.. _inventory: Inventory ========= .. contents:: Topics 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 file, 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 (explained below) and also pull inventory from dynamic or cloud sources, as described in :doc:`intro_dynamic_inventory`. .. _inventoryformat: Hosts and Groups ++++++++++++++++ The format for ``/etc/ansible/hosts`` is an INI-like format and looks like this:: mail.example.com [webservers] foo.example.com bar.example.com [dbservers] one.example.com two.example.com three.example.com The things 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. 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, and 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:: 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 like this:: 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. We're just getting started. Adding a lot of hosts? If you have a lot of hosts following similar patterns you can do this rather than listing each hostname:: [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:: [databases] db-[a:f].example.com .. include:: ../rst_common/ansible_ssh_changes_note.rst You can also select the connection type and user on a per host basis: :: [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: Host Variables ++++++++++++++ As alluded to above, it is easy to assign variables to hosts that will be used later in playbooks:: [atlanta] host1 http_port=80 maxRequestsPerChild=808 host2 http_port=303 maxRequestsPerChild=909 .. _group_variables: Group Variables +++++++++++++++ Variables can also be applied to an entire group at once:: [atlanta] host1 host2 [atlanta:vars] ntp_server=ntp.atlanta.example.com proxy=proxy.atlanta.example.com .. _subgroups: Groups of Groups, and Group Variables +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ It is also possible to make groups of groups using the ``:children`` suffix. Just like above, you can apply variables using ``:vars``:: [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 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. .. _splitting_out_vars: Splitting Out Host and Group Specific Data ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The preferred practice in Ansible is actually not to store variables in the main inventory file. In addition to storing variables directly in the INI file, host and group variables can be stored in individual files relative to the inventory file. These variable files are in YAML format. Valid file extensions include '.yml', '.yaml', '.json', or no file extension. See :doc:`YAMLSyntax` if you are new to YAML. Assuming the inventory file path is:: /etc/ansible/hosts If the host is named 'foosball', and in groups 'raleigh' and 'webservers', variables in YAML files at the following locations will be made available to the host:: /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 ok 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. 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 :doc:`Ansible Vault` on a part of a group's variables. Note that this only works on Ansible 1.4 or later. Tip: In Ansible 1.2 or later 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: 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. .. _behavioral_parameters: List of Behavioral Inventory Parameters +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ As alluded to above, setting the following variables controls how ansible interacts with remote hosts. Host connection: 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. .. include:: ../rst_common/ansible_ssh_changes_note.rst SSH connection: 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. 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`. .. versionadded:: 2.2 ansible_ssh_executable 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 :doc:`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`) Remote host environment parameters: ansible_shell_type The shell type of the target system. You should not use this setting unless you have set the ``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 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 ``ansible_python_interpreter``. This replaces shebang of modules which will run on that host. .. versionadded:: 2.1 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 a 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 is executing playbooks over SSH but is not limited to. With the host specific parameter ``ansible_connection=`` the connection type can be changed. 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. 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: 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 .. seealso:: :doc:`intro_dynamic_inventory` Pulling inventory from dynamic sources, such as cloud providers :doc:`intro_adhoc` Examples of basic commands :doc:`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