ansible.builtin.yaml inventory – Uses a specific YAML file as an inventory source.

Note

This inventory plugin is part of ansible-core and included in all Ansible installations. In most cases, you can use the short plugin name yaml even without specifying the collections: keyword. However, we recommend you use the FQCN for easy linking to the plugin documentation and to avoid conflicting with other collections that may have the same inventory plugin name.

New in Ansible 2.4

Synopsis

  • YAML-based inventory, should start with the all group and contain hosts/vars/children entries.

  • Host entries can have sub-entries defined, which will be treated as variables.

  • Vars entries are normal group vars.

  • Children are ‘child groups’, which can also have their own vars/hosts/children and so on.

  • File MUST have a valid extension, defined in configuration.

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

yaml_extensions

list / elements=string

list of ‘valid’ extensions for files containing YAML

Default: [".yaml", ".yml", ".json"]

Configuration:

  • INI entries:

    [defaults]
yaml_valid_extensions = .yaml, .yml, .json

    [inventory_plugin_yaml]
yaml_valid_extensions = .yaml, .yml, .json

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_YAML_FILENAME_EXT

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_INVENTORY_PLUGIN_EXTS

Notes

Note

  • If you want to set vars for the all group inside the inventory file, the all group must be the first entry in the file.

  • Enabled in configuration by default.

Examples

all: # keys must be unique, i.e. only one 'hosts' per group
    hosts:
        test1:
        test2:
            host_var: value
    vars:
        group_all_var: value
    children:   # key order does not matter, indentation does
        other_group:
            children:
                group_x:
                    hosts:
                        test5   # Note that one machine will work without a colon
                #group_x:
                #    hosts:
                #        test5  # But this won't
                #        test7  #
                group_y:
                    hosts:
                        test6:  # So always use a colon
            vars:
                g2_var2: value3
            hosts:
                test4:
                    ansible_host: 127.0.0.1
        last_group:
            hosts:
                test1 # same host as above, additional group membership
            vars:
                group_last_var: value

Hint

Configuration entries for each entry type have a low to high priority order. For example, a variable that is lower in the list will override a variable that is higher up.