Ansible Cheat Sheet

Ansible is a powerful open-source automation tool that is meant for configuration management and application deployment. It works with agentless architecture and a push-based mechanism. It uses YAML syntax for orchestrating the infrastructure efficiently across different environments. It will be effective and preferable in managing both small-scale setups and large-scale enterprise systems. Ansible helps in streamlining operations, enhancing productivity and scalability.

In this article “Ansible Cheat Sheet”, we will explain in short and effectively the concepts of Ansible such as Ansible, Ansible Architecture, Ansible Installation, Ansible Inventory, Ansible ad-hoc commands, ansible Playbook commands, ansible-vault commands, ansible-navigator commands, ansible-galaxy commands. In this, we covered all the essential commands of respective concepts effectively detailing their functionalities. In addition, we discussed the troubleshooting commands and document commands for guiding you to be effective with troubleshooting skills and exploring more options of the ansible features. Now, let’s start by going through this article.

What Is Ansible?

Ansible is an open-source configuration management tool that automates and manages things such as software provisioning, configuration management, and application deployment across different environments.

What Is Ansible Architecture?

The Ansible comes as Agentless architecture with a push-based mechanism. It means there is no need for pre-installation of software on worker nodes to connect to the manager node.

The system one which Ansible is installed is treated as the Manager Node and the Other systems that are managed by Manager Node For establishing the connection to worker nodes, Ansible Manager uses some kind of protocol, for Linux systems ssh protocol and for Windows systems WinRM protocol is mostly used in behind.

The information of worker nodes such as username, password, IP address, and protocol are specified in a file in Ansible manager known as Inventory.

Ansible Keywords

Ansible keywords are the fundamental elements that are used for structuring and defining the automation of tasks in the Playbooks with YAML syntax. These are the elements that helps in organizing the tasks and helps in orchestrating the automation process effectively.

Ansible Keywords	Description
play	It termed for defining the set of tasks that to be executed On remote hosts.
task	An Action performed by ansible on remote hosts.
role	it is an organized structure directory with files containing a predefined set of tasks, handlers, variables and files
Module	These are Reusable, Standalone ansible scripts sued to perform tasks on Worker nodes.
vars	It is used for defining the variables that can be used through out the playbook for dynamic configurations.
register	This keyword helps in capturing the ouptut of the tasks and stores in a variable for later use in playbook.
notify	This keyword used to trigger the handlers when specific conditions are matched such as service state changes.

Ansible Modules

In ansible modules are the reusable scripts that helps in carrying out specific tasks on remote systems such as managing the packages, files, services or executing commands. It helps in automating the infrastructure management efficiently, consistently at scale.

Ansible Modules	Usage
apt	This module manages the packages on Debian and Ubuntu Systems.
yum	This module manages the packages on Red Hat/ Cent OS systems
copy	This module helps in copying the files from local or Remote system to Destination system.
file	This module manages the files and directories in local or Remote system.
service	This module manages the services in the ansible
shell	This module helps in executing shell commands on remote hosts.
template	This module help in using the Jinja2 templates allowing dynamic content usage.
cron	This module helps in managing the cron jobs, including the creation, modification and removal.
git	This module helps in managing the repositories allowing tasks such as cloning, pulling and pushing.

Ansible Installation Commands

Installation of Ansible with commands varies slightly with respective operating systems. Every operating system comes with different package manager, so installation commands also keeps on varying. The following helps in finding installation command with respective operating system.

Operating System	Commands
Ubuntu/Debian	sudo apt-get install ansible
Red Hat/CentOS	sudo yum install ansible
Using Pip software	sudo pip install ansible

Ansible Playbook

• An Ansible playbook is a YAML file that contains a series of tasks that to be executed on remote hosts.
• Defining a task in playbook known as play and A playbook can have more than one play.
• The Execution of playbook provides the output in color-coded signifying the information such as

Color	Description
Green	Successfully Run and Configured
Cyan/Blue	No Changess
Yellow/Orange	Skipped
Red	Error Raised

Ansible Playbook Command – Options

ansible-playbook -i inventory_path -u remote_user -k -f 3 -T 20 -t my_tag -M module_path myplaybook.yaml

• Here the options are detailed as follows:

Options	Description
-i	It used for specifying inventory path where the worker nodes information specified inventory file exists.
-u	Used for specifying the user to connect over SSH (remotely) and run play.
-k	It used for asking password which used for while SSH Authentication
-f	It used for allocating forks that helps in number of tasks to execute parallel on remote hosts.
-T	It used for setting time-out for remote connection establishment. It prevents in hanging the manager Node in Unreachable connections.
-t	It is used to specify the tags, which helps to run the tasks that only contains this tags
-M	It is used for defining module path that helps in loading local module.
-b	It helps with running the play with elevated privileges ( uses become )
-K	It used for prompting the enter password that required for escalation privilege (such as sudo password )

Ansible Adhoc Commands

Ansible Adhoc commands are the manual way of running the ansible commands for local or remote hosts configuration.

Functions	Commands
Checking Connectivity To Hosts (Worker Nodes)	ansible <group> -m ping
Executing The Command On Hosts	ansible <group> -a “<command>”
Executing Shell Commands On Hosts	ansible <group> -m shell -a “<command>”
Gathering Facts From All Hosts	ansible all -m setup
Copying A File To All Hosts	ansible all -m copy -a “src=file.txt dest=dest.txt”
Restarting A Service On All Hosts	ansible all -m service -a “name=<service_name> state=restarted”

Ansible Playbook Commands

Ansible playbook commands are the one that used while running the playbook. On using options we can enhance extra functionality while executing the play run. The following tables illustrates some of functionality and its commands.

Functions	Commands
Execute The Playbook	ansible-playbook playbook.yml
Check The Playbook Syntax	ansible-playbook playbook.yml –syntax-check
Check The Mode of Playbook ( Dry Run )	ansible-playbook playbook.yml –check
Execute The Playbook Start At Task	ansible-playbook playbook.yml –start-at-task <task_name>
Limit Playbook Execution To Specific Hosts	ansible-playbook playbook.yml -l <host/group>
Skip Tasks With Specified Tags	ansible-playbook playbook.yml –skip-tags <tag>

Ansible Vault Commands

The ansible vault commands are used for storing the senstive data instead of exposing them in playbooks directly.

Functions	Ansible Vault Commands
Encrypt Vault File	ansible-vault encrypt file.yml
Edit An Encrypted File	ansible-vault edit file.yml
Decrypt Vault File	ansible-vault decrypt file.yml
View Vault File	ansible-vault view file.yml
Encrypt A String	ansible-vault encrypt_string ‘your_secret_string’
Rekey An Encrypted File	ansible-vault rekey file.yml

Ansible Role Commands

Ansible Roles are an effective way of organizing and reusing the Ansible content. The following are the some effective ansible Role Commands explaining its functionality.

Functions	Ansible Role Commands
Initialize The Role	ansible-galaxy init role_name
Install The Role	ansible-galaxy install author.role_name

Ansible Inventory Commands

Ansible inventory commands helps in providing the essential functionalities for managing and interacting with inventory.

Functions	Ansible Inventory Commands
Listing Hosts	ansible-inventory –list
Graphical View	ansible-inventory –graph
Filter The Hosts By Pattern	ansible all -i inventory.ini –pattern ‘web*’
Updating Dynamic Inventory	ansible-inventory –refresh

Ansible Connectivity Checking Commands

Ansible Connectivity Commands helps in checking the connectivity with hosts systems and accessibility of hosts in your inventory.

Functions	Ansible Connectivity Commands
Ping The Hosts	ansible all -m ping
Check SSH Connectivity	ansible all -m ping -c paramiko
Verify The Connectivity To Specific Host	ansible <hostname> -m ping

Ansible Galaxy Commands

Ansible Galaxy is a community hub for sharing Ansible roles, collections and other content. It act as a centralized repository where users are able to discover, download and contribute to Ansible content making easier of infrastructure automation.

Functions	Ansible Galaxy Commands
Search Role	ansible-galaxy search role_name
Install a Role	ansible-galaxy install author.role_name
Listing Install Roles	ansible-galaxy list
Creating A Requirements File For Roles	ansible-galaxy install -r requirements.yml

Ansible Document Commands

Ansible Document Commands helps in knowing more information about particular modules and playbook such as its providing functionalities, syntax and options.

Functions	Commands
To See The Documentation Of The Module	ansible-doc module_name
To See Information On Playbooks	ansible-doc playbook

Ansible Playbook Commands For Assign Variables

Ansible playbook commands for assigning variables enables the users to provide dynamic values to tasks and playbooks.

Functions	Commands
Defining Variables In Playbook	vars: var_name: value
For Adding Variables To Playbooks	ansible-playbook playbook.yml –extra-vars “var_name=value”
For Providing File Containing Variables	ansible-playbook playbook.yml -e @vars.yml

Ansible Navigator Commands

Ansible Navigator provides a set of commands that support the navigation and exploration with ansible resources.

Functions	Commands
List Available Actions	ansible-navigator actions
Search Modules	ansible-navigator search-modules <keyword>
Execute Playbooks	ansible-navigator run playbook.yml
Viewing Inventory	ansible-navigator inventory
Interacting With Ansible Collections	ansible-navigator collection

Ansible Troubleshooting Commands

Ansible Troubleshooting commands in helps in better understanding of the issue and resolving them efficiently.

Functions	Commands
To Increase The Verbosity Of Playbook Execution	ansible-playbook playbook.yml -v
To Check Syntax Of Playbook	ansible-playbook playbook.yml –syntax-check
Gathering Facts From Hosts	ansible all -m setup

We came to the end of the article, in this Ansible Cheat Sheet we discussed all the essential commands and concepts that needed as a DevOps Professional to work effective with ansible tool. Try on keeping it handy for quick reference and streamline your configuration management tasks effortlessly.

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Ansible Cheat Sheet – FAQ’s

What Is Ansible And Why To Use It?

Ansible is an open-sourcely available automation tool that is used for configuration management and application deployments. It helps in simplifying the tasks , enhancing the productivity and scalability of repetitive tasks.

How Do I Install Ansible On My System?

Install of ansible can be done so simple with one command but based on the operating system the command keep on varying with slightly with package manager. For Ubuntu/Debian system uses `sudo apt-get install ansible` and on Red Hat/CentOS systems uses `sudo yum install ansible` and alternatively you can install with using pip software also the command as follows `sudo pip install ansible`

How Can I Troubleshoot Ansible Tasks?

Troubleshooting of ansible can be done by increasing the verbosity with -v option, Checking the syntax of the yaml with –syntax-check and gathering the facts from the hosts with ansible all -m setup helps in resolving the issues during the playbook execution.

What Is The Diffference Between Ansible Ad-hoc Commands And Playbooks?

Ansible ad-hoc commands are used for quick on-off tasks, that can be executed directly from the command line. Whereas playbook are defined the configuration of tasks in yaml syntax code and will be helpful for more complex automation workflows.

What Are Ansible Playbooks And How Do They Work?

Ansible playbooks the files containing a series of tasks that to be executed on remote hosts. They define their desired state of the system. While the executing the playbook the defined tasks are executed sequentials ensuring the hosts system desired configurations.

How Can I Manage Sensitive Data In Ansible?

You can manage the sensitive data in ansible using ansible-vaults which is feature that helps in encrypting the secured data files. Example of encrypting file with ansible-vault is as follows:

ansible-vault encrypt file.yml