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name: ansible description: Use when automating infrastructure with Ansible — playbook development (tasks, handlers, variables, templates, conditionals, loops), role design (Galaxy structure, defaults, dependencies), inventory management (static/dynamic, groups, host_vars/group_vars), collections (ansible.builtin, community, custom), Ansible Vault (encryption), AWX/Ansible Automation Platform (job templates, workflows, RBAC, surveys), module development, testing (Molecule, ansible-lint), and performance tuning (forks, pipelining, async). Part of the automation-* skill family.

Ansible Automation — Admin & Developer

Covers Ansible core (ansible-core 2.15+/2.16+/2.17+), collections ecosystem, AWX/Ansible Automation Platform, and testing. For target node configuration see: rhel-server-admin, ubuntu-server-admin, windows-powershell.

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Reference Files

Detailed code examples, patterns, and configuration are in the reference files below. Read the relevant file when working on that area.

File	Covers
awx-security-performance-testing.md	AWX/Ansible Automation Platform (job templates, workflows, RBAC, surveys, API), security patterns (secret management, SSH hardening, lint rules), performance tuning (forks, pipelining, mitogen, fact caching), and testing (Molecule, ansible-lint, CI integration)
fundamentals-playbooks.md	installation, playbook structure, ad-hoc commands, ansible.cfg, connection types, tasks (core patterns, variables, conditionals, loops, blocks, error handling), handlers, includes vs imports
inventory-vault-advanced.md	inventory management (static/dynamic, group_vars/host_vars, patterns), Ansible Vault (encryption commands, vault IDs, rekeying), and advanced patterns (delegation, serial/rolling, async, custom modules, callback plugins, dynamic includes)
templates-roles-collections.md	Jinja2 templates, file management modules, role design (Galaxy structure, defaults, dependencies), and collections (installing, using, creating custom collections)

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Anti-Patterns

Anti-Pattern	Why It Fails	Correct Approach
Using command/shell for package installs	Not idempotent — reruns always show changed, no rollback, no version pinning	Use ansible.builtin.dnf, ansible.builtin.apt, or platform-specific package modules
Hardcoding IPs and hostnames in playbooks	Breaks when inventory changes, makes playbooks non-portable	Use inventory variables, host_vars/group_vars, and dynamic inventory plugins
One massive playbook with no roles	Becomes unmaintainable past 200 lines, no reuse across projects	Break into roles with Galaxy structure; one role = one concern
Storing vault password in the repo	Anyone with repo access can decrypt all secrets	Use --vault-password-file pointing to a file outside the repo, or integrate with external secret manager
Running playbooks without --check --diff first in production	Unexpected changes hit live systems with no preview	Always dry-run with --check --diff on production inventories before applying
Ignoring ansible-lint warnings	Leads to deprecated syntax, bare module names, and missing changed_when — breaks on ansible-core upgrades	Run ansible-lint in CI; treat warnings as errors for production playbooks

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Related Skills

Domain	Skill
RHEL server admin (targets)	rhel-server-admin
Ubuntu server admin (targets)	ubuntu-server-admin
Windows PowerShell (WinRM targets)	windows-powershell
Docker containers	docker-admin
Database config on RHEL	rhel-databases
Database config on Ubuntu	ubuntu-databases
IBM MQ automation	ibm-mq
IBM WebSphere automation	ibm-websphere
Centrify/AD integration	linux-centrify
BMC Control-M job scheduling	control-m