Ansible Navigator offers a new way to use familiar Ansible tools within execution environments. With it, you can run playbooks, view inventories, access Ansible documentation, and more. Let's explore some of the basics of Ansible Navigator.
In general, we want to make our playbooks and tasks as simple as possible - but no simpler. Adding a little complexity at times can actually reduce our work and keep things readable. Here's an example:
Ansible has many built-in lookups and filters to simplify tasks. Today, we'll explore the password lookup and the random_string lookup - both useful for generating random strings like user passwords.
In Ansible, an execution environment is a container image that includes all the necessary dependencies, modules, and plugins needed to run automation tasks.
With Ansible Builder, you can build and customize these images, ensuring consistent and reproducible execution of playbooks and roles in a known environment.
Ansible playbooks are just YAML files that you can edit anywhere. Using development tools like Visual Studio Code can improve your workflow, allowing you to write more effective automation code. This article will show you how to get started by setting up an Ansible development environment in Visual Studio Code.
Ansible content collections, often referred to simply as collections, enable the addition of content not included in Ansible core. Each collection bundles related roles, playbooks, modules, and plugins together. Let's examine how to install and use Ansible collections.