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Using Ansible Tags

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Using Ansible Tags
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https://docs.ansible.com/projects/ansible/latest/playbook_guide/playbooks_tags.html

A tag is a label that is applied to a task or another item like a block or a play. Use ansible-playbook --tags or ansible-playbook --skip-tags to specify which tags need to be executed.

Using tags in a Playbook

---
- name: using tags example
  hosts: all
  vars:
    service:
    - vsftpd
    - httpd
  tasks:
  - yum:
      name:
      - httpd
      - vsftpd
      state: present
    tags:
    - install
  - service:
    name: "{{ item }}"
      state: started
      enabled: yes
    loop: "{{ services }}"
    tags:
    - services

ansible-playbook --tags "install" listing1115.yaml Would run only the tasks that are tagged with “install”

  • Tags can be applied to many structures, such as imported plays, tasks, and roles.

  • Tags cannot be applied on items that are dynamically included (instead of imported), using include_roles or include_tasks.

  • You may apply the same tag multiple times.

    • Allows you to define groups of tasks, where multiple tasks are configured with the same tag.
    • Lets you run a specific part of the requested configuration.

Get an overview of tags used: ansible-playbook --list-tasks --list-tags

When working with tags, you can use some special tags.

Special Tags: always - Make sure task always runs unless specifically skipped with –skip-tags always never - Never runs a task, unless it is specifically requested tagged - Runs all tagged tasks untagged - Runs all untagged tasks all - Runs all tasks

Set a debug tag to easily identify tasks that should be run only if you specifically want to run debug tasks as well. If combined with the never tag, the task that is tagged with the debug,never tasks runs only if the debug tag is specifically requested. Then run debug tasks with ansible-playbook --tags all,debug command.

---
- name: using assert to check if volume group vgdata exists
  hosts: all
  tasks:
  - name: check if vgdata exists
    command: vgs vgdata
    register: vg_result
    ignore_errors: true
  - name: show vg_result variable
    debug:
      var: vg_result
    tags: [ never, debug ]
  - name: print a message
    assert:
      that:
      - vg_result.rc == 0
      fail_msg: volume group not found
      success_msg: volume group was found

Apply tags to an entire play.

- hosts: webservers
  tags: deploy
  roles:
    - role: tomcat
      tags: ['tomcat', 'app']
  tasks:
  - name: Notify on completion
    local_action:
      module: osx_say
      msg: "{{inventory_hostname}} is finished!"
      voice: Zarvox
    tags:
      - notifications
      - say  
  
    - include: foo.yaml
      tags: foo

Assuming we save the above playbook as tags.yml, you could run the command below to only run the tomcat role and the Notify on completion task:

ansible-playbook tags.yml --tags &"tomcat,say"

If you want to exclude anything tagged with notifications, you can use --skip-tags. `ansible-playbook tags.yml –skip-tags “notifications”

This is incredibly handy if you have a decent tagging structure; when you want to only run a particular portion of a playbook, or one play in a series (or, alternatively, if you want to exclude a play or included tasks), then it’s easy to do using --tags or --skip-tags.

There is one caveat when adding one or multiple tags using the tags option in a playbook: you can use the shorthand tags: tagname when adding just one tag, but if adding more than one tag, you have to use YAML’s list syntax, for example:

# Shorthand list
tags: ['one', 'two', 'three']

# Explicit list
tags:
  - one
  - two
  - three

# Not valid
tags: one, two, three

Use tags for larger playbooks, especially with individual roles and plays. Avoid adding tags to individual tasks or includes (reduces visual clutter) unless debugging a set of tasks. Find a tagging style that suits your needs and lets you run (or not run) the specific parts of your playbooks you desire.