Practical Ansible 2

Defining variables

In this section, we will cover the topic of variables and how they can be defined in Ansible. You will learn how variables should be defined step by step and understand how to work with them in Ansible.

Although automation removes much of the repetition from previously manual tasks, not every single system is identical. If two systems differ in some minor way, you could write two unique playbooks—one for each system. However, this would be inefficient and wasteful, as well as difficult to manage as time goes on (for example, if the code in one playbook is changed, how can you ensure that it is updated in the second variant?).

Equally, you might need to use a value from one system in another—perhaps you need to obtain the ...