ansible-inventory-docs

Example of how to use ansible facts to create an overwiew of managed hosts.

How-To

Ansible is capable of handling different inventories. The example here uses a default inventory as defined in ansible.cfg using the yaml notation. In this example, localhost is assigned to the group desktops as an example.
Run the playbook and see what happens:

ansible-playbook inventory_docs.yml

An overview index.md with a table of all hosts for the inventory is created as well as a localhost.md with all the details that are available in the facts using a code block for every entry.

Using another inventory is supported and will create another subfolder.

ansible-playbook -i inventories/other.yml inventory_docs.yml

If you are new to ansible, there are a few techniques and features contained in this example:

Jinja Templates

• usage of a macro to render a value from the facts
• An example of how to access a nested value, e.g. facts.date_time.tz using a string notation date_time.tz.
• Controlling indentation in template blocks using - in order to render table in markdown correctly
• Intermediate variable definitions in templates using {% set variable=.... %}

Yaml-Syntax

• Re-use of static expressions (docs_folder: &folder "docs/inventory")