The Ansible architecture

The Ansible architecture consists of playbooks, plays, and tasks. Take a look at df_playbook.yml that we used previously:

Ansible playbook

The whole file is called a playbook, which contains one or more plays. Each play can consist of one or more tasks. In our simple example, we only have one play, which contains a single task. In this section, we will take a look at the following:

• YAML: This format is extensively used in Ansible to express playbooks and variables.
• Inventory: The inventory is where you can specify and group hosts in your infrastructure. You can also optionally specify host and group variables in the inventory file.
• Variables: Each of the network devices is different. It has a different hostname, IP, neighbor relations, and so on. Variables allow for a standard set of plays while still accommodating these differences.
• Templates: Templates are nothing new in networking. In fact, you are probably using one without thinking of it as a template. What do we...