How to Debug Ansible: An Overview

You’re an automation fool and you’re ready to get started with Ansible. Ansible is the perfect automation tool to tie your environment together and coordinate upgrades and task deployment. Best of all, Ansible is open-sourced, so you don’t have to drop a huge chunk of company money to enjoy all of an automation platform’s benefits. One major caveat is that open source platforms require self-sufficiency on your part; you’ll be relying on your knowledge and skill to debug any Ansible issues. Trying to debug Ansible can be daunting if you don’t know where to begin.

Never fear, my automation-loving friend! Our guide will help you find your way through the Ansible debugging process. We look at different methods you can use to enter the Ansible debugger, and we examine which commands in the Ansible debug command line to use to get the most benefit from your debugging session. We’ll help you find your debugging footing, and you’ll soon be pinpointing your issues like a champ and enjoying all of the benefits that automation has to offer!

Know Your Keyword

Your Ansible debugger comes packaged in your strategy plugins, giving you the ability to invoke it in a variety of scenarios. When you encounter an issue, you’ll apply the debug as a task using the keyword “debugger.” Doing so will allow you to examine and modify module arguments and variables to pinpoint failure points.

You can invoke the “debugger” keyword in many ways. You can, for example, apply it to any block with a “name” attribute, or use the debugger keyword in tandem with modifying values such as “always” to always invoke the debugger, “on_failed” to invoke it when a task fails, and “on_unreachable” to only invoke it if a host isn’t responding.

Debugger Examples

Part of your debugging success will come from knowing the best debugging approach for every situation you might encounter. You can utilize Ansible’s debugger in several conditions, and the debug process is flexible enough to allow you a bit of choice. Some of your choices will also depend on which Ansible version you’ve deployed, as well—earlier versions require different approaches than some of the more recent iterations.

You can deploy debugger as an Ansible debug environment variable or condition, for example. To apply debug as an environment variable, enter:

ANSIBLE_ENABLE_TASK_DEBUGGER=True ansible-playbook -i hosts site.yml

To modify the configuration, open ansible.cfg and add:

[defaults]

enable_task_debugger = True

Ansible 2.5 and earlier requires you to use debug as a strategy. To do so, you’ll need to alter the strategy attribute:

– hosts: test

 strategy: debug

 tasks:

 …

With these tools, you’ll be able to deploy Ansible debug in most environments and get to problem-solving quickly.

So, there you have it. Ansible is a powerful and empowering tool that allows you to quit grinding away on individual server nodes and start looking at the big picture. That’s why you’ve got to keep your Ansible platform running like clockwork– and why we’ve developed this guide for you. Debugging might not be the most glamorous work, but it’s vital for business success, and with our help, your Ansible debugging skills will help you achieve that success!