Ansible Cheat Sheet

Installation

pip install ansible

Inventory File (hosts)

[web]
web1.example.com
web2.example.com

[db]
db1.example.com

[all:vars]
ansible_user=myuser

Basic Commands

Ping hosts

ansible all -m ping

Run ad-hoc command

ansible all -a "df -h"

Check syntax of playbook

ansible-playbook playbook.yml --syntax-check

Run playbook

ansible-playbook -i hosts playbook.yml

Run playbook with tags

ansible-playbook -i hosts playbook.yml --tags "tag1,tag2"

Playbook Structure

Basic Playbook

---
- name: My first playbook
  hosts: all
  tasks:
    - name: Ensure nginx is installed
      ansible.builtin.package:
        name: nginx
        state: present

Variables

vars:
  user_name: "john"
  user_home: "/home/john"

Handlers

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

Roles

ansible-galaxy init my-role

Directory Structure

my-role/
    ├── defaults/
    ├── files/
    ├── handlers/
    ├── meta/
    ├── tasks/
    ├── templates/
    └── vars/

Conditionals

when: "'web' in group_names"

Loops

with_items:
  - item1
  - item2

Debugging

Debug task output

- name: Debug variable
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    var: my_variable

This cheat sheet should provide a quick reference for someone new to Ansible. It covers installation, inventory files, basic commands, playbook structure, and some debugging tips.