ansible-modules(5) ================= :doctype:manpage :man source: Ansible-playbook :man version: 0.0.1 :man manual: System administration commands NAME ---- ansible-playbook - format and function of an ansible playbook file DESCRIPTION ----------- Ansible ships with a ansible-playbook tool for running playbooks. Playbooks can represent frequent tasks, desired system configurations, or deployment processes. FORMAT ------ Playbooks are currently writeable in YAML. Other formats (JSON?) may be supported in the future. EXAMPLE ------- [source,yaml] ---- - pattern: '*' hosts: '/etc/ansible/hosts' tasks: - name: configure template & module variables for future template calls action: setup http_port=80 max_clients=200 - name: write the apache config file action: template src=/srv/templates/httpd.j2 dest=/etc/httpd/conf notify: - restart apache - name: ensure apache is running action: service name=httpd state=started handlers: - name: restart apache - action: service name=httpd state=restarted ---- WHAT THE EXAMPLE MEANS ----------------------- Here's what the above example will do. For all hosts in /etc/ansible/hosts (one host per line) that are named 'webserver-anything', first write a JSON file into /etc/ansible/setup on each remote system with the values max_clients and http_port. Next, use a Jinja2 template locally residing at /srv/templates/httpd.j2 to write the Apache config file on each host to the path /etc/httpd/conf, using the previous values. We'll ensure that apache is running if stopped. If and only if the config file changed, note that we need to restart apache at the end of the run, otherwise, don't bother because we already know it is running. HIGH LEVEL EXPLANATION ---------------------- Playbooks are executed top down and can contain multiple references to patterns. For instance, a playbook could do something to all webservers, then do something to all database servers, then do something different to all webservers again. For each pattern, the tasks in the 'tasks' list are executed in order for all hosts in the host file matching the pattern. For each task, a name/action pair describes what the task is and what ansible module to use to accomplish the task, along with any arguments. Additional fields like 'comment:' can be added and will be ignored, so feel free to take notes in the file. Most modules accept key=value format arguments. Handlers are like tasks, but are conditionally executed. If a module reports a 'change', it can notify one or more handler by name. If notified, it will run only for hosts that changed. ERROR HANDLING -------------- If a host has a failure, the host will be ignored for the remainder of the playbook execution. AUTHOR ------ Ansible was originally written by Michael DeHaan. See the AUTHORS file for a complete list of contributors. SEE ALSO -------- *ansible*(1) *ansible-playbook*(5) - pending Ansible home page: