Ansible variables

These variables cannot be set directly by the user; Ansible will always override them to reflect internal state. The name of the collection the task that is executing is a ansible variables of.

Ansible uses variables to manage differences between systems. With Ansible, you can execute tasks and playbooks on multiple different systems with a single command. To represent the variations among those different systems, you can create variables with standard YAML syntax, including lists and dictionaries. You can define these variables in your playbooks, in your inventory , in reusable files or roles , or at the command line. You can also create variables during a playbook run by registering the return value or values of a task as a new variable. The ansible-examples GitHub repository contains many examples of using variables in Ansible. Once you understand the concepts and examples on this page, read about Ansible facts , which are variables you retrieve from remote systems.

Ansible variables

Ansible variables are dynamic values used within Ansible playbooks and roles to enable customization, flexibility, and reusability of configurations. They are very similar to variables in programming languages, helping you manage complex tasks more efficiently by allowing the same playbook or role to be applied across different environments, systems, or contexts without the need for hardcoding specific information. This blog post deep dives into Ansible Variables, which allow us to parametrize different Ansible components. Variables store values for reuse inside an Ansible project. If you are still learning how to use Ansible, you might also find helpful the introductory Ansible Tutorial or Working with Ansible Playbooks blog posts. The use of variables simplifies the management of dynamic values throughout an Ansible project and can potentially reduce the number of human errors. We have a convenient way to handle variations and differences between different environments and systems with variables. Another advantage of variables in Ansible is that we have the flexibility to define them in multiple places with different precedence according to our use case. We can also register new variables in our playbooks by using the returned value of a task. Ansible facts are a special type of variables that Ansible retrieves from any remote host for us to leverage them in Ansible projects. Ansible has a strict set of rules to create valid variable names. Variable names can contain only letters, numbers, and underscores and must start with a letter or underscore. The simplest use case of variables is to define a variable name with a single value using standard YAML syntax. Although this pattern can be used in many places, we will show an example in a playbook for simplicity. In the above example, after the vars block, we define the variable username , and assign the value bob.

Contents of the --skip-tags CLI option, which specifies which tags will be skipped for the current run. Ansible 2. A lot of folks may ask ansible variables how variables override another.

The concept of variables in Ansible is similar to that of variables in any programming language. In Ansible a value is assigned to a variable that can be then referenced in a playbook or on command line during playbook runtime. Variables can be used in playbooks , inventories , and at the command line as we have just mentioned. Variable names can only contain letters uppercase or lowercase letters or a combination of the two , underscores, and digits. In defining variables, some strings are reserved for special purposes and cannot qualify as valid variable names. These include Playbook Keywords and Python keywords.

In Ansible, variables are used to store and retrieve values that can be referenced in playbooks, roles, templates, and other Ansible components. They provide a way to make playbooks more flexible and reusable by allowing you to parameterize your configurations. Dynamic Configurations: Variables enable you to create dynamic configurations based on the values assigned at runtime. This is useful for adapting configurations to different environments or changing requirements. Reusability: Variables promote playbook and role reusability.

Ansible variables

Ansible is not a full-fledged programming language, but it does have several programming language features, and one of the most important of these is variable substitution. There are different types of variables available in Ansible you can click on individual link which will take you to the respective official documentation page from docs. The following examples are all invalid, however, and cannot be used :. There are two types of variables which you can define in an inventory i. Let us understand about each of them individually:.

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In current embodiments, this feature is in beta-level state and the Redis plugin does not support port or password configuration, this is expected to change in the near future. How do I see all the inventory vars defined for my host? This is the default configuration of ansible. These can use different formats YAML, ini, and so on. If you do not need to gather facts for example, if you know everything about your systems centrally , you can turn off fact gathering at the play level to improve scalability. How variables are merged. The register module captures the output and the output is finally printed out to stdout. You can put each host in more than one group. If you want to use it in the same play where you created it, you must explicitly re-run the setup module. You can create your inventory file in one of many formats, depending on the inventory plugins you have.

Ansible uses variables to manage differences between systems. With Ansible, you can execute tasks and playbooks on multiple different systems with a single command.

Select version: latest 2. For instance: foo : field1 : one field2 : two. When you pass variables at the command line, use a single quoted string, that contains one or more variables, in one of the formats below. Note that the Python redis library should be installed from pip, the version packaged in EPEL is too old for use by Ansible. Print Page Previous Next. Determines whether or not to use SSH pipelining. You can also pass multiple values, which allows you to run the same role multiple times. Useful to configure a ProxyCommand for a certain host or group. Posted: November 26, These can use different formats YAML, ini, and so on. See Organizing host and group variables for details on how to organize host and group variables in your inventory. The names of these variables are reserved. This data is often utilized for creating dynamic inventories, templating, or making decisions based on host-specific attributes. With hostvars , you can access variables defined for any host in the play, at any point in a playbook.