Ansible Cheatsheets
Modules
Ping:
$ ansible all -m ping
Gather Facts:
$ ansible all -m gather_facts
Gather Facts for only one host:
$ ansible all -m gather_facts --limit 10.0.0.2
List Hosts:
$ ansible all --list-hosts
Ad Hoc Commands
Update index repositories with apt
$ ansible all -m apt -a update_cache=true --become --ask-become-pass
Install packages with apt:
$ ansible all -m apt -a name=vim --become --ask-become-pass
Install the latest package with apt:
$ ansible all -m apt -a "name=vim state=latest" --become --ask-become-pass
Upgrade dist with apt:
$ ansible all -m apt -a upgrade=dist --become --ask-become-pass
Playbooks
install_nginx.yml
---
- hosts: all
become: true
tasks:
- name: install nginx
apt:
name: nginx
state: latest
update_cache: yes
when: ansible_distribution in ["Debian", "Ubuntu"]
- name: install nginx
dnf:
name: nginx
state: latest
update_cache: yes
when: ansible_distribution == "CentOS"
Execute playbook:
$ ansible-playbook --ask-become-pass install_nginx.yml
Refactoring Playbooks
Our inventory:
10.0.0.2 apache_package=apache2 php_package=libapache2-mod-php
10.0.0.3 apache_package=httpd php_package=php
Our playbook.yml:
---
- hosts: all
become: true
tasks:
- name: install apache
package:
name:
- ""
- ""
state: latest
update_cache: yes
Target Specific Nodes
Our inventory:
[web_servers]
10.0.0.2
10.0.0.3
[db_servers]
10.0.0.4
[file_servers]
10.0.0.5
Our playbook.yml
---
# pretasks mandates to run before any other tasks are running
# but ansible runs playbooks from top to bottom
- hosts: all
become: true
pre_tasks:
- name: Install updates for CentOS
dnf:
update_only: yes
update_cache: yes
when: ansible_distribution == "CentOS"
- name: Install updates for Debian/Ubuntu
apt:
upgrade: dist
update_cache: yes
when: ansible_distribution in ["Debian", "Ubuntu"]
# package is used when the name of the package is the same
# across operating systems
- hosts: web_servers
become: true
tasks:
- name: Install Nginx
package:
name:
- nginx
- apache2-utils
state: latest
- hosts: db_servers
become: true
tasks:
- name: Install MariaDB for CentOS
dnf:
name: mariadb-server
state: latest
when: ansible_distribution == "CentOS"
- name: Install MariaDB for Debian/Ubuntu
apt:
name: mariadb
state: latest
when: ansible_distribution in ["Debian", "Ubuntu"]
- hosts: file_servers
become: true
tasks:
- name: Install Samba
package:
name: samba
state: latest
Then run it with:
$ ansible-playbook --ask-become-pass playbook.yml
Metadata with Tags
Use tags to only target specific targets.
---
- hosts: all
become: true
pre_tasks:
- name: Install updates for CentOS
tags: always
dnf:
update_only: yes
update_cache: yes
when: ansible_distribution == "CentOS"
- name: Install updates for Debian/Ubuntu
tags: always
apt:
upgrade: dist
update_cache: yes
when: ansible_distribution in ["Debian", "Ubuntu"]
- hosts: web_servers
become: true
tasks:
- name: Install Nginx and utilities for CentOS
tags: nginx,centos
dnf:
name:
- nginx
- httpd-tools
when: ansible_distribution == "CentOS"
- name: Install Nginx and utilities for Ubuntu
tags: nginx,ubuntu
apt:
name:
- nginx
- apache2-utils
state: latest
when: ansible_distribution in ["Debian", "Ubuntu"]
- hosts: db_servers
become: true
tasks:
- name: Install MariaDB for CentOS
tags: centos,db,mariadb
dnf:
name: mariadb-server
state: latest
when: ansible_distribution == "CentOS"
- name: Install MariaDB for Debian/Ubuntu
tags: ubuntu,db,mariadb
apt:
name: mariadb
state: latest
when: ansible_distribution in ["Debian", "Ubuntu"]
- hosts: file_servers
become: true
tasks:
- name: Install Samba
tags: samba
package:
name: samba
state: latest
To run the playbook against all targets specified in the playbooks:
$ ansible-playbook --ask-become-pass playbook.yml
To list all the tags in the playbook:
$ ansible-playbook --list-tags playbook.yml
playbook: playbook.yml
play #1 (all): all TAGS: []
TASK TAGS: [always]
play #2 (web_servers): all TAGS: []
TASK TAGS: [nginx, ubuntu, centos]
play #3 (db_servers): all TAGS: []
TASK TAGS: [centos, db, mariadb, ubuntu]
play #4 (file_servers): all TAGS: []
TASK TAGS: [samba]
To only target the tasks with the ubuntu tag, (note: the updates task will still run due to the always tag):
$ ansible-playbook --tags ubuntu --ask-become-pass playbook.yml
For targeting multiple tags:
$ ansible-playbook --tags "db,ubuntu" --ask-become-pass playbook.yml
Files
Ansible playbook that uses files to copy to the targets.
Our files/default.html:
<html>
<body>ok</body>
</html>
Our playbook.yml:
---
- hosts: all
become: true
pre_tasks:
- name: Install updates for CentOS
tags: always
dnf:
update_only: yes
update_cache: yes
when: ansible_distribution == "CentOS"
- name: Install updates for Debian/Ubuntu
tags: always
apt:
upgrade: dist
update_cache: yes
when: ansible_distribution in ["Debian", "Ubuntu"]
- hosts: web_servers
become: true
tasks:
- name: Install Nginx and utilities for CentOS
tags: nginx,centos
dnf:
name:
- nginx
- httpd-tools
when: ansible_distribution == "CentOS"
- name: Install Nginx and utilities for Ubuntu
tags: nginx,ubuntu
apt:
name:
- nginx
- apache2-utils
state: latest
when: ansible_distribution in ["Debian", "Ubuntu"]
- name: Copy default html file for website
tags: nginx
copy:
src: default.html
dest: /var/www/html/index.html
owner: root
group: root
mode: 0644
Execute the playbook to deploy the website file:
$ ansible-playbook --ask-become-pass playbook.yml
We can use another example to unzip a package:
---
- hosts: all
become: true
pre_tasks:
- name: Install updates for CentOS
tags: always
dnf:
update_only: yes
update_cache: yes
when: ansible_distribution == "CentOS"
- name: Install updates for Debian/Ubuntu
tags: always
apt:
upgrade: dist
update_cache: yes
when: ansible_distribution in ["Debian", "Ubuntu"]
- hosts: workstations
become: true
tasks:
- name: Ensure unzip is installed
package:
name: unzip
- name: Ensure terraform is installed
unarchive:
src: https://releases.hashicorp.com/terraform/1.1.7/terraform_1.1.7_linux_amd64.zip
dest: /usr/local/bin
remote_src: yes
mode: 0755
owner: root
group: root
And then add the workstations group:
[web_servers]
10.0.0.2
10.0.0.3
[db_servers]
10.0.0.4
[file_servers]
10.0.0.5
[workstations]
localhost
Then run the playbook:
$ ansible-playbook --ask-become-pass playbook.yml