ansible

name: ansible description: "Provides comprehensive guidance for Ansible automation including playbooks, roles, inventory, and module usage. Use when the user asks about Ansible, needs to automate IT tasks, create Ansible playbooks, or manage infrastructure with Ansible." license: Complete terms in LICENSE.txt

When to use this skill

Use this skill whenever the user wants to:

• Write Ansible playbooks, roles, or inventory files
• Execute ad-hoc commands or run playbooks against hosts
• Use modules (package, copy, template, service, user, etc.) for configuration and deployment
• Handle variables, conditionals, loops, and error handling in Ansible
• Set up Ansible Vault for secrets management

How to use this skill

Workflow

1. Define inventory — list target hosts in INI or YAML format
2. Write playbook — define hosts, tasks, handlers, and vars in YAML
3. Organize with roles — extract reusable tasks, templates, and defaults into roles
4. Run and validate — execute with ansible-playbook and verify idempotency

Quick Start Example

# site.yml
---
- name: Deploy web application
  hosts: webservers
  become: true
  vars:
    app_port: 8080
  tasks:
    - name: Install nginx
      ansible.builtin.package:
        name: nginx
        state: present

    - name: Deploy config from template
      ansible.builtin.template:
        src: templates/nginx.conf.j2
        dest: /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
      notify: restart nginx

  handlers:
    - name: restart nginx
      ansible.builtin.service:
        name: nginx
        state: restarted

# Run the playbook
ansible-playbook -i inventory/production site.yml

# Ad-hoc ping all hosts
ansible -m ping all

Key Commands

Best Practices

• Organize with roles and group_vars/host_vars hierarchy; avoid monolithic playbooks
• Encrypt sensitive data with ansible-vault; use idempotent tasks with state and conditionals
• Define explicit failure handling (ignore_errors, block/rescue); use tags for selective runs
• Control node requires Python; target hosts need SSH access; optionally use AWX/Tower for scheduling

Troubleshooting

• Connection refused: Verify SSH keys and ansible_user in inventory
• Module not found: Check Ansible version and use FQCN (e.g., ansible.builtin.copy)
• Idempotency failures: Ensure tasks use state parameter and avoid shell commands where modules exist

Keywords

ansible, playbook, role, inventory, automation, configuration management, ansible-vault, infrastructure