Can Ansible Inventory be Integrated with External Tools?

Ansible, a powerful open-source automation tool, is widely used for configuration management, application deployment, and task automation. One of Ansible's key features is its inventory system, which defines the hosts on which Ansible commands will be executed. While Ansible provides a robust inventory system out of the box, many users wonder if it can be seamlessly integrated with external tools to enhance its functionality. In this article, we will explore the possibilities of integrating Ansible inventory with external tools to create a more dynamic and efficient automation environment.

Understanding Ansible Inventory:

Before delving into integration, let's briefly review Ansible's inventory. The inventory is a file or set of files that contain information about the hosts and groups of hosts that Ansible will manage. By default, Ansible inventory is a simple text file, but it can also be dynamically generated using scripts or external sources.

Checking the Ansible Inventory:

To begin, let's take a look at a basic Ansible inventory. You can find the default inventory file at /etc/ansible/hosts. Open it using a text editor to see the configured hosts.

cat /etc/ansible/hosts

Integrating Ansible Inventory with External Tools:

Now, let's explore how Ansible inventory can be integrated with external tools to enhance automation capabilities.

1. Using Dynamic Inventory Scripts:

Ansible supports dynamic inventories through executable scripts that can query external sources for host information. Create a custom dynamic inventory script and make it executable.

touch my_inventory_script
chmod +x my_inventory_script

Edit the script to generate dynamic inventory data based on your external tool.

2. External Inventory Plugins:

Ansible 2.11 introduced the concept of inventory plugins, allowing you to fetch inventory information from external sources dynamically. Develop a custom inventory plugin or explore existing ones to integrate with your preferred external tool.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Identify the external tool you want to integrate with Ansible inventory.
2. Determine the method of integration - dynamic inventory script or inventory plugin.
3. Create or configure the dynamic inventory script or inventory plugin to fetch data from the external tool.
4. Test the integration by running Ansible commands with the newly integrated inventory.

More Examples:

Example 1: Integrating with AWS:

For AWS integration, you can use the ec2.py dynamic inventory script provided by Ansible. Configure AWS credentials and run the script to dynamically fetch AWS instances as inventory.

./ec2.py --list

Example 2: Custom Inventory Plugin:

Create a custom inventory plugin to fetch data from a REST API. Use the plugin to dynamically generate inventory based on the external API's response.

Ansible's flexibility allows seamless integration with external tools, providing a way to create dynamic inventories tailored to your infrastructure needs. By leveraging dynamic inventory scripts and inventory plugins, users can extend Ansible's capabilities and adapt it to diverse environments.