How to run playbook api in Ansible v2

Question

I want to run ansible playbook via Ansible V2 python api. Here is my way:

from ansible.parsing.dataloader import DataLoader
from ansible.vars import VariableManager
from ansible.inventory import Inventory
from ansible.executor.playbook_executor import PlaybookExecutor
variable_manager = VariableManager()

loader = DataLoader()

inventory = Inventory(loader=loader, variable_manager=variable_manager,                 host_list='/path/to/inventory')
playbook_path = '/path/to/playbook'

Options = namedtuple('Options', ['listtags', 'listtasks', 'listhosts', 'syntax', 'connection','module_path', 'forks', 'remote_user', 'private_key_file', 'ssh_common_args', 'ssh_extra_args', 'sftp_extra_args', 'scp_extra_args', 'become', 'become_method', 'become_user', 'verbosity', 'check'])

options = Options(listtags=False, listtasks=False, listhosts=False, syntax=False, connection='ssh', module_path=None, forks=100, remote_user='ubuntu', private_key_file=ssh_key_file, ssh_common_args=None, ssh_extra_args=None, sftp_extra_args=None, scp_extra_args=None, become=True, become_method='sudo', become_user='root', verbosity=None, check=False)
variable_manager.extra_vars = {'hosts': 'mywebserver'} 

passwords = {}

pbex = PlaybookExecutor(playbooks=[playbook_path], inventory=inventory,     variable_manager=variable_manager, loader=loader, options=options,     passwords=passwords)
results = pbex.run()

But it can't run normally and give me the error message as below:

TASK [jetty : Create default variables for jetty] ******************************
fatal: [172.17.21.52]: FAILED! => {"changed": false, "failed": true, "msg": "AnsibleUndefinedVariable: 'groups' is undefined"}

In this TASK I've template a Jinja2 file with variable groups['xxxx'] in it. I think it's Ansible built-in group variable. Can anybody tell why it happen and how to solve it. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Once loading an Inventory, set the variable_manager to use that inventory.

From Python API - Ansible (Line 19):

variable_manager.set_inventory(inventory)