User Guide

Welcome to the Ansible User Guide!

This guide covers how to work with Ansible, including using the command line, working with inventory, and writing playbooks.

• Ansible Quickstart Guide
• Ansible concepts
  • Control node
  • Managed nodes
  • Inventory
  • Modules
  • Tasks
  • Playbooks
• Getting Started
  • Selecting machines from inventory
  • Connecting to remote nodes
  • Copying and executing modules
  • Next steps
• How to build your inventory
  • Inventory basics: formats, hosts, and groups
  • Adding variables to inventory
  • Assigning a variable to one machine: host variables
  • Assigning a variable to many machines: group variables
  • Organizing host and group variables
  • How variables are merged
  • Using multiple inventory sources
  • Connecting to hosts: behavioral inventory parameters
  • Inventory setup examples
• Working with dynamic inventory
  • Inventory script example: Cobbler
  • Inventory script example: AWS EC2
  • Inventory script example: OpenStack
  • Other inventory scripts
  • Using inventory directories and multiple inventory sources
  • Static groups of dynamic groups
• Patterns: targeting hosts and groups
  • Using patterns
  • Common patterns
  • Limitations of patterns
  • Advanced pattern options
  • Patterns and ansible-playbook flags
• Introduction to ad-hoc commands
  • Why use ad-hoc commands?
  • Use cases for ad-hoc tasks
• Connection methods and details
  • ControlPersist and paramiko
  • SSH key setup
  • Running against localhost
  • Host key checking
  • Other connection methods
• Working with command line tools
  • ansible
  • ansible-config
  • ansible-console
  • ansible-doc
  • ansible-galaxy
  • ansible-inventory
  • ansible-playbook
  • ansible-pull
  • ansible-vault
• Working With Playbooks
  • Intro to Playbooks
  • Creating Reusable Playbooks
  • Using Variables
  • Templating (Jinja2)
  • Conditionals
  • Loops
  • Blocks
  • Advanced Playbooks Features
  • Controlling playbook execution: strategies and more
  • Best Practices
  • Playbook Example: Continuous Delivery and Rolling Upgrades
• Understanding privilege escalation: become
  • Using become
  • Risks and limitations of become
  • Become and network automation
  • Become and Windows
• Ansible Vault
  • What Can Be Encrypted With Vault
  • Vault IDs and Multiple Vault Passwords
  • Creating Encrypted Files
  • Editing Encrypted Files
  • Rekeying Encrypted Files
  • Encrypting Unencrypted Files
  • Decrypting Encrypted Files
  • Viewing Encrypted Files
  • Use encrypt_string to create encrypted variables to embed in yaml
  • Providing Vault Passwords
  • Vault Password Client Scripts
  • Speeding Up Vault Operations
  • Vault Format
  • Vault Payload Format 1.1 - 1.2
• Working With Modules
  • Introduction to modules
  • Return Values
  • Module Maintenance & Support
  • Module Index
• Working With Plugins
  • Action Plugins
  • Become Plugins
  • Cache Plugins
  • Callback Plugins
  • Cliconf Plugins
  • Connection Plugins
  • Httpapi Plugins
  • Inventory Plugins
  • Lookup Plugins
  • Shell Plugins
  • Strategy Plugins
  • Vars Plugins
  • Filters
  • Tests
  • Plugin Filter Configuration
• Ansible and BSD
  • Connecting to BSD nodes
  • Bootstrapping BSD
  • Setting the Python interpreter
  • Which modules are available?
  • Using BSD as the control node
  • BSD facts
  • BSD efforts and contributions
• Windows Guides
  • Setting up a Windows Host
  • Windows Remote Management
  • Using Ansible and Windows
  • Desired State Configuration
  • Windows performance
  • Windows Frequently Asked Questions
• Using collections
  • Installing collections
  • Using collections in a Playbook