Best Practices
-
Project Structure: Use a clear directory layout separating roles, playbooks, and variables for better organization. (Consider
ansible-galaxy init
for a template) -
Version Control: Keep your Ansible projects in version control systems like Git. (Branch per environment strategy)
-
Dynamic Inventory: Use dynamic inventories for managing hosts in changing environments, especially with cloud resources. (Explore Ansible plugins for AWS, Azure, GCP)
-
Secure Variables: Encrypt sensitive data with Ansible Vault. (Use
ansible-vault
for passwords and keys) -
Idempotence: Design tasks to be safely repeatable without unintended side-effects. (Test task outcomes before making changes)
-
Error Handling: Use Ansible's error handling features to manage failures gracefully. (
failed_when
,ignore_errors
) -
Code Clarity: Maintain readability with meaningful names and comments. (Use descriptive names for tasks and variables)
-
Efficiency: Prefer Ansible modules over direct shell commands for cross-platform compatibility and efficiency. (Use
command
orshell
modules only when necessary) -
Privilege Escalation: Run Ansible with the least privilege and use
become
for necessary tasks. (Audit use ofbecome
) -
CI/CD Integration: Integrate Ansible playbooks into CI/CD for automated testing and deployment. (Set up automated testing pipelines)
-
Monitoring and Logging: Keep logs of Ansible runs and monitor the system's state post-configuration. (Enable Ansible logging, integrate with monitoring tools)
Project Structure
ansible-project/
├── inventories/
│ ├── production/
│ │ ├── hosts # Production servers inventory
│ │ └── group_vars/
│ │ └── all.yml # Variables for all prod servers
│ └── staging/
│ ├── hosts # Staging servers inventory
│ └── group_vars/
│ └── all.yml # Variables for all staging servers
├── roles/
│ ├── webserver/
│ │ ├── tasks/
│ │ │ └── main.yml # Tasks for setting up the web server
│ │ ├── handlers/
│ │ │ └── main.yml # Handlers for restarting services
│ │ ├── templates/
│ │ │ └── httpd.conf.j2 # Apache config templates
│ │ └── vars/
│ │ └── main.yml # Variables specific to the webserver role
│ └── firewall/
│ └── ... # Similar structure for firewall setup
└── playbooks/
└── setup_web_server.yml # Main playbook that applies roles