a quick and dirty tips-n-tricks for ansible

gistfile1.md

Variables

predefined variables :

• inventory_hostname (fqdn) (normally the same as ansible.fqdn)
• inventory_hostname_short

To know the return codes returned by ansible modules, just use plain ansible -vvv to see them : ansible -i ~/ansible/arrfab.net/hosts/hosts.cfg -vvv -m copy -a 'src=files/sysinfo dest=/etc/sysinfo' tungstene.arrfab.net tungstene.arrfab.net | success >> { "changed": true, "daisychain_args": "src=files/sysinfo dest=/etc/sysinfo src=/var/tmp/ansible-1351514206.18-224994873189361/sysinfo", "dest": "/etc/sysinfo", "group": "root", "md5sum": "e5e0af8c573543d6beb837ce2ef3e019", "mode": "0644", "owner": "root", "path": "/etc/sysinfo", "secontext": "root:object_r:etc_t", "src": "/var/tmp/ansible-1351514206.18-224994873189361/sysinfo", "state": "file" } so you know you can use ${status.changed} as a variable for logging/mails, etc... example : action: template ... register: mytemplate

action: blablah
only_if: '${mytemplate.changed}'   #other way of saying only_if: "'${mytemplate.changed}' == 'True'"

If your variables is a list containing one iteam on each line , you can use register: users and used ${users.stdout_lines}

only_if

Test if a variable is defined only_if: "is_set('${ansible_default_ipv4.gateway}')"

String comparison only_if: "'$declared_user' == 'arrfab'"

Misc only_if: "'$ansible_distribution_version'.startswith('5.')"

only_if: "'${blah}' == 'blah' or '${blah}' == 'otherblah'" only_if: "'${blah}' in ('blah', 'otherblah')"

Templates

You can just use variables in jinja2 templates like this : ${my_variable} (attention, variables can't contain . as in my.variable ! Some default variables can be used, like {{ ansible_managed }}, $template_host, $template_uid and $template_path

a for loop : {% for a in name_of_your_list %} blabla { %endfor %}(name of your list being defined somewhere else in the vars section like name_of_your_list: [one,two,three]

{% if 'webserver' in group_names %}

some part of a configuration file that only applies to webservers

{% endif %}

{% for host in groups['app_servers'] %}

something that applies to all app servers.

{{ hostvars[host].ansible_eth0.ipv4.address }} {% endfor %}

resolv.in by {{ name | upper }}

for {{ ansible_eth0.ipv4.address }}

{% if domain is defined -%} domain {{ domain }} {% endif -%} {% for ns in resolvers -%} nameserver {{ ns }} {% endfor %}

{% if is_cluster_member == True %} This machine is member of a cluster {% else %} {% endif %}

Using nesting variables: trying to show ansible_eth0.macaddress, but eth0 itself being a variable defined in the playbook or vars_prompt (user_interface) user interface: {{ user_interface }} {% set iface = 'ansible_' + user_interface %} show: iface = {{ iface }} show: inventory_hostname = {{ inventory_hostname }} {% set ifacedata = hostvars[inventory_hostname][iface] %} mac address of {{ iface }} is {{ ifacedata.macaddress }}