This page introduces some concepts that help you manage your Ansible workflow: roles, directory structure, and source control. Like the Basic Concepts at the beginning of this guide, these intermediate concepts are common to all uses of Ansible. This page also offers resources for learning more.
..contents:: Topics
Beyond Playbooks: Moving Tasks and Variables into Roles
Roles are sets of Ansible defaults, files, tasks, templates, variables, and other Ansible components that work together. As you saw on the Working with Playbooks page, moving from a command to a playbook makes it easy to run multiple tasks and repeat the same tasks in the same order. Moving from a playbook to a role makes it even easier to reuse and share your ordered tasks. For more details, see the :doc:`documentation on roles<../../user_guide/playbooks_reuse_roles>`. You can also look at :doc:`Ansible Galaxy<../../reference_appendices/galaxy>`, which lets you share your roles and use others' roles, either directly or as inspiration.
Ansible expects to find certain files in certain places. As you expand your inventory and create and run more network playbooks, keep your files organized in your working Ansible project directory like this:
..code-block:: console
.
├── backup
│ ├── vyos.example.net_config.2018-02-08@11:10:15
│ ├── vyos.example.net_config.2018-02-12@08:22:41
├── first_playbook.yml
├── inventory
├── group_vars
│ ├── vyos.yml
│ └── eos.yml
├── roles
│ ├── static_route
│ └── system
├── second_playbook.yml
└── third_playbook.yml
The ``backup`` directory and the files in it get created when you run modules like ``vyos_config`` with the ``backup: yes`` parameter.
Tracking Changes to Inventory and Playbooks: Source Control with Git
As you expand your inventory, roles and playbooks, you should place your Ansible projects under source control. We recommend ``git`` for source control. ``git`` provides an audit trail, letting you you track changes, roll back mistakes, view history and share the workload of managing, maintaining and expanding your Ansible ecosystem. There are plenty of tutorials and guides to using ``git`` available.
All sessions at Ansible events are recorded and include many Network-related topics (use Filter by Category to view only Network topics). You can also join us for future events in your area. See:
Ansible hosts module code, examples, demonstrations, and other content on GitHub. Anyone with a GitHub account is able to create Pull Requests (PRs) or issues on these repos:
-`Network-Automation <https://github.com/network-automation>`_ is an open community for all things network automation. Have an idea, some playbooks, or roles to share? Email ansible-network@redhat.com and we will add you as a contributor to the repository.
