Bug 2100559

+++ This bug was initially created as a clone of Bug #2100558 +++

+++ This bug was initially created as a clone of Bug #2078999 +++

+++ This bug was initially created as a clone of Bug #2078989 +++

Description of problem:
Some users use `gather_facts: false` in their playbooks, due to performance issues with fact gathering, or other reasons.  However, this breaks the metrics role because it requires some sort of facts like `os_family`, `distribution`, etc. to be defined.  The role should work if fact gathering is disabled in the playbook.

NOTE: This may require the user to enable fact caching, or simply not use the metrics role if it is not possible to use fact gathering at all.


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--- Additional comment from Rich Megginson on 2022-04-26 16:41:29 UTC ---

Ansible by default will always gather facts in playbooks.  In order to test, you can use https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/reference_appendices/config.html#default-gathering to disable fact gathering by default.

e.g. 

ANSIBLE_GATHERING=explicit ansible-playbook .... tests/tests_name.yml


Even though the network role should support being run with "gather_facts: false" in the playbook, almost all of the tests fail when using ANSIBLE_GATHERING=explicit, so it is difficult to verify that the role is indeed working with fact gathering disabled.

If we change all of the tests that fail to use "gather_facts: true", then the tests pass, but we have then masked the problem, and we are not actually verifying that the role will work when customers use "gather_facts: false" in their playbooks.

I guess the best we can do is ensure that there are at least some non-trivial network role tests that can be run with ANSIBLE_GATHERING=explicit that do not just use "gather_facts: true" inside the test.