Ansible: Conditionally define variables in vars file if a certain condition is met

Solution 1:

Ansible allows one of following forms to define variable conditionally:

    test:
      var1: "{% if my_group_var %}value{% else %}other_value{% endif %}"
      var2: "{{'value' if (my_group_var) else 'other_value'}}"

Combining above syntax with vars lookup we can load complex vars (list in this case):

test_value_when_my_group_var_is_true:
   var1: value
   var2: value

test_value_when_my_group_var_is_false:
   var1: other_value
   var2: other_value

test: "{{ lookup('vars','test_value_when_my_group_var_is_true') if (my_group_var) else lookup('vars','test_value_when_my_group_var_is_false')}}"

There is another way of doing conditional tree loading with vars lookup. This way is handy when you need implement case logic (i.e. condition variable has more than two possible values):

test_value_when_my_group_var_is_foo:
   var1: value
   var2: value

test_value_when_my_group_var_is_bar:
   var1: other_value
   var2: other_value

test_value_when_my_group_var_is_baz:
   var1: yet_another_value
   var2: yet_another_value

test: "{{ lookup('vars','test_value_when_my_group_var_is_' + my_group_var) }}"

Solution 2:

I don't think you can, I usually create separate files to hold conditional variable collections and use a when clause to include them on a specific condition:

- include_vars: test_environment_vars.yml
  when: global_platform == "test"

- include_vars: staging_environment_vars.yml
  when: global_platform == "staging"

- include_vars: prod_environment_vars.yml
  when: 
    - global_platform != "test" 
    - global_platform != "staging" 

---

Solution 3:

Despite it would be nice, I'm afraid that your way isn't possible (or I'm not aware right way).

I'd suggest to first prepare vars file from jinja template and then include it with include_vars. See the example playbook:

---
- name: -Test-
  hosts: local
  vars:
    my_group_var: False
#    my_group_var: True

  tasks:

  - name: Prepare vars file from template.
    template: src=/tmp/vars.yaml.j2
              dest=/tmp/vars.yaml

  - name: Include vars
    include_vars: "/tmp/vars.yaml"

The content of example jinja template /tmp/vars.yaml.j2 is:

{% if my_group_var %}                                                                                                                                                                                             
test:                                                                                                                                                                                                             
   var1: value                                                                                                                                                                                                    
   var2: value                                                                                                                                                                                                    
{% else %}                                                                                                                                                                                                        
test:                                                                                                                                                                                                             
   var1: other_value                                                                                                                                                                                              
   var2: other_value                                                                                                                                                                                              
{% endif %}