Create Reusable Ansible Roles

Intermediate15 minTrending

Structure automation into reusable roles with tasks, handlers, templates, defaults, and metadata for sharing across projects.

Prerequisites

-Ansible installed
-Basic playbook knowledge

Steps

Initialize a role skeleton

Creates the standard role directory structure with tasks, handlers, defaults, vars, templates, files, and meta.

$ ansible-galaxy role init roles/nginx

Define default variables

Defaults have the lowest precedence and can be overridden by users of the role.

$ cat > roles/nginx/defaults/main.yml << 'EOF' --- nginx_port: 80 nginx_worker_processes: auto nginx_server_name: localhost EOF

Write the main tasks

Tasks use handlers for service restarts and templates for dynamic configuration.

$ cat > roles/nginx/tasks/main.yml << 'EOF' --- - name: Install nginx apt: name: nginx state: present notify: restart nginx - name: Deploy nginx config template: src: nginx.conf.j2 dest: /etc/nginx/nginx.conf notify: restart nginx - name: Ensure nginx is running service: name: nginx state: started enabled: true EOF

Create a handler

Handlers run only when notified by a task that made a change, avoiding unnecessary restarts.

$ cat > roles/nginx/handlers/main.yml << 'EOF' --- - name: restart nginx service: name: nginx state: restarted EOF

Use the role in a playbook

Imports the role and overrides default variables at the play level.

$ cat > site.yml << 'EOF' --- - name: Deploy web servers hosts: webservers become: true roles: - role: nginx nginx_port: 8080 nginx_server_name: app.example.com EOF

Full Script

full-script.sh

# Create a reusable Ansible role
ansible-galaxy role init roles/nginx
cat > roles/nginx/defaults/main.yml << 'EOF'
---
nginx_port: 80
nginx_worker_processes: auto
nginx_server_name: localhost
EOF
cat > roles/nginx/tasks/main.yml << 'EOF'
---
- name: Install nginx
  apt:
    name: nginx
    state: present
  notify: restart nginx

- name: Deploy nginx config
  template:
    src: nginx.conf.j2
    dest: /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
  notify: restart nginx

- name: Ensure nginx is running
  service:
    name: nginx
    state: started
    enabled: true
EOF
cat > roles/nginx/handlers/main.yml << 'EOF'
---
- name: restart nginx
  service:
    name: nginx
    state: restarted
EOF

FAQ

Discussion

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# Create a reusable Ansible role ansible-galaxy role init roles/nginx cat > roles/nginx/defaults/main.yml << 'EOF' --- nginx_port: 80 nginx_worker_processes: auto nginx_server_name: localhost EOF cat > roles/nginx/tasks/main.yml << 'EOF' --- - name: Install nginx apt: name: nginx state: present notify: restart nginx - name: Deploy nginx config template: src: nginx.conf.j2 dest: /etc/nginx/nginx.conf notify: restart nginx - name: Ensure nginx is running service: name: nginx state: started enabled: true EOF cat > roles/nginx/handlers/main.yml << 'EOF' --- - name: restart nginx service: name: nginx state: restarted EOF