Ansible-Cheat-Sheet.md

Ansible Cheat Sheet

This document provides a comprehensive list of useful Ansible commands and their explanations. Use this cheat sheet to enhance your Ansible workflow and troubleshoot common issues.

General Commands

Display Module Documentation

ansible-doc ping

Displays the documentation for the "ping" Ansible module.

Display Ansible Help

ansible --help

Provides help information for the Ansible command, listing available subcommands and options.

ansible-playbook --help

Provides help information for the ansible-playbook command, listing available options and their descriptions.

Listing Hosts

List All Hosts

ansible --list-host all

Lists all hosts in the inventory.

List Hosts in a Specific Group

ansible --list-host dev

Lists all hosts in the "dev" group.

ansible --list-host webservers

Lists all hosts in the "webservers" group.

List Hosts NOT in a Specific Group

ansible --list-host \!webservers

Lists all hosts that are NOT in the "webservers" group.

List Hosts in Multiple Groups

ansible --list-host webserver:devservers

Lists all hosts that are in either the "webserver" or "devservers" group.

Running Playbooks

Check Mode (Dry Run)

ansible-playbook playbook.yml --check

Runs the playbook in check mode to show what changes would be made without actually making any changes.

ansible-playbook playbook.yml --check --diff

Runs the playbook in check mode and also shows the differences that would be applied.

Debugging

ansible-playbook playbook.yml -vvv

Runs the playbook with very verbose output for debugging purposes.

Limit Execution to Specific Hosts

ansible-playbook playbook.yml -l node1

Limits the execution of the playbook to the "node1" host only.

List Hosts in Playbook

ansible-playbook playbook.yml --list-hosts

Lists all hosts that would be targeted by the playbook.

List Tasks in Playbook

ansible-playbook playbook.yml --list-tasks

Lists all tasks that would be executed by the playbook.

Inventory Management

List Inventory

ansible-inventory --list

Lists all hosts and groups in the inventory.

Display Inventory Graph

ansible-inventory --graph

Displays a graph of the inventory showing groups and their member hosts.

List Inventory Plugins

ansible-doc -t inventory -l

Lists all available inventory plugins.

AWS EC2 Plugin Documentation

ansible-doc -t inventory aws_ec2

Displays the documentation for the aws_ec2 inventory plugin.

List Dynamic Inventory in YAML Format

ansible-inventory -i inventory_aws_ec2.yml --list --yaml

Lists the dynamic inventory defined in inventory_aws_ec2.yml in YAML format.

Gathering Facts

Gather Facts from All Hosts

ansible all -m setup

Gathers facts from all hosts in the inventory.

Gather Facts with a Specific Module

ansible all -m gather_facts

Gathers facts from all hosts using the gather_facts module.

Filter Gathered Facts

ansible node3 -m setup | grep ansible_distribution_version

Gathers facts from "node3" and filters the output for the ansible_distribution_version fact.

ansible node1:node2 -m setup | grep ansible_os_family

Gathers facts from "node1" and "node2" and filters the output for the ansible_os_family fact.

Display Facts from All Hosts and Store Them

ansible all -m setup --tree /tmp/facts

Displays facts from all hosts and stores them indexed by hostname at /tmp/facts.

Ansible Configuration Settings

Dump Configuration Settings

ansible-config dump

Dumps the current Ansible configuration settings.

Dump Specific Configuration Settings

ansible-config dump | grep ROLE

Dumps the current Ansible configuration settings and filters for ROLE.

List Specific Configuration Settings

ansible-config list | grep -E 'HOST_KEY|true'

Lists the Ansible configuration settings and filters for HOST_KEY or true.

View the Ansible Configuration File

ansible-config view

Displays the contents of your ansible.cfg file.

Running Multiple Playbooks in One Playbook

Playbooks.yml

- import_playbook: ping.yml
- import_playbook: shell.yml
- import_playbook: configure.yml

This example shows how to import and run multiple playbooks in a single playbook file.