Essential Ansible Commands

This guide contains some essential Ansible commands with their explanations for managing infrastructure efficiently.

1. Ping all hosts to check connectivity
   ansible all -m ping
   This command checks the connection to all hosts in the inventory file.
2. Run a command on all hosts
   ansible all -m shell -a "uptime"
   This runs the uptime command on all hosts. You can replace uptime with any command you want to run.
3. Run a playbook
   ansible-playbook playbook.yml
   This runs the playbook.yml file against the hosts defined in the inventory.
4. Specify a different inventory file
   ansible-playbook -i myinventory.ini playbook.yml
   This uses myinventory.ini instead of the default /etc/ansible/hosts.
5. List hosts in the inventory
   ansible all --list-hosts
   This lists all the hosts in your inventory.
6. Use tags in a playbook
   ansible-playbook playbook.yml --tags "mytag"
   This runs only the tasks tagged with mytag in the playbook.yml.
7. Run playbook on specific host/group
   ansible-playbook -l webservers playbook.yml
   This runs the playbook only on hosts defined under the webservers group in the inventory.
8. Check syntax of playbook
   ansible-playbook playbook.yml --syntax-check
   This checks for any syntax errors in your playbook.yml.
9. Dry run (check mode)
   ansible-playbook playbook.yml --check
   This performs a dry run to see what changes would be made without actually applying them.
10. Show output in JSON format
    ansible all -m shell -a "uptime" -o
    This command shows the output in a JSON-like format.
11. Gather facts about hosts
    ansible all -m setup
    This gathers detailed information about all hosts, such as OS type, network interfaces, etc.
12. Execute a playbook with a specific user
    ansible-playbook playbook.yml -u username
    This runs the playbook as the specified user (username).
13. Run a playbook with sudo privileges
    ansible-playbook playbook.yml --become
    This runs the playbook with sudo privileges.
14. View available roles
    ansible-galaxy list
    This lists all installed roles in Ansible.
15. Install a role from Ansible Galaxy
    ansible-galaxy install username.role_name
    This installs a role from Ansible Galaxy. Replace username and role_name with the actual role name.