Cheatsheets: Ansible Cheatsheet

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Install

# Install ansible (for user).
python3 -m pip install --user ansible

# Upgrade ansible (for user).
python3 -m pip install --upgrade --user ansible

# Display ansible core version.
ansible --version

# Display ansible version.
python3 -m pip show ansible

# Unsnstall ansible.
python3 -m pip uninstall ansible

Inventory

Host.ini

# Hosts in group 'all'.
host1
host2

# Hosts in a group.
[group-name]
host1
host2

# Hosts in a group with variables defined.
[group-name]
host1 <var_1>=<value_1> <var_2>=<value_2> ... <var_n>=<value_n>
host2 <var_1>=<value_1> <var_2>=<value_2> ... <var_n>=<value_n>

Host Variables

Variable Name	Description
`ansible_host`	The name or the ip of the host to connect to. If none, the alias will be used.
`ansible_port`	The port to connect, if not defined, port 12 will used.
`ansible_user`	The user to use when connecting to the host
`ansible_password`	The password to use to authenticate to the host
`ansible_ssh_private_key_file`	Private key file used by ssh.
`ansible_ssh_common_args`	This setting is always appended to the default command line for sftp, scp, and ssh.
`ansible_sftp_extra_args`	This setting is always appended to the default sftp command line.
`ansible_scp_extra_args`	This setting is always appended to the default scp command line.
`ansible_ssh_extra_args`	This setting is always appended to the default ssh command line.
`ansible_ssh_pipelining`	Determines whether or not to use SSH pipelining. This can override the pipelining setting in ansible.cfg.
`ansible_ssh_executable`	This setting overrides the default behavior to use the system ssh. This can override the `ssh_executable` setting in ansible.cfg.
`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_password`	Equivalent to `ansible_sudo_password` or `ansible_su_password`, allows you to set the privilege escalation password
`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.
`ansible_shell_type`	The shell type of the target system.
`ansible_python_interpreter`	The target host python path.
`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.

Ansible Playbook

Hello World

- hosts: all
 tasks:
 - name: Print message
 debug:
 msg: Hello world!

Privilege Escalation

# Activate privilege escalation for all tasks.
- hosts: all
 become: yes
 tasks:
 - name: Print message
 debug:
 msg: Hello world!


# Activate privilege escalation for a specific task.
- hosts: all
 tasks:
 - name: Print message
 become: yes
 debug:
 msg: Hello world!


# Run command with another user.
- hosts: all
 tasks:
 - name: Print message
 become: yes
 become_user: <another-user>
 debug:
 msg: Hello world!

Commonly Used Modules

Package

- name: Install a package (state=present is optional)
 apt:
 name: <package-name>
 state: present

- name: Remove a package
 apt:
 name: <package-name>
 state: absent

- name: Install a list of packages
 apt:
 pkg:
 - <package1-name>
 - <package2-name>

- name: Upgrade all packages to the latest version
 apt:
 name: "*"
 state: latest

- name: Update all packages to the latest version
 apt:
 upgrade: dist

- name: Run the equivalent of "apt-get update"
 apt:
 update_cache: yes

- name: Install a .deb package
 apt:
 deb: <deb-filepath>

- name: Install the build dependencies for a package
 apt:
 pkg: <package-name>
 state: build-dep

- name: Install a .deb package from the internet
 apt:
 deb: <deb-url>

- name: Remove useless packages from the cache
 apt:
 autoclean: yes

- name: Remove dependencies that are no longer required
 apt:
 autoremove: yes

Service

- name: Start service <service-name>, if not started
 service:
 name: <service-name>
 state: started

- name: Stop service <service-name>, if started
 service:
 name: <service-name>
 state: stopped

- name: Restart service <service-name>, in all cases
 service:
 name: <service-name>
 state: restarted

- name: Reload service <service-name>, in all cases
 service:
 name: <service-name>
 state: reloaded

- name: Enable service <service-name>, and not touch the state
 service:
 name: <service-name>
 enabled: yes

File Basics

- name: Change file ownership, group and permissions
 file:
 path: <filepath>
 owner: <username>
 group: <group-name>
 mode: <file-mode> # file-mode can be numbers like 0644, or symbols like u=rw,g=r,o=r, or symbol changes u+rw,g-wx,o-rwx.

- name: Create a symbolic link
 file:
 src: <filepath-to-link-to>
 dest: <symlink-path>
 owner: <username>
 group: <group-name>
 state: link

- name: Create two hard links
 file:
 src: <filepath-to-link-to>
 dest: <symlink-path>
 state: hard

- name: Create an empty file.
 file:
 path: <filepath>
 state: touch
 mode: <file-mode>

- name: Create a directory if it does not exist
 file:
 path: <dir-path>
 state: directory
 mode: <file-mode>

- name: Recursively change ownership of a directory
 file:
 path: <dir-path>
 owner: <username>
 group: <group-name>
 state: directory
 recurse: yes

- name: Remove a file
 file:
 path: <filepath>
 state: absent

- name: Recursively remove directory
 file:
 path: <dir-path>
 state: absent

File Copy

- name: Copy file with owner and permissions.
 copy:
 src: <src-filepath>
 dest: <dst-filepath>
 owner: <username>
 group: <group-name>
 mode: <file-mode> # file-mode can be numbers like 0644, or symbols like u=rw,g=r,o=r, or symbol changes u+rw,g-wx,o-rwx.

- name: Copy a file, backing up the original one if it differs from the copied version
 copy:
 src: <src-filepath>
 dest: <dst-filepath>
 owner: <username>
 group: <group-name>
 mode: <file-mode>
 backup: yes

- name: Copy a new "sudoers" file into place, after passing validation with visudo
 copy:
 src: /mine/sudoers
 dest: /etc/sudoers
 validate: /usr/sbin/visudo -csf %s

- name: Copy a "sudoers" file on the remote machine for editing
 copy:
 src: /etc/sudoers
 dest: /etc/sudoers.edit
 remote_src: yes
 validate: /usr/sbin/visudo -csf %s

- name: Copy using inline content
 copy:
 content: 'this is the file content'
 dest: <filepath>

LineInFile

- name: If a line matches <line-pattern>, replace it with <line>
 lineinfile:
 path: <filepath>
 regexp: <line-pattern>
 line: <line>

- name: If a line matches <line-pattern>, remove it
 lineinfile:
 path: <filepath>
 regexp: <line-pattern>
 state: absent

- name: If a line matches <line-pattern>, replace it with <line> and place it after the line <insert-line-pattern>
 lineinfile:
 path: <filepath>
 regexp: <line-pattern>
 insertafter: <insert-line-pattern>
 line: <line>

- name: If a line matches <line-pattern>, replace it with <line> and place it before the line <insert-line-pattern>
 lineinfile:
 path: <filepath>
 regexp: <line-pattern>
 insertbefore: <insert-line-pattern>
 line: <line>

- name: Add <line> to a file. Create the file if it doesn't exist
 lineinfile:
 path: <filepath>
 line: <line>
 create: yes

Commands

- name: Execute a command, and send the output to a variable
 command: <command>
 register: <var-name>

- name: Run command if filepath does not exist
 command: <command>
 args:
 creates: <filepath>

- name: Run command in a specific directory
 command: <command>
 args:
 chdir: <dir>

Git

- git:
 name: Check out a git repo to a specific version (which can be HEAD, a branch, or a tag)
 repo: <git-repo-url>
 dest: <checkout-dir-path>
 version: <version>

- git:
 name: Ensure a git repo checkout exists.
 repo: <git-repo-url>
 dest: <checkout-dir-path>
 update: no

User

- name: Add a specific user with a uid (e.g., 1040)
 user:
 name: <username>
 comment: <comment>
 uid: <uid>
 group: <group>

- name: Add a uesr and append groups to the user's groups
 user:
 name: <username>
 groups: <group_1>,<group_2>,...,<group_n>
 append: yes

- name: Remove a user
 user:
 name: <username>
 state: absent
 remove: yes

- name: Add a user with an expire time
 user:
 name: <username>
 groups: <group_1>,<group_2>,...,<group_n>
 expires: <expire-timestamp>

- name: Remove user's expire time
 user:
 name: <username>
 expires: -1

Debug

- name: Print hostname and uuid
 debug:
 msg: System {{ inventory_hostname }} has uuid {{ ansible_product_uuid }}

- name: print hostname and uuid conditionally
 debug:
 msg: System {{ inventory_hostname }} has gateway {{ ansible_default_ipv4.gateway }}
 when: ansible_default_ipv4.gateway is defined

All Modules

A list of all modules can be found here.

Commands

Run Command For A Single Module

# Ping hosts in group all.
ansible all -m ping

# Ping hosts in group all with a given hosts.ini.
ansible -i hosts.ini all -m ping

# Ping hosts in a group with a given hosts.ini.
ansible -i hosts.ini <group-name> -m ping

# Run a task with a specific module.
ansible -i hosts.ini <group-name> -m <module-name> -a "<module-arg-1-key>=<module-arg-1-value> <module-arg-2-key>=<module-arg-2-value> ... <module-arg-n-key>=<module-arg-n-value>"

# Touch a file.
ansible -i hosts.ini all -m file -a "path=~/file-to-touch mode=0644 state=touch"

Run Command For A Playbook

# Run a playbook for group all.
ansible-playbook -i hosts.ini <playbook-yml-file>

# Run a playbook for a group.
ansible-playbook -i hosts.ini <playbook-yml-file> <group-name>

# Run a playbook for a host.
ansible-playbook -i hosts.ini <playbook-yml-file> <hostname>

# Show hosts information.
ansible-playbook -i hosts.ini <playbook-yml-file> --list-hosts

# Show tasks information.
ansible-playbook -i hosts.ini <playbook-yml-file> --list-tasks

# Perform playbook syntax check.
ansible-playbook --syntax-check <playbook-yml-file>

DevMemo – ansible

Cheatsheets: Ansible Cheatsheet

Install

Inventory

Host.ini

Host Variables

Ansible Playbook

Hello World

Privilege Escalation

Commonly Used Modules

Package

Service

File Basics

File Copy

LineInFile

Commands

Git

User

Debug

All Modules

Commands

Run Command For A Single Module

Run Command For A Playbook