Ansible Quick Start Guide

Using handlers

Ansible recommends using handlers for task pipelining, as handlers are programmed tasks that are executed when they are notified. Handlers will be fired for tasks which report a changed state. They are often used for service management following a configuration change. This ensures fluid configuration management as whenever changes happen in the host, the services involved should be restarted to apply the change.

Ansible also has a feature to enable the mass flushing of handlers in playbooks. This feature allows you to control when the changes can be applied by controlling the execution of all handlers in a task. Using meta, task handlers can be flushed from any position in the playbook:

---- name: Change service settings and ...