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ansible-distros

Purpose

Show information about various hosts, relying on Ansible and ssh

Syntax

Syntax: ansible-distros [-i INVENTORY] [-n] [nodes [nodes ...]]

Options and arguments

nodes is zero or more host names and defaults to the Ansible all concept.

Option Description Default
-i INVENTORY, --inventory INVENTORY Path to Ansible inventory YAML file. Use the default Ansible locations
-n, --names Retain actual Ansible names that you might use as a variable name in an Ansible script. Friendly column names are typically used. See the note below for the actual names
-v Enable verbose debugging Debugging is not enabled

Examples

Ansible setup

I have several AWS Cloud instances running and set up Ansible to use them via /etc/ansible/hosts:

$ cat /etc/ansible/hosts
[targets]
bruno-amazon1 ansible_host=3.83.98.175 ansible_user=ec2-user ansible_ssh_private_key_file=/home/mrbruno/.ssh/bruno.pem
bruno-amazon2 ansible_host=100.25.192.145 ansible_user=ec2-user ansible_ssh_private_key_file=/home/mrbruno/.ssh/bruno.pem
bruno-rh8 ansible_host=100.26.227.68 ansible_user=ec2-user ansible_ssh_private_key_file=/home/mrbruno/.ssh/bruno.pem
$

I actually have another tool that can generate this file along with ~/.ssh/config for cloud machines from Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Google Cloud Platform (GCP) but I'm not sure how universal the tool is. I would love for someone to try it out so let me know if you're interested.

Basic example

$ ansible-distros
Node           OS Family  Distro  Version  Major Version  Distro Release  Kernel                         Package Manager  Service Manager
bruno-amazon1  RedHat     Amazon  2018.03  NA             NA              4.14.186-110.268.amzn1.x86_64  yum              upstart
bruno-amazon2  RedHat     Amazon  (Karoo)  NA             NA              4.14.177-139.254.amzn2.x86_64  yum              systemd
bruno-rh8      RedHat     RedHat  8.2      8              Ootpa           4.18.0-193.el8.x86_64          dnf              systemd
$

Actual Ansible names

Here's how it looks when you use the actual Ansible names for the column headings:

$ ansible-distros -n
Node           ansible_os_family  ansible_distribution  ansible_distribution_version  ansible_distribution_major_version  ansible_distribution_release  ansible_kernel                 ansible_pkg_mgr  ansible_service_mgr
bruno-amazon1  RedHat             Amazon                2018.03                       NA                                  NA                            4.14.186-110.268.amzn1.x86_64  yum              upstart
bruno-amazon2  RedHat             Amazon                (Karoo)                       NA                                  NA                            4.14.177-139.254.amzn2.x86_64  yum              systemd
bruno-rh8      RedHat             RedHat                8.2                           8                                   Ootpa                         4.18.0-193.el8.x86_64          dnf              systemd
$

And here's how to make use of those awesome variables:

$ cat distros.yml
- name: Example of using Ansible builtin variables
  hosts: all
  tasks:
  - debug:
      msg: "I am {{ansible_distribution}} {{ansible_distribution_version}}"
$ ansible-playbook distros.yml

PLAY [Example of using Ansible builtin variables] ************************************************************************************************************************

TASK [Gathering Facts] ***************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [bruno-amazon2]
ok: [bruno-amazon1]
ok: [bruno-rh8]

TASK [debug] *************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [bruno-amazon1] => {
    "msg": "I am Amazon 2018.03"
}
ok: [bruno-amazon2] => {
    "msg": "I am Amazon (Karoo)"
}
ok: [bruno-rh8] => {
    "msg": "I am RedHat 8.2"
}

PLAY RECAP ***************************************************************************************************************************************************************
bruno-amazon1              : ok=2    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0
bruno-amazon2              : ok=2    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0
bruno-rh8                  : ok=2    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0

$

localhost

Personally, I don't usually have localhost in my /etc/ansible/hosts but Ansible often works for localhost.

$ ansible-distros localhost
Node       OS Family  Distro  Version  Major Version  Distro Release  Kernel              Package Manager  Service Manager
localhost  Debian     Ubuntu  18.04    18             bionic          5.3.0-7648-generic  apt              systemd
$

Notes

  • The tool depends heavily on Ansible and uses ansible host -m setup to gather the information it displays. Seriously, the Ansible setup module is freaking AWESOME! I developed my tool in a job where I was making heavy use of cloud machines and Ansible to configure the machines.

  • The mappings between friendly and actual names for columns is:

    Friendly name Actual name
    OS Family ansible_os_family
    Distro ansible_distribution
    Version ansible_distribution_version
    Major Version ansible_distribution_major_version
    Distro Release ansible_distribution_release
    Kernel ansible_kernel
    Package Manager ansible_pkg_mgr
    Service Manager ansible_service_mgr