How to Make Ansible Connection Parameters Dependent on the Controller Host?

Thank you for your ideas! Dynamic inventory indeed suits my needs. Also, the idea of using dynamic connection variables based on the controller host is very interesting — I will use it in my projects.

Another solution is to use dynamic variables based on the host from which Ansible is executed. This can be done using a construct like:
ansible_connection: "{{ 'local' if lookup('pipe', 'hostname') == 'myclient1' else 'ssh' }}"

This allows you to use a local connection for myclient1 and SSH connection for other hosts.

You can also use a dynamic inventory to automatically determine connection parameters based on the current host:

 
    
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 
import json
 
inventory = {
    'all': {
        'hosts': ['localhost', 'server1', 'container1'],
        'vars': {
            'ansible_become': 'yes'
        }
    },
    '_meta': {
        'hostvars': {
            'localhost': {
                'ansible_connection': 'local'
            },
            'server1': {
                'ansible_host': '192.0.2.10',
                'ansible_user': 'admin',
                'ansible_port': 2222,
                'ansible_ssh_common_args': '-o ProxyJump=jumphost'
            },
            'container1': {
                'ansible_connection': 'docker'
            }
        }
    }
}
 
print(json.dumps(inventory, indent=2)) 

Make the script executable and use it in Ansible:

 
    
 chmod +x dynamic_inventory.py
ansible-playbook -i dynamic_inventory.py playbook.yml 

Yes, you can configure connection parameters based on the host by using variables in the inventory. For example:

 
    
 [all]
localhost ansible_connection=local ansible_become=yes
server1 ansible_host=192.0.2.10 ansible_user=admin ansible_port=2222 ansible_ssh_common_args='-o ProxyJump=jumphost'
container1 ansible_connection=docker 

To apply different connection settings based on the controller host, you can use conditional statements in your playbooks.

Example:

 
    
 - hosts: all
  tasks:
    - name: For localhost
      debug:
        msg: "This is localhost"
      when: inventory_hostname == 'localhost'
 
    - name: For server1
      debug:
        msg: "This is server1"
      when: inventory_hostname == 'server1'
 
    - name: For container1
      debug:
        msg: "This is container1"
      when: inventory_hostname == 'container1'
 

Thank you for the ideas!