Linux – Ansible task write to local log file

ansibleansible-playbooklinuxshell

Using Ansible I would like to be able to write the sysout of a task running a command to a local(i.e. on the managed server) log file.
For the moment I can only do this using a task like this:

- name: Run my command
  shell: <command> <arg1> <arg3> ... |tee -a <local log file>

The reason to do this is that the takes a long time to complete(i.e. we cannot wait until it finishes to get its output) and would like to collect the output during its execution.

Is there any "Ansible" way to redirect to sysout of the command to a local log file during its execution without using the tee pipe?

Best Answer

You need to use register in the first task and now, you can create a second task to write the output to a local file

- name: shell command
  shell: my_shell_command
  register: myshell_output
- name: copy the output to a local file
  copy:
    content: "{{ myshell_output.stdout }}"
    dest: "/tmp/hello.txt"
  delegate_to: localhost

Related Solutions

Ansible run global variable

Yes, this is possible. When you set a fact with the set_fact module, this fact is accessible via "hostvars". So if you define your variable commandserver like so:

  - name: Set hostname of command server as fact
    set_fact: commandserver="{{ cs.stdout }}"

then you can access this variable in other included playbooks of the same play in that way (the debug module is just an example):

  - debug: msg="{{ hostvars['put the hostname in here']['commandserver'] }}"

Why does this Ansible task report a failure

Anything non-zero exit status for the command is counted as a failure.

You can ignore all errors on the task:

ignore_errors: yes

or it's likely you could use failed_when to set conditions (I haven't tested this exact condition set, but you get the idea...) that ensure it fails if an unexpected failure is encountered, but continues if this expected one is seen:

failed_when: 
  - "'does not exist' not in trusted_cert.stderr"
  - "trusted_cert.rc != 0"

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ansible run global variable

Why does this Ansible task report a failure

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