Previous step to define server

[Jesús Zuleta]

How can I do so that a previous step can ask me about the server to use

I have tried a series of things with "ask" but it doesn't work, I understand that the server stament is part of the runbook DSL and receives only one string but in what way can I make it modular and save in a variable and then define it, my best try has been the next:

Runbook.book "Restart Nginx" do
  description <<-DESC
This is a simple runbook to restart nginx and verify
it starts successfully
  DESC

target_host = ""

  section "Restart Nginx" do
    step "Define server to restart" do
      ask "Name of server to restart", into: :target_host, default: "localhost", echo: true
      ruby_command do |rb_cmd, metadata, run|
        target_host = rb_cmd.parent.target_host
      end
      wait 5
    end

    server "#{target_host}"
    user "jazb"

    step "Stop Nginx" do
      note "Stopping Nginx..."
      command "whoami"
    end

    step { wait 5 }

    step "Start Nginx" do
      note "Starting Nginx..."
      command "whoami"
      confirm "Nginx is taking traffic?"
      notice "Make sure to report why you restarted nginx"
    end
  end
end

[Patrick Blesi]

Hi Jesus,

You are correct that ask receives its value at runtime, but server is evaluated at compile time, so it will have already executed by the time ask is executed.

You have a couple options.

1. You can define the commands in a ruby_command block because this is evaluated at runtime.

  ask "Name of server to restart", into: :target_host, default: "localhost"
  
  ruby_command do |rb_cmd, metadata, run|
    command "whoami", ssh_config: {servers: [target_host], user: "jazb"}
  end

2. You can pass the host in as an environment variable, or have it somehow be set outside of the runbook.

target_host = ENV["TARGET_HOST"] || "localhost"

Runbook.book "Restart Nginx" do
  section "Restart Nginx" do
    server target_host
    user "jazb"

    step "Define server to restart" do
      wait 5
    end

    step "Stop Nginx" do
      note "Stopping Nginx..."
      command "whoami"
    end
  end
end

I'm going to close this issue, but feel free to reopen it if you run into further issues.