.. _intro_inventory: .. _inventory: ********************** Working with Inventory ********************** .. contents:: :local: Ansible works against multiple systems in your infrastructure at the same time. It does this by selecting portions of systems listed in Ansible's inventory, which defaults to being saved in the location ``/etc/ansible/hosts``. You can specify a different inventory file using the ``-i `` option on the command line. Not only is this inventory configurable, but you can also use multiple inventory files at the same time and pull inventory from dynamic or cloud sources or different formats (YAML, ini, etc), as described in :ref:`intro_dynamic_inventory`. Introduced in version 2.4, Ansible has inventory plugins to make this flexible and customizable. .. _inventoryformat: Inventory basics: hosts and groups ================================== The inventory file can be in one of many formats, depending on the inventory plugins you have. For this example, the format for ``/etc/ansible/hosts`` is an INI-like (one of Ansible's defaults) and looks like this: .. code-block:: guess mail.example.com [webservers] foo.example.com bar.example.com [dbservers] one.example.com two.example.com three.example.com The headings in brackets are group names, which are used in classifying systems and deciding what systems you are controlling at what times and for what purpose. A YAML version would look like: .. code-block:: yaml all: hosts: mail.example.com: children: webservers: hosts: foo.example.com: bar.example.com: dbservers: hosts: one.example.com: two.example.com: three.example.com: It is ok to put systems in more than one group, for instance a server could be both a webserver and a dbserver. If you do, note that variables will come from all of the groups they are a member of. Variable precedence is detailed in a later chapter. If you have hosts that run on non-standard SSH ports you can put the port number after the hostname with a colon. Ports listed in your SSH config file won't be used with the `paramiko` connection but will be used with the `openssh` connection. To make things explicit, it is suggested that you set them if things are not running on the default port: .. code-block:: guess badwolf.example.com:5309 Suppose you have just static IPs and want to set up some aliases that live in your host file, or you are connecting through tunnels. You can also describe hosts via variables: In INI: .. code-block:: guess jumper ansible_port=5555 ansible_host=192.0.2.50 In YAML: .. code-block:: yaml ... hosts: jumper: ansible_port: 5555 ansible_host: 192.0.2.50 In the above example, trying to ansible against the host alias "jumper" (which may not even be a real hostname) will contact 192.0.2.50 on port 5555. Note that this is using a feature of the inventory file to define some special variables. Generally speaking, this is not the best way to define variables that describe your system policy, but we'll share suggestions on doing this later. .. note:: Values passed in the INI format using the ``key=value`` syntax are interpreted differently depending on where they are declared. * When declared inline with the host, INI values are interpreted as Python literal structures (strings, numbers, tuples, lists, dicts, booleans, None). Host lines accept multiple ``key=value`` parameters per line. Therefore they need a way to indicate that a space is part of a value rather than a separator. * When declared in a ``:vars`` section, INI values are interpreted as strings. For example ``var=FALSE`` would create a string equal to 'FALSE'. Unlike host lines, ``:vars`` sections accept only a single entry per line, so everything after the ``=`` must be the value for the entry. * Do not rely on types set during definition, always make sure you specify type with a filter when needed when consuming the variable. * Consider using YAML format for inventory sources to avoid confusion on the actual type of a variable. The YAML inventory plugin processes variable values consistently and correctly. If you are adding a lot of hosts following similar patterns, you can do this rather than listing each hostname: .. code-block:: guess [webservers] www[01:50].example.com For numeric patterns, leading zeros can be included or removed, as desired. Ranges are inclusive. You can also define alphabetic ranges: .. code-block:: guess [databases] db-[a:f].example.com You can also select the connection type and user on a per host basis: .. code-block:: guess [targets] localhost ansible_connection=local other1.example.com ansible_connection=ssh ansible_user=mpdehaan other2.example.com ansible_connection=ssh ansible_user=mdehaan As mentioned above, setting these in the inventory file is only a shorthand, and we'll discuss how to store them in individual files in the 'host_vars' directory a bit later on. .. _host_variables: Assigning a variable to one machine: host variables =================================================== As described above, it is easy to assign variables to hosts that will be used later in playbooks: .. code-block:: guess [atlanta] host1 http_port=80 maxRequestsPerChild=808 host2 http_port=303 maxRequestsPerChild=909 The YAML version: .. code-block:: yaml atlanta: host1: http_port: 80 maxRequestsPerChild: 808 host2: http_port: 303 maxRequestsPerChild: 909 .. _group_variables: Assigning a variable to many machines: group variables ====================================================== Variables can also be applied to an entire group at once: The INI way: .. code-block:: guess [atlanta] host1 host2 [atlanta:vars] ntp_server=ntp.atlanta.example.com proxy=proxy.atlanta.example.com The YAML version: .. code-block:: yaml atlanta: hosts: host1: host2: vars: ntp_server: ntp.atlanta.example.com proxy: proxy.atlanta.example.com Be aware that this is only a convenient way to apply variables to multiple hosts at once; even though you can target hosts by group, **variables are always flattened to the host level** before a play is executed. .. _subgroups: Inheriting variable values: group variables for groups of groups ---------------------------------------------------------------- You can make groups of groups using the ``:children`` suffix in INI or the ``children:`` entry in YAML. You can apply variables to these groups of groups using ``:vars`` or ``vars:``: .. code-block:: guess [atlanta] host1 host2 [raleigh] host2 host3 [southeast:children] atlanta raleigh [southeast:vars] some_server=foo.southeast.example.com halon_system_timeout=30 self_destruct_countdown=60 escape_pods=2 [usa:children] southeast northeast southwest northwest .. code-block:: yaml all: children: usa: children: southeast: children: atlanta: hosts: host1: host2: raleigh: hosts: host2: host3: vars: some_server: foo.southeast.example.com halon_system_timeout: 30 self_destruct_countdown: 60 escape_pods: 2 northeast: northwest: southwest: If you need to store lists or hash data, or prefer to keep host and group specific variables separate from the inventory file, see the next section. Child groups have a couple of properties to note: - Any host that is member of a child group is automatically a member of the parent group. - A child group's variables will have higher precedence (override) a parent group's variables. - Groups can have multiple parents and children, but not circular relationships. - Hosts can also be in multiple groups, but there will only be **one** instance of a host, merging the data from the multiple groups. .. _default_groups: Default groups ============== There are two default groups: ``all`` and ``ungrouped``. ``all`` contains every host. ``ungrouped`` contains all hosts that don't have another group aside from ``all``. Every host will always belong to at least 2 groups. Though ``all`` and ``ungrouped`` are always present, they can be implicit and not appear in group listings like ``group_names``. .. _splitting_out_vars: Organizing host and group variables =================================== Although you can store variables in the main inventory file, storing separate host and group variables files may help you track your variable values more easily. Host and group variables can be stored in individual files relative to the inventory file (not directory, it is always the file). These variable files are in YAML format. Valid file extensions include '.yml', '.yaml', '.json', or no file extension. See :ref:`yaml_syntax` if you are new to YAML. Let's say, for example, that you keep your inventory file at ``/etc/ansible/hosts``. You have a host named 'foosball' that's a member of two groups: 'raleigh' and 'webservers'. That host will use variables in YAML files at the following locations:: /etc/ansible/group_vars/raleigh # can optionally end in '.yml', '.yaml', or '.json' /etc/ansible/group_vars/webservers /etc/ansible/host_vars/foosball For instance, suppose you have hosts grouped by datacenter, and each datacenter uses some different servers. The data in the groupfile '/etc/ansible/group_vars/raleigh' for the 'raleigh' group might look like:: --- ntp_server: acme.example.org database_server: storage.example.org It is okay if these files do not exist, as this is an optional feature. As an advanced use case, you can create *directories* named after your groups or hosts, and Ansible will read all the files in these directories in lexicographical order. An example with the 'raleigh' group:: /etc/ansible/group_vars/raleigh/db_settings /etc/ansible/group_vars/raleigh/cluster_settings All hosts that are in the 'raleigh' group will have the variables defined in these files available to them. This can be very useful to keep your variables organized when a single file starts to be too big, or when you want to use :ref:`Ansible Vault` on a part of a group's variables. Tip: The ``group_vars/`` and ``host_vars/`` directories can exist in the playbook directory OR the inventory directory. If both paths exist, variables in the playbook directory will override variables set in the inventory directory. Tip: The ``ansible-playbook`` command looks for playbooks in the current working directory by default. Other Ansible commands (for example, ``ansible``, ``ansible-console``, etc.) will only look for ``group_vars/`` and ``host_vars/`` in the inventory directory unless you provide the ``--playbook-dir`` option on the command line. Tip: Keeping your inventory file and variables in a git repo (or other version control) is an excellent way to track changes to your inventory and host variables. .. _how_we_merge: How variables are merged ======================== By default variables are merged/flattened to the specific host before a play is run. This keeps Ansible focused on the Host and Task, so groups don't really survive outside of inventory and host matching. By default, Ansible overwrites variables including the ones defined for a group and/or host (see :ref:`DEFAULT_HASH_BEHAVIOUR`). The order/precedence is (from lowest to highest): - all group (because it is the 'parent' of all other groups) - parent group - child group - host When groups of the same parent/child level are merged, it is done alphabetically, and the last group loaded overwrites the previous groups. For example, an a_group will be merged with b_group and b_group vars that match will overwrite the ones in a_group. .. versionadded:: 2.4 Starting in Ansible version 2.4, users can use the group variable ``ansible_group_priority`` to change the merge order for groups of the same level (after the parent/child order is resolved). The larger the number, the later it will be merged, giving it higher priority. This variable defaults to ``1`` if not set. For example: .. code-block:: yaml a_group: testvar: a ansible_group_priority: 10 b_group： testvar: b In this example, if both groups have the same priority, the result would normally have been ``testvar == b``, but since we are giving the ``a_group`` a higher priority the result will be ``testvar == a``. .. _behavioral_parameters: Connecting to hosts: behavioral inventory parameters ==================================================== As described above, setting the following variables control how Ansible interacts with remote hosts. Host connection: .. include:: shared_snippets/SSH_password_prompt.txt ansible_connection Connection type to the host. This can be the name of any of ansible's connection plugins. SSH protocol types are ``smart``, ``ssh`` or ``paramiko``. The default is smart. Non-SSH based types are described in the next section. General for all connections: ansible_host The name of the host to connect to, if different from the alias you wish to give to it. ansible_port The ssh port number, if not 22 ansible_user The default ssh user name to use. Specific to the SSH connection: ansible_ssh_pass The ssh password to use (never store this variable in plain text; always use a vault. See :ref:`best_practices_for_variables_and_vaults`) ansible_ssh_private_key_file Private key file used by ssh. Useful if using multiple keys and you don't want to use SSH agent. ansible_ssh_common_args This setting is always appended to the default command line for :command:`sftp`, :command:`scp`, and :command:`ssh`. Useful to configure a ``ProxyCommand`` for a certain host (or group). ansible_sftp_extra_args This setting is always appended to the default :command:`sftp` command line. ansible_scp_extra_args This setting is always appended to the default :command:`scp` command line. ansible_ssh_extra_args This setting is always appended to the default :command:`ssh` command line. ansible_ssh_pipelining Determines whether or not to use SSH pipelining. This can override the ``pipelining`` setting in :file:`ansible.cfg`. ansible_ssh_executable (added in version 2.2) This setting overrides the default behavior to use the system :command:`ssh`. This can override the ``ssh_executable`` setting in :file:`ansible.cfg`. Privilege escalation (see :ref:`Ansible Privilege Escalation` for further details): ansible_become Equivalent to ``ansible_sudo`` or ``ansible_su``, allows to force privilege escalation ansible_become_method Allows to set privilege escalation method ansible_become_user Equivalent to ``ansible_sudo_user`` or ``ansible_su_user``, allows to set the user you become through privilege escalation ansible_become_pass Equivalent to ``ansible_sudo_pass`` or ``ansible_su_pass``, allows you to set the privilege escalation password (never store this variable in plain text; always use a vault. See :ref:`best_practices_for_variables_and_vaults`) ansible_become_exe Equivalent to ``ansible_sudo_exe`` or ``ansible_su_exe``, allows you to set the executable for the escalation method selected ansible_become_flags Equivalent to ``ansible_sudo_flags`` or ``ansible_su_flags``, allows you to set the flags passed to the selected escalation method. This can be also set globally in :file:`ansible.cfg` in the ``sudo_flags`` option Remote host environment parameters: .. _ansible_shell_type: ansible_shell_type The shell type of the target system. You should not use this setting unless you have set the :ref:`ansible_shell_executable` to a non-Bourne (sh) compatible shell. By default commands are formatted using ``sh``-style syntax. Setting this to ``csh`` or ``fish`` will cause commands executed on target systems to follow those shell's syntax instead. .. _ansible_python_interpreter: ansible_python_interpreter The target host python path. This is useful for systems with more than one Python or not located at :command:`/usr/bin/python` such as \*BSD, or where :command:`/usr/bin/python` is not a 2.X series Python. We do not use the :command:`/usr/bin/env` mechanism as that requires the remote user's path to be set right and also assumes the :program:`python` executable is named python, where the executable might be named something like :program:`python2.6`. ansible_*_interpreter Works for anything such as ruby or perl and works just like :ref:`ansible_python_interpreter`. This replaces shebang of modules which will run on that host. .. versionadded:: 2.1 .. _ansible_shell_executable: ansible_shell_executable This sets the shell the ansible controller will use on the target machine, overrides ``executable`` in :file:`ansible.cfg` which defaults to :command:`/bin/sh`. You should really only change it if is not possible to use :command:`/bin/sh` (i.e. :command:`/bin/sh` is not installed on the target machine or cannot be run from sudo.). Examples from an Ansible-INI host file:: some_host ansible_port=2222 ansible_user=manager aws_host ansible_ssh_private_key_file=/home/example/.ssh/aws.pem freebsd_host ansible_python_interpreter=/usr/local/bin/python ruby_module_host ansible_ruby_interpreter=/usr/bin/ruby.1.9.3 Non-SSH connection types ------------------------ As stated in the previous section, Ansible executes playbooks over SSH but it is not limited to this connection type. With the host specific parameter ``ansible_connection=``, the connection type can be changed. The following non-SSH based connectors are available: **local** This connector can be used to deploy the playbook to the control machine itself. **docker** This connector deploys the playbook directly into Docker containers using the local Docker client. The following parameters are processed by this connector: ansible_host The name of the Docker container to connect to. ansible_user The user name to operate within the container. The user must exist inside the container. ansible_become If set to ``true`` the ``become_user`` will be used to operate within the container. ansible_docker_extra_args Could be a string with any additional arguments understood by Docker, which are not command specific. This parameter is mainly used to configure a remote Docker daemon to use. Here is an example of how to instantly deploy to created containers:: - name: create jenkins container docker_container: docker_host: myserver.net:4243 name: my_jenkins image: jenkins - name: add container to inventory add_host: name: my_jenkins ansible_connection: docker ansible_docker_extra_args: "--tlsverify --tlscacert=/path/to/ca.pem --tlscert=/path/to/client-cert.pem --tlskey=/path/to/client-key.pem -H=tcp://myserver.net:4243" ansible_user: jenkins changed_when: false - name: create directory for ssh keys delegate_to: my_jenkins file: path: "/var/jenkins_home/.ssh/jupiter" state: directory .. note:: If you're reading the docs from the beginning, this may be the first example you've seen of an Ansible playbook. This is not an inventory file. Playbooks will be covered in great detail later in the docs. .. seealso:: :ref:`intro_dynamic_inventory` Pulling inventory from dynamic sources, such as cloud providers :ref:`intro_adhoc` Examples of basic commands :ref:`working_with_playbooks` Learning Ansible's configuration, deployment, and orchestration language. `Mailing List `_ Questions? Help? Ideas? Stop by the list on Google Groups `irc.freenode.net `_ #ansible IRC chat channel