ansible skill

Overview

This skill provides comprehensive, practical guidance for using Ansible to automate configuration management, application deployment, and orchestration. It covers playbook design, role structure, inventory management, module usage, secrets handling, and integration with CI/CD pipelines. The guidance targets both beginners and experienced operators seeking robust, maintainable automation.

How this skill works

The skill inspects your automation goals and recommends Ansible constructs: when to use playbooks versus roles, how to model inventory for environments, and which modules or collections fit common tasks. It suggests patterns for idempotency, error handling, testing, and performance tuning, and explains Vault, Ansible Galaxy, and connection options. It also outlines steps to integrate Ansible into pipelines and production workflows.

When to use it

• Automating server configuration and repeatable environment setup
• Deploying applications and managing releases across environments
• Creating reusable, versioned automation via roles and collections
• Managing secrets and vaulting credentials securely
• Integrating infrastructure provisioning and configuration into CI/CD

Best practices

• Write idempotent tasks and prefer modules over shell/command for safety
• Structure reusable logic into roles with clear defaults and handlers
• Keep inventories environment-specific and use group_vars/host_vars for configuration
• Use Ansible Vault for sensitive data and limit privilege escalation where possible
• Test playbooks with ansible-lint, molecule, and CI pipelines before production

Example use cases

• Build a role to install and configure Nginx with tests and handlers
• Design an inventory layout for dev/stage/prod and promote changes reliably
• Automate database schema migrations and rollbacks within a playbook
• Encrypt API keys with Vault and decrypt only on target hosts during runs
• Run Ansible from CI to apply configuration after successful image builds

FAQ