Ansible playbook

As explained in Acing the CCNA Exam: Volume 2 Advanced Networking and Security

An Ansible playbook is a YAML file that defines tasks and procedures for managing configuration on target devices.

An Ansible playbook is a YAML file that defines tasks and procedures for managing configuration on devices listed in an inventory. Ansible uses a push model: the control node connects to managed devices over SSH and pushes configuration. section 25.2.1 section 25.3

Place the playbook within Ansible’s related file types and execution terms:

• Inventory lists managed hosts and can organize them into groups with host or group variables. section 25.2.1
• Templates use Jinja2 configuration syntax and variables to produce final configuration files. section 25.2.1
• Variables files store values that templates can use. section 25.3
• A task is one operation in a playbook, while a module is reusable code that performs a specific task. section 25.2.1

Figure 25.5 Basic Ansible operations. Inventory, template, and variable files define configurations, and playbooks define actions. The control node uses SSH to connect and push configurations to managed devices.

Follow the control node, SSH connection, inventory, templates, variables, playbook actions, and managed-device configuration flow. section 25.2.1

How Acing the CCNA Exam: Volume 2 Advanced Networking and Security covers it

How deep it goes

Explains file roles, push execution, tasks, modules, and agentless SSH access without detailing playbook syntax.

Examples

Uses inventory, template, variable, and playbook files plus a control node pushing configuration over SSH.

What you can do after

Operate Ansible to push ordered configuration procedures to managed devices without installing agent software.

How it connects

Connects playbooks with inventory, templates, variables, modules, tasks, SSH, configuration management, and Terraform.

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Also explained in

• 

  liveBookmanning.com
  Road to KubernetesAnsible playbook is a YAML-based automation definition that describes hosts, variables, and ordered tasks for configuring systems or deploying applications.

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Related concepts

• Ansibleuses · Ansible is an open-source automation and configuration-management tool for configuring systems, deploying applications, and orchestrating tasks across managed hosts.
• YAMLuses · YAML is a human-readable data-serialization standard for representing structured data, including mappings, sequences, and scalar values.
• Ansible taskhas part · An Ansible task is a declarative unit of configuration or work executed against managed hosts.
• Ansible moduleuses · An Ansible module is a discrete unit of code that performs a specific management task when invoked by a playbook.
• workflow definitionused by · A workflow definition is a declarative specification of an automated process’s tasks, their order or dependencies, and the conditions governing execution.

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Acing the CCNA Exam: Volume 2 Advanced Networking and Security. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.