Ansible

This is growing into a minimal Ansible reference of sorts, since Ansible’s own docs have nothing like a reference.

• Ansible.

• list of keys that common playbook objects can take.

• Release tarballs

• Ansible documentation for older releases

Quickies:

To check the ubuntu version, ansible_distribution_version|float < 18 (ansible_distribution_version is e.g. “16.04”):

"ansible_distribution_release": "bionic"
"ansible_distribution_version": "18.04"

Better error formatting from https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2018/use-ansibles-yaml-callback-plugin-better-cli-experience Put this in ansible.cfg:

[defaults]
# FROM https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2018/use-ansibles-yaml-callback-plugin-better-cli-experience
# Use the YAML callback plugin.
stdout_callback = yaml
# Use the stdout_callback when running ad-hoc commands.
bin_ansible_callbacks = True

Just note that this can break output from ‘command’ or ‘ansible -m setup’, and you might need to disable it if you need that. Open issue: https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/39122

• Running Ansible tasks in the background
• Blocks
• Ansible Cheat Sheet
• Conditionals, return values, and registered variables
  • Conditional tasks
• Return Values and registered variables
• Configuration
  • Configuration file
    • Some useful vars in the [defaults] section:
      • any_errors_fatal
      • display_args_to_stdout
      • error_on_undefined_vars
      • hostfile
      • use_persistent_connections
      • private_role_vars
      • retry_files_enabled
      • roles_path
    • Some useful vars in the [inventory] section:
      • any_unparsed_is_failed
    • Some useful vars in the [ssh_connection] section:
      • pipelining
      • scp_if_ssh
      • ssh_args
• Host Patterns
• Inventory
  • Inventory directory
  • Inventory file
• Invoking
  • Ad-hoc
  • Playbooks
  • Hosts pulling config
• Loops
  • Iterating with nested loops
• Playbook
  • Playbook directory
  • Playbook
  • Playbook include
  • Play
  • Running a playbook
• Roles
  • Role
  • Role dependencies file
  • Dependency dictionary
  • Embedding modules in roles
• Secrets
  • Providing the password to Ansible
  • Ways to use it
  • Limitations
• synchronize
• Tags
  • How to tag things
  • What tags do
• Task
  • Tasks file
  • Task include
  • Task
  • Handler
• Variables
  • When/how variables are resolved
  • Pre-defined variables
  • Variables
  • Variables file
  • Variables files
  • Variable precedence
  • Facts
• Ansible Galaxy
  • Links
  • Role specification
  • Ways of installing
    • Command-line
    • Simple file
    • YAML file
• Facts output
• Reading YAML files with vault encrypted values

Misc. stuff I need to file somewhere:

Ad-hoc command

ansible Host Patterns -m <module> [options]

e.g.

$ ansible all -m ping –ask-pass

Shortcut to run a command:

$ ansible all -a “/bin/echo hello”

options: see output of “ansible –help” for now

See ansible ad-hoc commands doc for ad-hoc commands.