Ansible Dynamic Inventory

Allows you to generate inventory (host and group information) dynamically rather than statically defining it in a static inventory file

Dynamic Inventory

Ansible dynamic inventory is a feature in Ansible that allows you to generate inventory (host and group information) dynamically rather than statically defining it in a static inventory file. This dynamic approach is particularly useful in dynamic and cloud-based environments where the number and state of hosts can change frequently.

Inventory Sources: Ansible dynamic inventory sources are scripts or plugins that generate inventory data dynamically. These sources can fetch information from various sources like cloud providers, databases, or external systems.

Available sources:

AWS EC2: You can use the ec2.py script provided by Ansible to dynamically fetch EC2 instances from your AWS account.
OpenStack: There’s an openstack.py script for dynamic inventory in OpenStack environments.
Custom Plugins: You can write custom dynamic inventory plugins to fetch inventory data from your specific environment or system.

Dynamic Generation: When you run Ansible commands or playbooks, Ansible executes the inventory source(s) to gather the current host and group information. This information is generated on the fly based on the current state of your infrastructure.

Flexible Configuration: Ansible allows you to configure dynamic inventory sources in your Ansible configuration files (ansible.cfg) or specify them on the command line using the -i option.

Benefits of using dynamic inventory in Ansible

Scalability: Easily adapt to changing infrastructure sizes and configurations.
Automation: Automate the process of updating your inventory as your infrastructure changes.
Consistency: Ensure your inventory is always up to date without manual intervention.
Integration: Seamlessly integrate with cloud providers and other external systems.

Dynamic inventory in Ansible is a powerful feature for managing infrastructure in dynamic and cloud-native environments, making it easier to automate configuration management and orchestration tasks.

Ansible

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One comment on “Ansible Dynamic Inventory”

How to use Ansible and Terraform together? - Cloud Automation Tutorials - IT Wonder Lab says:

7 September, 2023 at 3:49 PM

[…] Ansible dynamic inventory is a feature in Ansible that allows you to generate inventory (host and group information) dynamically rather than statically defining it in a static inventory file. […]

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