Ansible collections refer to a distributable format of an Ansible content. Ansible collections allow us to package and distribute an Ansible content such as playbooks, roles, modules, and plugins. This is essential when sharing a code with other teams as it provides a modular way of sharing a functionality across Ansible playbooks.
In this tutorial, we will explore the fundamentals of working with Ansible collections using Ansible Galaxy.
Requirements:
To follow along with this post, ensure that you have the following:
- Installed Ansible
- Access to the Ansible Galaxy
Installing Collections with Ansible Galaxy
The best way to install the Ansible collections is using the publicly hosted Ansible collections repository at https://galaxy.ansible.com.
You can visit the repository and search for the collection that you wish to use. You can install it using the “ansible-galaxy” command.
You can also upgrade an already installed collection using the “–upgrade” option as shown in the following command syntax:
To install a specific version of a given collection, you can specify the target version as follows:
Installing Multiple Collections
Ansible also allows us to configure a “requirements.yml” file to install multiple collections in a single command.
The YAML file follows a format as shown in the following:
collections:
- my_namespace.my_collection
# specifying versions.
- name: my_namespace.my_other_collection
version: ">=1.2.0"
You can specify the following parameters in each collection entry:
- name
- version
- signatures
- source
- type
An example syntax is as follows:
- name: namespace.name
version: 1.0.0
type: galaxy
signatures:
- https://examplehost.com/detached_signature.asc
- file:///path/to/local/detached_signature.asc
Ansible List Collections
To view the information about the installed collections, you can use the “ansible-galaxy” command as follows:
The command should return a list of all the installed collections.
Using Collections in a Playbook
Once you installed a given collection, you can use it as a playbook by referring to the collection content using its fully qualified collection name or FQCN.
The syntax is as follows:
tasks:
- my_namespace.my_collection.mymodule:
option1: value
Conclusion
This tutorial taught us the basics of configuring and working with Ansible collections using the Ansible Galaxy. Ansible collections allow you to organize and modularize your Ansible workflows in reusable sections.
