Using collections¶
Collections are a distribution format for Ansible content that can include playbooks, roles, modules, and plugins. As modules move from the core Ansible repository into collections, the module documentation will move to the collections pages.
You can install and use collections through Ansible Galaxy.
For details on how to develop collections see Developing collections.
For the current development status of Collections and FAQ see Ansible Collections Community Guide.
Installing collections¶
Installing collections with ansible-galaxy
¶
By default, ansible-galaxy collection install
uses https://galaxy.ansible.com as the Galaxy server (as listed in the
ansible.cfg
file under GALAXY_SERVER). You do not need any
further configuration.
See Configuring the ansible-galaxy client if you are using any other Galaxy server, such as Red Hat Automation Hub.
To install a collection hosted in Galaxy:
ansible-galaxy collection install my_namespace.my_collection
You can also directly use the tarball from your build:
ansible-galaxy collection install my_namespace-my_collection-1.0.0.tar.gz -p ./collections
Note
The install command automatically appends the path ansible_collections
to the one specified with the -p
option unless the
parent directory is already in a folder called ansible_collections
.
When using the -p
option to specify the install path, use one of the values configured in COLLECTIONS_PATHS, as this is
where Ansible itself will expect to find collections. If you don’t specify a path, ansible-galaxy collection install
installs
the collection to the first path defined in COLLECTIONS_PATHS, which by default is ~/.ansible/collections
You can also keep a collection adjacent to the current playbook, under a collections/ansible_collections/
directory structure.
./
├── play.yml
├── collections/
│ └── ansible_collections/
│ └── my_namespace/
│ └── my_collection/<collection structure lives here>
See Collection structure for details on the collection directory structure.
Installing an older version of a collection¶
You can only have one version of a collection installed at a time. By default ansible-galaxy
installs the latest available version. If you want to install a specific version, you can add a version range identifier. For example, to install the 1.0.0-beta.1 version of the collection:
ansible-galaxy collection install my_namespace.my_collection:==1.0.0-beta.1
You can specify multiple range identifiers separated by ,
. Use single quotes so the shell passes the entire command, including >
, !
, and other operators, along. For example, to install the most recent version that is greater than or equal to 1.0.0 and less than 2.0.0:
ansible-galaxy collection install 'my_namespace.my_collection:>=1.0.0,<2.0.0'
Ansible will always install the most recent version that meets the range identifiers you specify. You can use the following range identifiers:
*
: The most recent version. This is the default.!=
: Not equal to the version specified.==
: Exactly the version specified.>=
: Greater than or equal to the version specified.>
: Greater than the version specified.<=
: Less than or equal to the version specified.<
: Less than the version specified.
Note
By default ansible-galaxy
ignores pre-release versions. To install a pre-release version, you must use the ==
range identifier to require it explicitly.
Installing a collection from a git repository¶
You can install a collection in a git repository by providing the URI to the repository instead of a collection name or path to a tar.gz
file. The collection must contain a galaxy.yml
file, which will be used to generate the would-be collection artifact data from the directory. The URI should be prefixed with git+
(or with git@
to use a private repository with ssh authentication) and optionally supports a comma-separated git commit-ish version (for example, a commit or tag).
Warning
Embedding credentials into a git URI is not secure. Make sure to use safe auth options for security reasons. For example, use SSH, netrc or http.extraHeader/url.<base>.pushInsteadOf in Git config to prevent your creds from being exposed in logs.
# Install a collection in a repository using the latest commit on the branch 'devel'
ansible-galaxy collection install git+https://github.com/organization/repo_name.git,devel
# Install a collection from a private github repository
ansible-galaxy collection install [email protected]:organization/repo_name.git
# Install a collection from a local git repository
ansible-galaxy collection install git+file:///home/user/path/to/repo/.git
In a requirements.yml
file, you can also use the type
and version
keys in addition to using the git+repo,version
syntax for the collection name.
collections:
- name: https://github.com/organization/repo_name.git
type: git
version: devel
Git repositories can be used for collection dependencies as well. This can be helpful for local development and testing but built/published artifacts should only have dependencies on other artifacts.
dependencies: {'[email protected]:organization/repo_name.git': 'devel'}
Default repository search locations¶
There are two paths searched in a repository for collections by default.
The first is the galaxy.yml
file in the top level of the repository path. If the galaxy.yml
file exists it’s used as the collection metadata and the individual collection will be installed.
├── galaxy.yml
├── plugins/
│ ├── lookup/
│ ├── modules/
│ └── module_utils/
└─── README.md
The second is a galaxy.yml
file in each directory in the repository path (one level deep). In this scenario, each directory with a galaxy.yml
is installed as a collection.
directory/
├── docs/
├── galaxy.yml
├── plugins/
│ ├── inventory/
│ └── modules/
└── roles/
Specifying the location to search for collections¶
If you have a different repository structure or only want to install a subset of collections, you can add a fragment to the end of your URI (before the optional comma-separated version) to indicate which path ansible-galaxy should inspect for galaxy.yml
file(s). The path should be a directory to a collection or multiple collections (rather than the path to a galaxy.yml
file).
namespace/
└── name/
├── docs/
├── galaxy.yml
├── plugins/
│ ├── README.md
│ └── modules/
├── README.md
└── roles/
# Install all collections in a particular namespace
ansible-galaxy collection install git+https://github.com/organization/repo_name.git#/namespace/
# Install an individual collection using a specific commit
ansible-galaxy collection install git+https://github.com/organization/repo_name.git#/namespace/name/,7b60ddc245bc416b72d8ea6ed7b799885110f5e5
Install multiple collections with a requirements file¶
You can also setup a requirements.yml
file to install multiple collections in one command. This file is a YAML file in the format:
---
collections:
# With just the collection name
- my_namespace.my_collection
# With the collection name, version, and source options
- name: my_namespace.my_other_collection
version: 'version range identifiers (default: ``*``)'
source: 'The Galaxy URL to pull the collection from (default: ``--api-server`` from cmdline)'
The supported keys for collection requirement entries are name
, version
, source
, and type
.
The version
key can take in the same range identifier format documented above. If you’re installing a collection from a git repository instead of a built collection artifact, the version
key refers to a git commit-ish.
The type
key can be set to galaxy
, url
, file
, and git
. If type
is omitted, the name
key is used to implicitly determine the source of the collection.
Roles can also be specified and placed under the roles
key. The values follow the same format as a requirements
file used in older Ansible releases.
---
roles:
# Install a role from Ansible Galaxy.
- name: geerlingguy.java
version: 1.9.6
collections:
# Install a collection from Ansible Galaxy.
- name: geerlingguy.php_roles
version: 0.9.3
source: https://galaxy.ansible.com
To install both roles and collections at the same time with one command, run the following:
$ ansible-galaxy install -r requirements.yml
Running ansible-galaxy collection install -r
or ansible-galaxy role install -r
will only install collections,
or roles respectively.
Note
Installing both roles and collections from the same requirements file will not work when specifying a custom
collection or role install path. In this scenario the collections will be skipped and the command will process
each like ansible-galaxy role install
would.
Downloading a collection for offline use¶
To download the collection tarball from Galaxy for offline use:
Navigate to the collection page.
Click on Download tarball.
You may also need to manually download any dependent collections.
Configuring the ansible-galaxy
client¶
By default, ansible-galaxy
uses https://galaxy.ansible.com as the Galaxy server (as listed in the ansible.cfg
file under GALAXY_SERVER).
You can use either option below to configure ansible-galaxy collection
to use other servers (such as Red Hat Automation Hub or a custom Galaxy server):
Set the server list in the GALAXY_SERVER_LIST configuration option in The configuration file.
Use the
--server
command line argument to limit to an individual server.
To configure a Galaxy server list in ansible.cfg
:
Add the
server_list
option under the[galaxy]
section to one or more server names.Create a new section for each server name.
Set the
url
option for each server name.Optionally, set the API token for each server name. See API token for details.
Note
The url
option for each server name must end with a forward slash /
. If you do not set the API token in your Galaxy server list, use the --api-key
argument to pass in the token to the ansible-galaxy collection publish
command.
For Automation Hub, you additionally need to:
Set the
auth_url
option for each server name.Set the API token for each server name. Go to https://cloud.redhat.com/ansible/automation-hub/token/ and click :Get API token from the version dropdown to copy your API token.
The following example shows how to configure multiple servers:
[galaxy]
server_list = automation_hub, my_org_hub, release_galaxy, test_galaxy
[galaxy_server.automation_hub]
url=https://cloud.redhat.com/api/automation-hub/
auth_url=https://sso.redhat.com/auth/realms/redhat-external/protocol/openid-connect/token
token=my_ah_token
[galaxy_server.my_org_hub]
url=https://automation.my_org/
username=my_user
password=my_pass
[galaxy_server.release_galaxy]
url=https://galaxy.ansible.com/
token=my_token
[galaxy_server.test_galaxy]
url=https://galaxy-dev.ansible.com/
token=my_test_token
Note
You can use the --server
command line argument to select an explicit Galaxy server in the server_list
and
the value of this argument should match the name of the server. To use a server not in the server list, set the value to the URL to access that server (all servers in the server list will be ignored). Also you cannot use the --api-key
argument for any of the predefined servers. You can only use the api_key
argument if you did not define a server list or if you specify a URL in the
--server
argument.
Galaxy server list configuration options
The GALAXY_SERVER_LIST option is a list of server identifiers in a prioritized order. When searching for a
collection, the install process will search in that order, for example, automation_hub
first, then my_org_hub
, release_galaxy
, and
finally test_galaxy
until the collection is found. The actual Galaxy instance is then defined under the section
[galaxy_server.{{ id }}]
where {{ id }}
is the server identifier defined in the list. This section can then
define the following keys:
url
: The URL of the Galaxy instance to connect to. Required.token
: An API token key to use for authentication against the Galaxy instance. Mutually exclusive withusername
.username
: The username to use for basic authentication against the Galaxy instance. Mutually exclusive withtoken
.password
: The password to use, in conjunction withusername
, for basic authentication.auth_url
: The URL of a Keycloak server ‘token_endpoint’ if using SSO authentication (for example, Automation Hub). Mutually exclusive withusername
. Requirestoken
.
As well as defining these server options in the ansible.cfg
file, you can also define them as environment variables.
The environment variable is in the form ANSIBLE_GALAXY_SERVER_{{ id }}_{{ key }}
where {{ id }}
is the upper
case form of the server identifier and {{ key }}
is the key to define. For example I can define token
for
release_galaxy
by setting ANSIBLE_GALAXY_SERVER_RELEASE_GALAXY_TOKEN=secret_token
.
For operations that use only one Galaxy server (for example, the publish
, info
, or install
commands). the ansible-galaxy collection
command uses the first entry in the
server_list
, unless you pass in an explicit server with the --server
argument.
Note
Once a collection is found, any of its requirements are only searched within the same Galaxy instance as the parent collection. The install process will not search for a collection requirement in a different Galaxy instance.
Downloading collections¶
To download a collection and its dependencies for an offline install, run ansible-galaxy collection download
. This
downloads the collections specified and their dependencies to the specified folder and creates a requirements.yml
file which can be used to install those collections on a host without access to a Galaxy server. All the collections
are downloaded by default to the ./collections
folder.
Just like the install
command, the collections are sourced based on the
configured galaxy server config. Even if a collection to download was specified by a URL
or path to a tarball, the collection will be redownloaded from the configured Galaxy server.
Collections can be specified as one or multiple collections or with a requirements.yml
file just like
ansible-galaxy collection install
.
To download a single collection and its dependencies:
ansible-galaxy collection download my_namespace.my_collection
To download a single collection at a specific version:
ansible-galaxy collection download my_namespace.my_collection:1.0.0
To download multiple collections either specify multiple collections as command line arguments as shown above or use a requirements file in the format documented with Install multiple collections with a requirements file.
ansible-galaxy collection download -r requirements.yml
All the collections are downloaded by default to the ./collections
folder but you can use -p
or
--download-path
to specify another path:
ansible-galaxy collection download my_namespace.my_collection -p ~/offline-collections
Once you have downloaded the collections, the folder contains the collections specified, their dependencies, and a
requirements.yml
file. You can use this folder as is with ansible-galaxy collection install
to install the
collections on a host without access to a Galaxy or Automation Hub server.
# This must be run from the folder that contains the offline collections and requirements.yml file downloaded
# by the internet-connected host
cd ~/offline-collections
ansible-galaxy collection install -r requirements.yml
Listing collections¶
To list installed collections, run ansible-galaxy collection list
. This shows all of the installed collections found in the configured collections search paths. It will also show collections under development which contain a galaxy.yml file instead of a MANIFEST.json. The path where the collections are located are displayed as well as version information. If no version information is available, a *
is displayed for the version number.
# /home/astark/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections
Collection Version
-------------------------- -------
cisco.aci 0.0.5
cisco.mso 0.0.4
sandwiches.ham *
splunk.es 0.0.5
# /usr/share/ansible/collections/ansible_collections
Collection Version
----------------- -------
fortinet.fortios 1.0.6
pureport.pureport 0.0.8
sensu.sensu_go 1.3.0
Run with -vvv
to display more detailed information.
To list a specific collection, pass a valid fully qualified collection name (FQCN) to the command ansible-galaxy collection list
. All instances of the collection will be listed.
> ansible-galaxy collection list fortinet.fortios
# /home/astark/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections
Collection Version
---------------- -------
fortinet.fortios 1.0.1
# /usr/share/ansible/collections/ansible_collections
Collection Version
---------------- -------
fortinet.fortios 1.0.6
To search other paths for collections, use the -p
option. Specify multiple search paths by separating them with a :
. The list of paths specified on the command line will be added to the beginning of the configured collections search paths.
> ansible-galaxy collection list -p '/opt/ansible/collections:/etc/ansible/collections'
# /opt/ansible/collections/ansible_collections
Collection Version
--------------- -------
sandwiches.club 1.7.2
# /etc/ansible/collections/ansible_collections
Collection Version
-------------- -------
sandwiches.pbj 1.2.0
# /home/astark/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections
Collection Version
-------------------------- -------
cisco.aci 0.0.5
cisco.mso 0.0.4
fortinet.fortios 1.0.1
sandwiches.ham *
splunk.es 0.0.5
# /usr/share/ansible/collections/ansible_collections
Collection Version
----------------- -------
fortinet.fortios 1.0.6
pureport.pureport 0.0.8
sensu.sensu_go 1.3.0
Verifying collections¶
Verifying collections with ansible-galaxy
¶
Once installed, you can verify that the content of the installed collection matches the content of the collection on the server. This feature expects that the collection is installed in one of the configured collection paths and that the collection exists on one of the configured galaxy servers.
ansible-galaxy collection verify my_namespace.my_collection
The output of the ansible-galaxy collection verify
command is quiet if it is successful. If a collection has been modified, the altered files are listed under the collection name.
ansible-galaxy collection verify my_namespace.my_collection
Collection my_namespace.my_collection contains modified content in the following files:
my_namespace.my_collection
plugins/inventory/my_inventory.py
plugins/modules/my_module.py
You can use the -vvv
flag to display additional information, such as the version and path of the installed collection, the URL of the remote collection used for validation, and successful verification output.
ansible-galaxy collection verify my_namespace.my_collection -vvv
...
Verifying 'my_namespace.my_collection:1.0.0'.
Installed collection found at '/path/to/ansible_collections/my_namespace/my_collection/'
Remote collection found at 'https://galaxy.ansible.com/download/my_namespace-my_collection-1.0.0.tar.gz'
Successfully verified that checksums for 'my_namespace.my_collection:1.0.0' match the remote collection
If you have a pre-release or non-latest version of a collection installed you should include the specific version to verify. If the version is omitted, the installed collection is verified against the latest version available on the server.
ansible-galaxy collection verify my_namespace.my_collection:1.0.0
In addition to the namespace.collection_name:version
format, you can provide the collections to verify in a requirements.yml
file. Dependencies listed in requirements.yml
are not included in the verify process and should be verified separately.
ansible-galaxy collection verify -r requirements.yml
Verifying against tar.gz
files is not supported. If your requirements.yml
contains paths to tar files or URLs for installation, you can use the --ignore-errors
flag to ensure that all collections using the namespace.name
format in the file are processed.
Using collections in a Playbook¶
Once installed, you can reference a collection content by its fully qualified collection name (FQCN):
- hosts: all
tasks:
- my_namespace.my_collection.mymodule:
option1: value
This works for roles or any type of plugin distributed within the collection:
- hosts: all
tasks:
- import_role:
name: my_namespace.my_collection.role1
- my_namespace.mycollection.mymodule:
option1: value
- debug:
msg: '{{ lookup("my_namespace.my_collection.lookup1", 'param1')| my_namespace.my_collection.filter1 }}'
Simplifying module names with the collections
keyword¶
The collections
keyword lets you define a list of collections that your role or playbook should search for unqualified module and action names. So you can use the collections
keyword, then simply refer to modules and action plugins by their short-form names throughout that role or playbook.
Warning
If your playbook uses both the collections
keyword and one or more roles, the roles do not inherit the collections set by the playbook. See below for details.
Using collections
in roles¶
Within a role, you can control which collections Ansible searches for the tasks inside the role using the collections
keyword in the role’s meta/main.yml
. Ansible will use the collections list defined inside the role even if the playbook that calls the role defines different collections in a separate collections
keyword entry. Roles defined inside a collection always implicitly search their own collection first, so you don’t need to use the collections
keyword to access modules, actions, or other roles contained in the same collection.
# myrole/meta/main.yml
collections:
- my_namespace.first_collection
- my_namespace.second_collection
- other_namespace.other_collection
Using collections
in playbooks¶
In a playbook, you can control the collections Ansible searches for modules and action plugins to execute. However, any roles you call in your playbook define their own collections search order; they do not inherit the calling playbook’s settings. This is true even if the role does not define its own collections
keyword.
- hosts: all
collections:
- my_namespace.my_collection
tasks:
- import_role:
name: role1
- mymodule:
option1: value
- debug:
msg: '{{ lookup("my_namespace.my_collection.lookup1", 'param1')| my_namespace.my_collection.filter1 }}'
The collections
keyword merely creates an ordered ‘search path’ for non-namespaced plugin and role references. It does not install content or otherwise change Ansible’s behavior around the loading of plugins or roles. Note that an FQCN is still required for non-action or module plugins (for example, lookups, filters, tests).
See also
- Developing collections
Develop or modify a collection.
- Collection Galaxy metadata structure
Understand the collections metadata structure.
- Mailing List
The development mailing list
- irc.freenode.net
#ansible IRC chat channel