The role already supported a default variable ("network_provider") and
host variables ("network_provider_default", "network_service_name",
"network_packages").
Don't use nested variables under "network" like
network:
provider:
ignore_error:
connections:
instead promote them all to top-level variables like:
network_provider:
network_ignore_error:
network_connections:
This seems more consistent (as we already have multiple top-level
variables), it seems to follow ansible style, and it makes it easier
to overload individual variables via conditional include files.
It's more idiomatic for ansible then "on_error".
'ignore_errors' can be specified as a module argument.
But it can also be specified on a per-profile level,
with the intuitive behavior that the per-profile setting
overwrites the per-module setting.
Instead, of having the tasks call the "network_connections.py"
library for each connection profile individually (using with_items),
pass all profiles at once.
The advantage is:
- the module can validate the input arguments better as it has
access to all profiles. For example, when a slave connection
refers to another master profile from the same play. Previously,
each invocation of the module only sees the current profile and
cannot verify whether the reference is valid.
- while configuring the network, the play might need to shortly
disconnect the control connection. In the previous way, after
tearing down the network the target host becomes unreachable for
ansible and the following steps cannot be executed anymore.
Now, all steps are done as a whole on the target host, via
one connection. If the host becomes unreachable for a short
time, that is not a problem as long as the connectivty is
restored at the end.
Ansible also supports to switch the host IP (or SSH port). With
this new way, the ansible play can apply a bunch of profiles
autonomously and the ansible play can potentially handle a changing
IP configuration.
