Ansible 2.5 Porting Guide

Deprecated

Our next topic in the "Ansible 2.5 Porting Guide" series is Deprecated. There are mainly two types of Deprecated, as shown in the image below. Let us discuss them in detail.

Jinja tests used as filters

Jinja tests are used for data comparison. It was included within Ansible as commonly known as Filters in the earlier versions of Ansible. Filters are used for data manipulation in Ansible. With this change, it will be simpler to grasp the many jinja concepts and when they should be used.

Let's grasp this using an example:

In the earlier versions of Ansible:

when:
    - result | failed
    - not result | success


In the Ansible 2.5 version:
when:
    - result is failed
    - results is not successful

As you can see, there is a syntactical change in the latest version of Ansible. These tests make more sense, like successful in place of success in the jinja test syntax.

Ansible fact namespacing 🧑

Ansible facts now have their own namespace called ansible_facts.*, as opposed to the standard facts namespace where they were once written to names like ansible_*. For instance, the variable structure ansible_facts.distribution is now the best way to query the fact ansible_distribution.

Modules 😃

Our next topic in the "Ansible 2.5 Porting Guide" series is Modules. We will discuss Modules in detail in this section.

Ansible modules are standalone, reusable scripts that can be used by the Ansible or Ansible Playbook programs as well as the ansible API. Before exiting, they publish a JSON string to stdout to provide info to Ansible.

In the newly released version of Ansible (version 2.5), there are a lot of changes in many modules. The names are listed below:

• github_release
• Modules removed
• Deprecation notices
• Noteworthy module changes

Plugins 🔌

Our next topic in the "Ansible 2.5 Porting Guide" series is Plugins. There are mainly four types of Plugins. Let us discuss them in detail.

Plugins are pieces of code that extend the basic stuff of Ansible. A robust, adaptable, and expandable feature set is made possible via Ansible's plugin architecture. You can also develop your plugins, and note that Ansible has several valuable benefits.

Devs that work with plugin types that support the new plugin config system can now use "doc fragments" for common config choices. 

Inventory 🏠

There are some new features that are added to the Inventory. Let's discuss them.

• In the newer version, the ability to use cache is disabled by default. The reason behind this is to avoid costly API/DB queries.
   
• Moving to the internal cache will allow you to access the existing cache refresh/invalidation tool of Ansible.
   
• When a plugin uses our "common YAML config format," a new "auto" plugin that is by default enabled can automatically identify the right Plugin to use.

Shell 🐚

The target UNIX Based hosts can be used to run shell commands using the Ansible shell module. Except for highly suave commands involving pipes and redirection, Ansible can run. Also, you can use the Ansible shell module to run shell scripts.

The new plugin config structure now supports shell plugins. More parameters can now be customized, and variables specific to a given host can now be used to override earlier "global" values.

Filter 🎞️

Ansible uses Jinja2 filters, which are used to change data inside a template expression. Many filters are included with Jinja2. 

If a Non Iterable value is returned from a plugin, the lookup plugin API now throws an exception. Earlier, lookup accepted numbers and other data types given by plugins without a problem. Plugins always need to return a list. Hence this adjustment was executed.

Lookup

In the "Ansible 2.5 Porting Guide" series, our last topic is Lookup. This is one of the types in Plugin.

Globally, lookup plugins now have a new option called error that lets you choose how errors caused by the lookup are handled. Prior to this option, all errors were fatal. This option's valid values are warning, ignore, and strict.

Frequently Asked Questions 🤔

What is a map in Ansible?

A map() searches for an attribute or applies a filter to a list of items. When working with lists of items, this is helpful as you are really only concerned with one particular value of it.

What language does ansible use?

Ansible uses YAML templates that are readable by humans so that users can automate the same processes without needing to learn a tricky programming language. You can develop your own modules or use the ones that come with Ansible to automate processes.

How do I enable Ansible plugins?

Most of Ansible's inventory plugins are compatible with the auto plugin. A plugin's name must coincide with the name specified in the plugin entry of the inventory source file if you choose one that supports YAML as the config source.

Conclusion🎉

We have discussed the topic of the Ansible 2.5 Porting Guide. In detail, we have seen topics like Playbook, Deprecated, Modules, and Plugins.

We hope this blog has helped you enhance your knowledge of the "Ansible 2.5 Porting Guide." If you want to learn more, check out our articles Ansible - Environment Setup, Introduction to Ansible, Ansible Interview Questions - Part 1, and many more on our platform Coding Ninjas Studio.

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