ansible-pull

pulls playbooks from a VCS repo and executes them on target host

Synopsis 

usage: ansible-pull [-h] [--version] [-v] [--private-key PRIVATE_KEY_FILE]
                 [-u REMOTE_USER] [-c CONNECTION] [-T TIMEOUT]
                 [--ssh-common-args SSH_COMMON_ARGS]
                 [--sftp-extra-args SFTP_EXTRA_ARGS]
                 [--scp-extra-args SCP_EXTRA_ARGS]
                 [--ssh-extra-args SSH_EXTRA_ARGS]
                 [-k | --connection-password-file CONNECTION_PASSWORD_FILE]
                 [--vault-id VAULT_IDS]
                 [-J | --vault-password-file VAULT_PASSWORD_FILES]
                 [-e EXTRA_VARS] [-t TAGS] [--skip-tags SKIP_TAGS]
                 [-i INVENTORY] [--list-hosts] [-l SUBSET] [-M MODULE_PATH]
                 [-K | --become-password-file BECOME_PASSWORD_FILE]
                 [--purge] [-o] [-s SLEEP] [-f] [-d DEST] [-U URL] [--full]
                 [-C CHECKOUT] [--accept-host-key] [-m MODULE_NAME]
                 [--verify-commit] [--clean] [--track-subs] [--check]
                 [--diff]
                 [playbook.yml ...]

Used to pull a remote copy of ansible on each managed node, each set to run via cron and update playbook source via a source repository. This inverts the default push architecture of ansible into a pull architecture, which has near-limitless scaling potential.

None of the CLI tools are designed to run concurrently with themselves, you should use an external scheduler and/or locking to ensure there are no clashing operations.

The setup playbook can be tuned to change the cron frequency, logging locations, and parameters to ansible-pull. This is useful both for extreme scale-out as well as periodic remediation. Usage of the ‘fetch’ module to retrieve logs from ansible-pull runs would be an excellent way to gather and analyze remote logs from ansible-pull.

Common Options 

--accept-host-key: adds the hostkey for the repo url if not already added

--become-password-file <BECOME_PASSWORD_FILE>, --become-pass-file <BECOME_PASSWORD_FILE>: Become password file

--check: don’t make any changes; instead, try to predict some of the changes that may occur

--clean: modified files in the working repository will be discarded

--connection-password-file <CONNECTION_PASSWORD_FILE>, --conn-pass-file <CONNECTION_PASSWORD_FILE>: Connection password file

--diff: when changing (small) files and templates, show the differences in those files; works great with –check

--full: Do a full clone, instead of a shallow one.

--list-hosts: outputs a list of matching hosts; does not execute anything else

--private-key <PRIVATE_KEY_FILE>, --key-file <PRIVATE_KEY_FILE>: use this file to authenticate the connection

--purge: purge checkout after playbook run

--scp-extra-args <SCP_EXTRA_ARGS>: specify extra arguments to pass to scp only (e.g. -l)

--sftp-extra-args <SFTP_EXTRA_ARGS>: specify extra arguments to pass to sftp only (e.g. -f, -l)

--skip-tags: only run plays and tasks whose tags do not match these values. This argument may be specified multiple times.

--ssh-common-args <SSH_COMMON_ARGS>: specify common arguments to pass to sftp/scp/ssh (e.g. ProxyCommand)

--ssh-extra-args <SSH_EXTRA_ARGS>: specify extra arguments to pass to ssh only (e.g. -R)

--track-subs: submodules will track the latest changes. This is equivalent to specifying the –remote flag to git submodule update

--vault-id: the vault identity to use. This argument may be specified multiple times.

--vault-password-file, --vault-pass-file: vault password file

--verify-commit: verify GPG signature of checked out commit, if it fails abort running the playbook. This needs the corresponding VCS module to support such an operation

--version: show program’s version number, config file location, configured module search path, module location, executable location and exit

-C <CHECKOUT>, --checkout <CHECKOUT>: branch/tag/commit to checkout. Defaults to behavior of repository module.

-J, --ask-vault-password, --ask-vault-pass: ask for vault password

-K, --ask-become-pass: ask for privilege escalation password

-M, --module-path: prepend colon-separated path(s) to module library (default={{ ANSIBLE_HOME ~ “/plugins/modules:/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules” }}). This argument may be specified multiple times.

-T <TIMEOUT>, --timeout <TIMEOUT>: override the connection timeout in seconds (default depends on connection)

-U <URL>, --url <URL>: URL of the playbook repository

-c <CONNECTION>, --connection <CONNECTION>: connection type to use (default=ssh)

-d <DEST>, --directory <DEST>: path to the directory to which Ansible will checkout the repository.

-e, --extra-vars: set additional variables as key=value or YAML/JSON, if filename prepend with @. This argument may be specified multiple times.

-f, --force: run the playbook even if the repository could not be updated

-h, --help: show this help message and exit

-i, --inventory, --inventory-file: specify inventory host path or comma separated host list. –inventory-file is deprecated. This argument may be specified multiple times.

-k, --ask-pass: ask for connection password

-l <SUBSET>, --limit <SUBSET>: further limit selected hosts to an additional pattern

-m <MODULE_NAME>, --module-name <MODULE_NAME>: Repository module name, which ansible will use to check out the repo. Choices are (‘git’, ‘subversion’, ‘hg’, ‘bzr’). Default is git.

-o, --only-if-changed: only run the playbook if the repository has been updated

-s <SLEEP>, --sleep <SLEEP>: sleep for random interval (between 0 and n number of seconds) before starting. This is a useful way to disperse git requests

-t, --tags: only run plays and tasks tagged with these values. This argument may be specified multiple times.

-u <REMOTE_USER>, --user <REMOTE_USER>: connect as this user (default=None)

-v, --verbose: Causes Ansible to print more debug messages. Adding multiple -v will increase the verbosity, the builtin plugins currently evaluate up to -vvvvvv. A reasonable level to start is -vvv, connection debugging might require -vvvv. This argument may be specified multiple times.

ARGUMENTS 

playbook.yml: The name of one the YAML format files to run as an Ansible playbook. This can be a relative path within the checkout. By default, Ansible will look for a playbook based on the host’s fully-qualified domain name, on the host hostname and finally a playbook named local.yml.

Environment 

The following environment variables may be specified.

ANSIBLE_INVENTORY – Override the default ansible inventory file

ANSIBLE_LIBRARY – Override the default ansible module library path

ANSIBLE_CONFIG – Override the default ansible config file

Many more are available for most options in ansible.cfg

Files 

/etc/ansible/hosts – Default inventory file

/etc/ansible/ansible.cfg – Config file, used if present

~/.ansible.cfg – User config file, overrides the default config if present

Author 

Ansible was originally written by Michael DeHaan.

See the AUTHORS file for a complete list of contributors.

License 

Ansible is released under the terms of the GPLv3+ License.