In this blog , we will see how we can manage Ansible Playbook for multiple environments.

Problem Statement:

• How we can write the role in ansible which has to refer different values for each environment (dev,pvs,production) ? Example — database details

Solution:

• To resolve this issue,we will be using different files for each environment and pass that as a variable while running the ansible playbook.

How to do:

1. Install Ansible if not already installed
2. Use Ansible Roles

Create the directory structure as shown below:

1. configs — This folder will have separate file for each environment which stores all the environment specific values.
2. group_vars — This will have one file which is used to store all the variables which are common across environments.
3. inventories — This folder will have host file for each environment
4. roles — Task which you will have for your application like install java
5. ansible.cfg — You can use this file if you have to override any default configuration. Example:

host_key_checking = False ( You will not see this error "The authenticity of host “hostname” can’t be established." if you specify this variable.

Now in your main.yml file call the roles as mentioned below:

gather_facts: True (This will check the connectivity between master and other nodes)

---
- hosts: all
  gather_facts: True  ( This will check the connectivity between   master and other nodes)
  become: true

  vars:
    java_version: "{{ java_version}}"

  roles:
    - role: install-java

Run ansible playbook as shown below :

ansible-playbook main.yml -i inventories/dev/hosts -k -K -e '@configs/dev.yml' -e 'java_version=1.8'

Finally congratulations!! You have successfully followed each and every step for Managing Ansible Playbook for multiple environments.