Ansible Playbook

Ansible Playbook Generation

Generate Ansible playbooks following best practices.

What To Do

1. Playbook Structure

• hosts, become, vars, roles, tasks, handlers
• Import roles with include_role or roles: list
• Tags for selective execution (--tags deploy, --tags configure)
• Error handling: block/rescue/always for critical sections

2. Role Structure

roles/{role_name}/
  tasks/main.yml
  handlers/main.yml
  defaults/main.yml      # Default variables (overridable)
  vars/main.yml           # Role-internal variables
  templates/              # Jinja2 templates
  files/                  # Static files
  meta/main.yml           # Dependencies, platforms
  molecule/default/       # Molecule test scenario

3. Inventory

• YAML format inventory with groups and host_vars
• Dynamic inventory scripts for cloud providers (aws_ec2, azure_rm, gcp_compute)
• group_vars/ and host_vars/ directories for variable hierarchy

4. Vault Secrets

• ansible-vault encrypt for all sensitive data (passwords, keys, tokens)
• Vault ID labels for multiple vault passwords
• Never commit unencrypted secrets — use .gitignore for vault password files

5. Idempotency

• Every task must be safe to run multiple times with identical result
• Use state: present/absent explicitly (never rely on defaults)
• Handlers for service restarts (notify + handler, not inline restart)

6. Molecule Testing

• molecule init scenario for each role
• Converge, verify, and destroy lifecycle
• Testinfra or Ansible assertions for verification
• Docker or Vagrant for test instances

Arguments

• <playbook-name>: Playbook name (e.g., deploy-app, configure-db)
• --role=<role-name>: Generate a role instead of a playbook