Ansible Cheatsheet

Ansible Cheat Sheet

Ansible is an open-source IT automation engine which can help you to automate most of your repetitive tasks in your work life. Ansible can also improve the consistency, scalability, reliability and easiness of your IT environment.

Ansible Cheat Sheet for Quick Reference and understanding

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Variables

Item	Description
host_vars	directory for host variable files
group_vars	directory for group variable files
facts	collecting the host specific data
register	registered variables
vars	in playbook
vars_files	in playbook
include_vars	module
include_tasks: stuff.yml	include a sub task file

Task Control & Loops

Item	Description
with_items	then “item” inside action
with_nested	for nested loops
with_file
with_fileglob
with_sequence
with_random_choice
when	meet a condition

Modules

Item	Description
copy	copy file or content
get_url	download file
file	manage file/directories
yum	manage package
service	manage services
firewalld	firewall service
lineinfile	add a line to dest file
template	to template file with variables
debug	to debug and display
add_host	add host to inventory while play
wait_for	use for flow control
apt	manage apt-packages
shell	execute shell commands on targets

Playbooks

Item	Description
ansible-playbook <YAML>	Run on all hosts defined
ansible-playbook <YAML> -f 10	Fork - Run 10 hosts parallel
ansible-playbook <YAML> --verbose	Verbose on successful tasks
ansible-playbook <YAML> -C	Test run
ansible-playbook <YAML> -C -D	Dry run
ansible-playbook <YAML> -l <host>	Limit to run on single host

Handlers

Item	Description
notify	to notify the handler
handlers	define handler

Tags

Item	Description
tags	add tags to the tasks
--tags ‘<tag>’	during playbook execution
--skip-tags	for skipping those tags
tagged	run any tagged tasks
untagged	any untagged items
all	all items

Handling Errors

Item	Description
ignore_errors	proceed or not if any error on current task
force_handlers	call handler even the play failed
failed_when	mark the task as failed if a condition met
changed_when	set “ok” or “failed” for a task
block	logical grouping of tasks (can use with when)
rescue	to run if block clause fails
always	always run even block success or fails

Jinja2 Templates

To be added later with examples

Roles

main file in sub-directories should be main.yml Role variable can define under roles directive

Role Directories

Item	Description
defaults	default value of role variables
files	static files referenced by role tasks
handlers	role’s handlers
meta	role info like Author, Licence, Platform etc
tasks	role’s task defenition
templates	jinja2 templates
tests	test inventory and test.yml
vars	role’s variable values
pre_tasks	tasks before role
post_tasks	tasks after role

Ansible Galaxy

https://galaxy.ansible.com

Item	Description
ansible-galaxy search ‘install git’ --platform el	search for a role
ansible-galaxy info <role-name>	display role information
ansible-galaxy install <role-name> -p <directory>	install role from galaxy
ansible-galaxy list	to list local roles
ansible-galaxy remove <role-name>	remove role
ansible-galaxy init --offline <role-name>	initiate a role directory

Delegation

Item	Description
delegate_to: localhost	run the task on localhost instead of inventory item
delegate_facts	assign the gathered facts from the tasks to the delegated host instead of current host

Parallelism

Item	Description
forks	number of forks or parallel machines
--forks	when using ansible-playbook
serial	control number parallel machines
async: 3600	wait 3600 seconds to complete the task
poll: 10	check every 10 seconds if task completed
wait_for	module to wait and check if specific condition met
async_status	module to check an async task status

Ansible Vault

Item	Description
ansible-vault create newfile	create a new vault file
ansible-vault view newfile	view file which is already ansible vaulted
ansible-vault edit newfile	Edit file
ansible-vault view --vault-password-file .secret newfile	Provide vault password as file
ansible-vault decrypt newfile	Remove encryption or vault
ansible-vault rekey newfile	change vault password
--ask-vault-pass or --vault-password-file <secret-password-file>	ask for vault password for ansible-playbook

Troubleshooting

Item	Description
log_path	where logs are saved
debug	module for debugging
--syntax-check	syntax checking for playbooks before they run
--step	run playbook step by step
--start-at-task	run a playbook but start at specific task
--check	check mode
--diff	will show the expected changes if you run the playbook, but will not do any changes (kind of dry run)
uri	module for testing url
script	module for running script and return success code
stat	module to check the status of files/dir
assert	check file exist

if you find any mistakes, please feel free to update or let me know

Thanks

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