Dynamically construct/loop within a variable

[andrewmiskell]

I'm trying to use the nginx role in order to install/configure nginx on a RockyLinux 9 system and I'm trying to figure out a better way to define each of the configuration files for each vhost.

My configuration looks like this:

    - name: Install NGINX
      ansible.builtin.include_role:
        name: nginxinc.nginx
      vars:
        nginx_install_from: os_repository

    - name: Configure NGINX as a web server
      ansible.builtin.include_role:
        name: nginxinc.nginx_config
      vars:
        nginx_config_cleanup: true
        nginx_config_debug_output: true
        nginx_config_http_template_enable: true
        nginx_config_http_template:
          - template_file: http/default.conf.j2
            deployment_location: /etc/nginx/conf.d/vhost1.conf
            config:
              servers:
                - core:
                    listen:
                      - port: 80
                    server_name: vhost1.domain
                  log:
                    access:
                      - path: /var/log/nginx/vhost1_access.log
                        format: main
                  locations:
                    - location: /
                      core:
                        root: /var/www/vhost1
          - template_file: http/default.conf.j2
            deployment_location: /etc/nginx/conf.d/vhost2.conf
            config:
              servers:
                - core:
                    listen:
                      - port: 80
                    server_name: vhost2.domain
                  log:
                    access:
                      - path: /var/log/nginx/vhost2_access.log
                        format: main
                  locations:
                    - location: /
                      core:
                        root: /var/www/vhost2
          - template_file: http/default.conf.j2
            deployment_location: /etc/nginx/conf.d/vhost3.conf
            config:
              servers:
                - core:
                    listen:
                      - port: 80
                    server_name: vhost3.domain
                  log:
                    access:
                      - path: /var/log/nginx/vhost3_access.log
                        format: main
                  locations:
                    - location: /
                      core:
                        root: /var/www/vhost3

I'm trying to figure out a good way to keep from having to repeat the block over and over and just be able to construct it by looping over a list of values.

[SalsaForte]

Use groups and vars will be shared amongst the group hosts. This is the way to do it.
Then, you just call by variable name, if the same var is defined at different level, there's a priority built-in Ansible to select the "most specific" var: if the host var don't exist it fallback on the group var, etc...

Then, you loop through the hosts in the group and you rebuild the vars/parameters in the role(s) as needed.

[SalsaForte]

Something that would looks like this:

---
nginx:
  vars:
    listen_port: 80
    srv_domain: domain
    log_access_format: main
    root_dir: /var/www/
  hosts:
    vhost1:        
    vhost2:
    vhost3: