# Ansible\_inventory.rb -\> Howto define array in context and pass to ansible? **URL:** \ **Category:** Product Support\ **Created:** [November 12, 2017, 7:15pm UTC](https://forum.opennebula.io/t/ansible-inventory-rb-howto-define-array-in-context-and-pass-to-ansible/5257 "2017-11-12T19:15:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![uli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ccd318/32.png) [@uli](https://forum.opennebula.io/u/uli)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2017, 7:15pm UTC](https://forum.opennebula.io/t/ansible-inventory-rb-howto-define-array-in-context-and-pass-to-ansible/5257/1 "2017-11-12T19:15:56Z")
Hello again, I am using the inventory script from below and I am pretty impressed with its simplicity and functionality. > I am trying to use a playbook for NTP configuration which expects an array “ntp\_servers”. When I define the variable in the playbook as [192.168.1.1] it works fine. If I try to pass the context var “ntp\_servers” to the playbook the value is not interpreted as array. I get a chrony.conf like this server [ iburst server " iburst server 1 iburst server 9 iburst server 2 iburst server . iburst server 1 iburst server 6 iburst server 8 iburst server . iburst server 1 iburst server . iburst server 1 iburst server " iburst server ] iburst Any help howto to pass the value in the correct way would be very much appreciated. Thanks Uli ---
**Author:** ![feldsam](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/forum.opennebula.io/feldsam/32/4441_2.png) [@feldsam](https://forum.opennebula.io/u/feldsam)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2017, 8:06am UTC](https://forum.opennebula.io/t/ansible-inventory-rb-howto-define-array-in-context-and-pass-to-ansible/5257/2 "2017-11-13T08:06:33Z")
Hello, try my [opennebula ansible inventory implementation](https://github.com/FELDSAM-INC/ansible-one-inv) I create host groups using VM labels, so you have to just label your NTP servers in opennebula. ---
**Author:** ![uli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ccd318/32.png) [@uli](https://forum.opennebula.io/u/uli)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2017, 8:47am UTC](https://forum.opennebula.io/t/ansible-inventory-rb-howto-define-array-in-context-and-pass-to-ansible/5257/3 "2017-11-23T08:47:20Z")
Hello Kristian, thanks. I finally had the chance to try your implementation. It is always good to have a choice. I get a slightly better result, but still not the expected one. When defining the ntp\_servers = [192.168.1.1,ntp.company.loc] as context variable I end up with an ntp.conf only including the second value from the array: server ntp.company.loc iburst Expected result would be: server 192.168.1.1 iburst server ntp.company.loc iburst When I define ntp\_servers: [192.168.1.1, ntp.pupisoft.loc] within the ansible play I get the expected result. Do you have an idea how to pass an array/list from OpenNebula to Ansible? Thanks Uli ---
**Author:** ![feldsam](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/forum.opennebula.io/feldsam/32/4441_2.png) [@feldsam](https://forum.opennebula.io/u/feldsam)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2017, 9:49am UTC](https://forum.opennebula.io/t/ansible-inventory-rb-howto-define-array-in-context-and-pass-to-ansible/5257/4 "2017-11-24T09:49:55Z")
Hello, my implementation works with VM Lables. So you have to “tag” your two running VMs with label “ntp-servers”. My one-inv script will return array like this ```auto { "ntp-servers": [ "192.168.1.1", "192.168.1.2" ] } ``` Also if you have more labels, it create another groups of VMs. You can also skip som especific labels to use for grouping in config. I also fixed crash when VM with no label found, so you need to update my script to version 1.0.2 ---
**Author:** ![feldsam](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/forum.opennebula.io/feldsam/32/4441_2.png) [@feldsam](https://forum.opennebula.io/u/feldsam)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2017, 9:58am UTC](https://forum.opennebula.io/t/ansible-inventory-rb-howto-define-array-in-context-and-pass-to-ansible/5257/5 "2017-11-24T09:58:53Z")
When I understand it correctly, you have to define custom context vars and want on provisioned VM to configure right ntp servers. In that case, you should extend context scripts [https://github.com/OpenNebula/addon-context-linux](https://github.com/OpenNebula/addon-context-linux). Another way is to extend my script (I can do that). My script also returns meta data “host vars” which reads from USER\_TEMPLATE and ansible have access to that vars. So we can extend host vars generation to parse som einput as array. Also we can parse TEMPLATE/CONTEXT, it depends what you need and if is possible for you to use USER\_TEMPATE instead of CONTEXT one ---
**Author:** ![uli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ccd318/32.png) [@uli](https://forum.opennebula.io/u/uli)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2017, 11:52am UTC](https://forum.opennebula.io/t/ansible-inventory-rb-howto-define-array-in-context-and-pass-to-ansible/5257/6 "2017-11-24T11:52:41Z")
The NTP Server is just one use case where I want to use an array of values and pass it to ansible. My plan is to use a TEMPLATE/CONTEXT variable, e.g.: CONTEXT = [ NTP\_SERVERS = “[192.168.1.1, ntp.company.loc]”, … … “So we can extend host vars generation to parse som einput as array.” -\> I think this is exactly what is missing! Thanks uli ---
**Author:** ![feldsam](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/forum.opennebula.io/feldsam/32/4441_2.png) [@feldsam](https://forum.opennebula.io/u/feldsam)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2017, 6:18pm UTC](https://forum.opennebula.io/t/ansible-inventory-rb-howto-define-array-in-context-and-pass-to-ansible/5257/7 "2017-11-26T18:18:28Z")
Hello, I playing a bit with user template and find following solution. Define custom tags ![35](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/uploads/opennebula/original/2X/9/93f90f430757fd692147f28f19f620d9e2408215.png) Result from one-inv script will be ```auto { "GroupName1": [ "185.174.170.13" ], "_meta": { "hostvars": { "185.174.170.13": { "DESCRIPTION": "CentOS 7.4 64bit Minimal", "HYPERVISOR": "kvm", "INPUTS_ORDER": "", "LABELS": "GroupName1", "LOGO": "images/logos/centos.png", "MEMORY_UNIT_COST": "MB", "NTP_SERVERS": { "SERVER1": "192.168.1.1", "SERVER2": "ntp.company.loc" }, "SCHED_DS_REQUIREMENTS": "ID=\"112\" | ID=\"114\" | ID=\"116\"", "USER_INPUTS": { "CPU": "M|range-float||0.5..6|0.5", "MEMORY": "M|range||1024..16384|1024", "VCPU": "O|range||1..24|1" } } } } } ``` I think that you can use instead of SERVER1, SERVER2 just numbers 0, 1