservers.yaml with auto plugin: inventory config
'/app/dist/persistent/repositories/redacted-playbooks/inventory/dyn.freeipa_ipaservers.yaml' specifies unknown plugin 'freeipa'
[WARNING]: * Failed to parse /app/dist/persistent/repositories/redacted-playbooks/inventory/dyn.freeipa_ipaservers.yaml with yaml plugin: Plugin configuration YAML
file, not YAML inventory
[WARNING]: * Failed to parse /app/dist/persistent/repositories/redacted-playbooks/inventory/dyn.freeipa_ipaservers.yaml with ini plugin: Invalid host pattern 'plugin:'
supplied, ending in ':' is not allowed, this character is reserved to provide a port.
[WARNING]: Unable to parse /app/dist/persistent/repositories/redacted-playbooks/inventory/dyn.freeipa_ipaservers.yaml as an inventory source
[WARNING]: No inventory was parsed, only implicit localhost is available
@ALL:
|--@Ungrouped:

/app/dist/persistent/repositories/redacted-playbooks/inventory # ls -l /etc/ansible/collections/ansible_collections/freeipa/ansible_freeipa/plugins/inventory/freeipa.py
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6280 Oct 22 13:34 /etc/ansible/collections/ansible_collections/freeipa/ansible_freeipa/plugins/inventory/freeipa.py

[mirkovancolen]

This is now probably a non-ansibleforms discussion ?

[slekkus75]

Not sure, really. Probably it is.

[slekkus75]

Was not related to AnsibleForms.