Install Ansible in WSL

Install Ansible release (Recommended)

The Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is not officially supported by Ansible and should not be used for production.

$ sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
$ sudo apt install python3-pip git libffi-dev libssl-dev -y
$ pip3 install --user ansible pywinrm  # pywinrm is a Python client for the Windows Remote Management (WinRM) service

Checkout pywinrm

Restart WSL

To restart the running WSL instance, run the following commands. Unfortunately, there is no --restart flag just yet.

> wsl --shutdown
> wsl

Install Ansible from source instead of a release (Not recommended)

Skip this step if you sticked with the recommended option

$ pip3 uninstall ansible -y
$ git clone https://github.com/ansible/ansible.git
$ source ansible/hacking/env-setup

To enable Ansible on login, run the following: (Works when installed from source ONLY)

$ echo '. ~/ansible/hacking/env-setup -q' >> ~/.bashrc

And restart WSL

Validate Ansible Installation

Once the WSL window is opened, run:

$ ansible --version
ansible [core 2.11.6]
  config file = /home/username/.ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = ['/home/username/.ansible/plugins/modules', '/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /home/username/.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages/ansible
  ansible collection location = /home/username/.ansible/collections:/usr/share/ansible/collections
  executable location = /home/username/.local/bin/ansible
  python version = 3.8.10 (default, Sep 28 2021, 16:10:42) [GCC 9.3.0]
  jinja version = 3.0.2
  libyaml = True

---

Setup Ansible to work for localhost

Create .ansible.cfg file

$ cd ~
$ touch .ansible.cfg && sudo nano .ansible.cfg

Paste the following:

[defaults]
inventory = ~/.ansible-hosts  # used to be hostfile in older versions, but now changed to inventory

Then click CTRL+O and Return to save, and CTRL+X to exit

Create .ansible-hosts file

$ cd ~
$ touch .ansible-hosts && sudo nano .ansible-hosts

Paste the following:

localhost ansible_connection=local

Then click CTRL+O and Return to save, and CTRL+X to exit

Create and run test.yml

$ cd ~
$ touch test.yml && sudo nano test.yml

Paste the following:

---

- name: talk to localhost
  hosts: localhost
  connection: local
  gather_facts: no  # stop gathering facts for now
  tasks:
    - name: Print Hello from Ansible
      debug: msg='Hello from Ansible'

Then click CTRL+O and Return to save, and CTRL+X to exit

Run the playbook simply by typing:

$ ansible-playbook test.yml

PLAY [talk to localhost] **********************************************************************************************

TASK [Print Hello from Ansible] *********************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "msg": "Hello from Ansible"
}

PLAY RECAP ************************************************************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0

From my own experience, Ansible works great so far and I have no issues with WSL1 and WSL2. But I didn't use it in production.