Ansible

Playbook Commands

Execute Ansible playbooks to automate complex, multi-step configurations. Control execution with tags, limits, and variables.

12 commands

Pro Tips

Use '--tags' to run specific tasks and '--skip-tags' to exclude them.

Add '--diff' to see file changes before and after modifications.

Use '--start-at-task' to resume from a specific task after failures.

Common Mistakes

Always test playbooks with '--check --diff' before running in production.

Use '--limit' to target specific hosts when testing changes.

Commands

Dry Run (Check Mode)

$ ansible-playbook playbook.yml --check --diff

Preview changes without applying

Limit to Hosts

$ ansible-playbook playbook.yml --limit "webservers"

Run playbook on specific hosts/groups

List Tasks

$ ansible-playbook playbook.yml --list-tasks

Show all tasks without running

Run Playbook

$ ansible-playbook playbook.yml

Execute an Ansible playbook

Skip Tags

$ ansible-playbook playbook.yml --skip-tags "test"

Skip tasks with specific tags

Start at Task

$ ansible-playbook playbook.yml --start-at-task="Deploy app"

Resume from a specific task

Step Through Tasks

$ ansible-playbook playbook.yml --step

Confirm each task before executing

Syntax Check

$ ansible-playbook playbook.yml --syntax-check

Validate playbook syntax

Run Specific Tags

$ ansible-playbook playbook.yml --tags "config,deploy"

Run only tasks with specific tags

Pass Extra Variables

$ ansible-playbook playbook.yml -e "env=production version=1.2.3"

Pass variables at runtime

Variables from File

$ ansible-playbook playbook.yml -e "@vars.yml"

Load variables from a file

Verbose Output

$ ansible-playbook playbook.yml -vvv

Run with detailed debug output