Ansible Cheat Sheet

ansible relevant files

• /etc/ansible/hosts - the list of remote servers that we'll manage.

We can configure hosts and credentials:

[my_group]
10.50.20.21
10.50.20.22

[my_group:vars]
ansible_user=$myuser
ansible_password=$mypassword

• /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg - ansible configuration.

Commands

Ping

ansible my_group -m ping

Run specific command

ansible my_group -a "cat /etc/os-release"

Run a Playbook

ansible-playbook my_playbook.yaml

Run a Playbook with a variable

ansible-playbook my_playbook.yaml -e "package=nano"

Playbook

Playbooks contains Plays which contain Tasks.

Playbooks are written inYAML.

A playbook example:

--- 
  - name: check_nano # Start of Play
    hosts: my_group
    tasks: 
      - name: ensure nano is there # Start of task
        apt: # module
          name: nano
          state: latest

A playbook with variables:

--- 
  - name: check_nano 
    hosts: my_group
    vars:
      package: nano
    tasks: 
      - name: ensure {{ package }} is there 
        apt: 
          name: "{{ package }}"
          state: latest

We can run this playbook with a variable as an argument:

ansible-playbook my_playbook.yml -e "package=httpd"

A Playbook with a loop:

--- 
  - name: check_nano
    hosts: my_group
    vars:
      packages:
        - nano
        - vi
    tasks: 
      - name: install packages
        apt: 
          name: "{{ item }}"
          state: installed
        loop: "{{ packages }}" # loop