Ansible delay between hosts. 0 port: 8000 delay: 10 state .
Ansible delay between hosts. In computer programming, this is called a loop. Oct 8, 2025 · Connection methods and details This section shows you how to expand and refine the connection methods Ansible uses for your inventory. Ansible offers two keywords for creating loops: loop and with_<lookup>. Common Ansible loops include changing ownership on several files and/or directories with the file module, creating multiple users with the user module, and repeating a polling step until a certain result is reached. 7! One pattern I often need to implement in my Ansible playbooks This module is part of ansible-core and included in all Ansible installations. But when I use no host on my playbook I get ERROR! the field 'hosts' is required but was not set When I define the host as localhost it runs in ansible-playbook but when the playbook is triggered with ansible-rulebook it skips the pause and outputs skipping: no hosts matched How am I supposed to use Asynchronous Retry Variables The following Variables set asynchronous retries for the role. We'll start with what 'loops' are by using a simple everyday example, so everyone can understand. From the server you are copying from, when you run an ssh command to the server you want to copy to manually, it should prompt you something about adding to safe hosts. Consider using wait_for module. Using variables Ansible uses variables to manage differences between systems. wait_for_connection for easy linking to the module documentation and to avoid conflicting with other Both the pause module and delay parameter are used to create a pause or delay during task execution. In most cases, you can use the short module name wait_for even without specifying the collections keyword. After killing the hung processes and retrying the operation, it goes Jan 20, 2025 · Learn how to handle long-running tasks in Ansible using async and poll. At the end of each attempt the until condition is evaluated and if it does not evaluate to true, the task will be repeated, assuming there are still retries left. To represent the variations among those different systems, you can create variables with standard YAML syntax, including lists and dictionaries. wait_for module. This article delves into a specific Ansible playbook that showcases the art of managing time-sensitive tasks using declarative playbooks. This module is part of ansible-core and included in all Ansible installations. However, during execution, the primary host may change according to a list called primary_host_ids. Every article I went and read was giving me suggestions but nothing practical. I think this would work if I was wanting to pause between hosts. The until directive in Ansible is used in conjunction with the retries and delay parameters to define the retry logic. wait_for_connection for easy linking to the module documentation and to avoid conflicting with other May 4, 2015 · Unfortunately, when you want to run the playbook for one host only (using the -limit parameter) the facts from the other hosts are (obviously) missing. This is independent of the forks and serial settings, but cannot be > higher than those limits. Example: using builtin wait module - name: Sleep for 300 seconds and continue with play ansible. The second task for example, uses the special variable ansible_play_hosts, which contains a list of hosts in the current play run, failed or unreachable hosts are excluded from this list. yml: - name: Create and start services docker_compose: and I have 3 hosts. win_wait_for: host: 0. 1. After installation VM gets its IP address. I checked it with Loops ¶ Sometimes you want to repeat a task multiple times. 0 port: 8000 delay: 10 state So my question there is: is that what `post_reboot_delay: 360` is supposed to do, or am I misunderstanding something? 2, Assuming it worked as desired, and it did wait the 6 minutes between db nodes, I'd also rather not wait that much time between each other system in the other groups. Both the pause module and delay parameter are used to create a pause or delay during task execution. In this example, a 5 second pause is made after invoking the shell module. example. setup: You do not need to execute the ping module Oct 8, 2025 · - name: Wait 300 seconds for port 8000 to become open on the host, don't start checking for 10 seconds ansible. Let's say you want to retry a particular tasks a number of times, and have a delay between each attempt. See examples. An Ansible pattern can refer to a single host, an IP address, an inventory group, a set of groups, or all Nov 30, 2022 · Regarding --step and in between each step execution during which please take note that Step mode is mentioned to Executing playbooks for troubleshooting With this option, Ansible stops on each task, and asks if it should execute that task. Then, we'll explain why we use loops in Ansible and how they can help us. Is there a better way to achieve what I'm trying to do? Unfortunately, I cannot statically set the primary_hosts in my inventory since they change between executions. This playbook can be used to create multiple users on different servers with different attributes, and the pause directive ensures that the system is not overloaded with too many user creations at once. ControlPersist and paramiko By default, Ansible uses native OpenSSH, because it supports ControlPersist (a performance feature), Kerberos, and options in ~/. If it can't the playbook should fail. To pause/wait/sleep per host, use the wait_for module. For example, if forks is set to 10 and the thrott> is set to 15, at most 10 hosts will be operated on in parallel Nov 26, 2013 · When I'm trying to develop my play books while offline on my laptop (using vagrant for my Ansible provisioned server) I'm seeing really long hangs on the GATHERING FACTS task (as in the order of 3-5 minutes). 3 is in EPEL testing. If a task takes a long time on one host, all other executions have to wait, which may cause SSH timeouts or significantly slow down your playbook execution. If you are not familiar with modules, check out Ansible - Getting Started with Modules. May 27, 2022 · In Ansible 1. We'll show how these loops are used in real situations. The execution order you've witnessed is the expected one. " Q: How was this manifesting in your Ansible automation? Susan: "Inconsistent failures! Certain playbooks kept breaking during the docker pull step only on specific hosts. To pause/wait/sleep per host, use the ansible. I have tried so many methods like forks and serial parameters. Dec 27, 2023 · But that introduced latency between image availability in the schema and actually being pullable on hosts. Jun 19, 2022 · How to copy files between remote servers in Ansible ?. com registered set_fact: lookup_result: “{{ lookup(‘dig’, ‘host. If your control machine uses an older version of OpenSSH that does May 27, 2022 · The “local host” can be changed to a different host by using delegate_to. wait_for a String to be available in the log, or wait_for SSH Synopsis ¶ Pauses playbook execution for a set amount of time, or until a prompt is acknowledged. The delay parameter introduces a ten-second delay between retry attempts, so it keeps retrying until the ping result shows success. Examples of frequently used cases like ansible wait for the port to be available or not available, ansible wait_for the file to be created or removed, ansible wait_for examples, ansible wait_for the server to come up after reboot. reboot - Reboot a machine This module is part of ansible-base and included in all Ansible installations. If you want to change this default behavior, you can use a different strategy plugin, change the number of forks, or apply one of several keywords like serial. Dec 25, 2013 · I am using the serial to limit everytime I can deploy to only one machine at a time, but is it possible to pause say every 10 minutes between each deployment? In Ansible 1. Oct 8, 2025 · Asynchronous actions and polling By default, Ansible runs tasks synchronously, holding the connection to the remote node open until the action is completed. This also speeds up the overall role. But nothing change i observe. See Controlling how Ansible behaves: precedence rules for details on the relative precedence of each source. This means that, within a playbook, each task blocks the next task by default, and subsequent tasks will not run until the current task is completed. The default behavior is to pause with a prompt. Example Ansible hosts file: [source_hosts] olddb1 olddb2 olddb3 Aug 4, 2015 · While executing the playbook the following output i obtained. e. May 12, 2022 · Ensure a certain amount of time has elapsed between two tasks in ansible playbook, in real time Asked 3 years, 5 months ago Modified 3 years, 5 months ago Viewed 4k times Note This module is part of ansible-core and included in all Ansible installations. During creation the VM mounts iso image and installs OS automatically. Mar 18, 2024 · Using Ansible’s wait_for module, we can temporarily stop running the playbook while we wait for the server to finish rebooting or for a service to start and bind to a port: tasks - name: Wait for server to restart local_action: module: wait_for host={{ inventory_hostname }} port=22 delay=10 become: false This will run the wait_for task on the machine running Ansible. And finally, we'll share Apr 11, 2020 · this is my task/main. Selecting a strategy Setting the number of forks Using Apr 23, 2021 · Asynchronous actions and polling ¶ By default Ansible runs tasks synchronously, holding the connection to the remote node open until the action is completed. I'm looking at using ansible to do this due to the sheer number of hosts that need files copied. Since the next task will only execute if the user Jun 11, 2024 · Facing timeouts? Here is how you can handle tasks that take a long time to complete in Ansible. This is not the requirement because if i want to run this playbook in multiple hosts at a time it takes more time. 6 and later, this module can also be used to wait for a file to be available or absent on the filesystem. ssh/config such as Jump Host setup. Each host has a host_id which is assigned in the inventory and is passed to the service that is running. Mar 7, 2023 · One specific host is the (initial) primary host and if the service is stopped or fails on this host it means the test is concluded. we can also define the number of retries and interval between each check If the file is not created Apr 17, 2017 · Ansible 2. Which makes sense for a screen input plugin, would be a nightmare to deal with repeated interleaving hosts. The registry had the image but the node hadn‘t realized yet. With Ansible, you can execute tasks and playbooks on multiple systems with a single command. You can add hosts to the in memory inventory using the add_host module. It is run and originates on the local host where Ansible is being run. For example, a task may take longer to complete than Oct 8, 2025 · Synopsis ansible. com. By default, Ansible runs each task sequentially across all hosts. running a task against four hosts, start host 1, 5 seconds later start host 2. This is the latest (stable) Ansible community documentation. builtin. I want to continue ru May 20, 2014 · Hi, I have the following requirement for deploying a java web application on multiple hosts: Copy the deployed artifact (war file) in parallel to the relevant hosts to a temp folder Deploy the app (stop tomcat, delete old app, copy new war from temp folder, start tomcat) one host at a time with a prompt between each host in order to verify that the deployment is successful Can this be achieved Sep 22, 2020 · In Ansible 1. I am just trying to move this particular job under tower, so I am converting it from a bash script to a playbook. May 9, 2024 · I tried decreasing the timeout settings in our ansible. 4 port=3306 delay=1 timeout=300 You can also adapt it as a What are Ansible loops? Learn how to loop over lists and dictionaries in Ansible. However, we recommend you use the Fully Qualified Collection Name (FQCN) ansible. reboot for easy linking to the module documentation and to avoid conflicting with other collections that may have the Jun 3, 2020 · You seem to be trying to terminate an instance from that very instance? That doesn’t sound like it would work. May 11, 2021 · 1 I am currently migrating some data between servers and need to make sure I'm copying some data directories while still preserving mappings between old hosts and new hosts. is the purpose behind this article. ansible wait_for reboot to be completed, before proceeding. Patterns let you run commands and playbooks against specific hosts and/or groups in your inventory. In Ansible 1. I'd like this task will be run on each host with 3 minute intervals. Nov 29, 2024 · Ansible-playbook hangs can be caused by high latency and long-running tasks. If that works, then I am sure there is a way to Jan 18, 2025 · Ansible allows you to retry a task until a specified condition is met. This feature enables you to control the flow of tasks and add time Aug 21, 2023 · Introduction Ansible, a versatile automation tool, empowers system administrators to achieve operational excellence through streamlined workflows and simplified configurations. For Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform subscriptions, see Life Cycle for version details. Any idea if this is expected behavior for Ansible? I need some of the variables from the Aug 18, 2023 · This is what "bypass_host_loop full" attribute means in the plugin docs, which you can read on the cli by running ansible-doc pause Code that does this implies the author never wanted to deal with multiple hosts. I don't want to go completely serial, one task after the other, but I need them staggered or it's creating locking issues. Jan 12, 2023 · How can I add 30 seconds time delay between hosts in this ansible script? Asked 2 years, 9 months ago Modified 2 years, 9 months ago Viewed 10k times Oct 9, 2025 · The loop_control directive with the pause: 3 argument adds a 3-second delay between each user creation to prevent overloading the system. This feature is useful when working with tasks that depend on external events or conditions, such as waiting for a service to become available or checking if a specific file exists. Synopsis ¶ Pauses playbook execution for a set amount of time, or until a prompt is acknowledged. Prompting Operators for Runtime Decisions Another prime use case for pause is creating human confirmation or decision May 27, 2025 · Ansible's Pause Module: A Controlled Pause In Ansible, the pause module is a versatile tool that allows you to intentionally halt the execution of a playbook for a specified duration or until manual user input. Regarding but how may I have a delay There is already a delay in that approach, the user. Now, let's say that I have a group of tasks that need to be repeated on failure, and not just one like in the example above Oct 8, 2025 · Note This module is part of ansible-core and included in all Ansible installations. Without seeing the rest of your playbook, consider the following example: - name: Wait for db server to restart local_action: wait_for: host=192. . Nov 18, 2024 · Pause execution - Ansible module pause Learn how to use the Ansible pause module to pause playbook execution for a set amount of time or until a prompt is acknowledged, with practical examples and a live Playbook. Is there a way to force Ansible to gather facts on all hosts, even if you limit the playbook to one specific host? Examples --- - name: Configure ospf6interface hosts: localhost tasks: - name: Create ospf6interface delegate_to: localhost netscaler. In most cases, you can use the short module name reboot even without specifying the collections keyword. If neither of the retries or delay or retries are set, they will default to their respective defaults. Improve efficiency with real-world examples and step-by-step playbooks. By understanding and implementing delayed execution, administrators can Jan 19, 2025 · Use the Ansible wait_for module in your playbook to manage dependencies and prevent failures by waiting for resource availability. After it eventually times out (best guess) it proceeds as normal and everything works properly. then you type yes, and it won’t prompt again. In this post, we are going to discuss the two major options Loops Ansible offers the loop, with_<lookup>, and until keywords to execute a task multiple times. 168. Important: The ansible-core 2. adc. Here is the playbook I am using. All parameters are optional. Normally this only happens when the box has resource issues or some device is causing the hang (fact gathering checks devices and proc) specially network file systems. Also learn to take actions based on the result of the ping test. However, to use wait_for you should also use delegate_to and delegate the execution of the task to the bastion, so that wait_for is running from the bastion. I have an Ansible playbook, where I would like a variable I register in a first play targeted on one node to be available in a second play, targeted on another node. This task will wait for Controlling how Ansible behaves: precedence rules To give you maximum flexibility in managing your environments, Ansible offers many ways to control how Ansible behaves: how it connects to managed nodes, how it works once it has connected. reboot for easy linking to the module documentation and to avoid conflicting with other collections that may have the same ansible. Mar 6, 2023 · Is there a way to influence the order of execution of when, loop, and until? Short answer: no. cfg to 20 seconds which did help a bit but the hanging on (turned off) hosts take a lot of waiting before the tasks carry on with the other hosts. Apr 18, 2020 · This is great! Now Ansible will repeat the task three times with a 10 second delay in between each attempt. 0 port: 8000 state: drained timeout: 150 - name: Wait for port 8000 of any IP to close active connection, ignoring certain Controlling playbook execution: strategies and more By default, Ansible runs each task on all hosts affected by a play before starting the next task on any host, using 5 forks. A simple playbook takes 2+ minutes to run instead of the 23 seconds showed by the timer callback plugin. 19/Ansible 12 release has made significant templating changes that might require you to update playbooks and roles. I have a task that deploys VMs in to proxmox, if I run it against 4 hosts, it tries to create all 4 at once and I usually get a locking Dec 21, 2024 · $ ansible-doc -t keyword throttle throttle: applies_to: - Play - Role - Block - Task - Handler description: Limit the number of concurrent task runs on task, block and play> level. Apr 10, 2024 · In this blog post, we will cover how to use 'Ansible loops'. Jan 4, 2019 · SSH keys are setup between the two servers. This pattern can be extended to coordinate any components that have initialization dependencies. Feb 23, 2025 · Ansible reboot Linux machine - Learn how to reboot Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD Unix machine and wait for reboot to complete in Ansible playbook. Excerpts of the playbook has been given below and from this, the debug statement that prints all the environment variables passed to the playbook doesn’t get printed ie msg: “{{ env }}”. You can think of it as a file watcher, Our Ansible task waits for the file to be created until it eventually times out. I would try that, then attempt the ansbile playbook again. Oct 1, 2016 · I want to test if the host I am provisioning can reach a specific server and connect to a specific TCP port. Oct 19, 2020 · I believe what you are looking for is to postpone gather_facts until the server is up, as that otherwise will time out as you experienced. 0. for example: running on Aug 29, 2019 · I have facing a problem of ssh timeout when using ansible. Unless can this work on tasks as well? Everything is being executed on a single target. How can I do that? Feb 23, 2020 · You can use the until on a task - command: ping -c1 <host> register: r until: r. Your file could work as follows: --- - hosts: all gather_facts: false tasks: - name: Wait for connection (600s default) ansible. To continue early press ctrl+c Oct 8, 2025 · Note This module is part of ansible-core and included in all Ansible installations. command action to call rsync yourself, but you also have to add a fair number of boilerplate options and host - name: sleep for 300 seconds and continue with play wait_for: timeout=300 delegate_to: localhost - name: Wait 300 seconds for port 8000 to become open on the host, don't start checking for 10 seconds wait_for: port: 8000 delay: 10 - name: Wait 300 seconds for port 8000 of any IP to close active connections, don't start checking for 10 seconds Playbook Keywords These are the keywords available on common playbook objects. Async Action Basics To run a task asynchronously, you need to specify two parameters: async: Maximum runtime in seconds (how long the task can run) poll: How frequently Jan 1, 2019 · ansible wait_for reboot to complete and proceed. Jan 9, 2017 · I have a playbook which creates a virtual machine in vCenter. Feb 27, 2024 · In Linux, with ssh, you have to add the server to the known/safe hosts. Of course, you could just use the ansible. shell: kill -9 12345 - name: 5 second pause ansible. win_wait_for: port: 8000 delay: 10 - name: Wait 150 seconds for port 8000 of any IP to close active connections ansible. Oct 8, 2025 · Note This module is part of ansible-core and included in all Ansible installations. Loops Ansible offers the loop, with_<lookup>, and until keywords to execute a task multiple times. Ansible is an automatization platform … Nov 23, 2020 · This post discusses somewhat lesser known type of Ansible loop: "until" loop, which is used for retrying task until certain condition is met. ansible provides wait_for module with async connection you can reboot the remote server and wait while it is being rebooted without closing the connection. Feb 24, 2024 · ansible wait_for examples. For example, A record. Nov 4, 2023 · On the documentation it shows examples of the pause module being used without a host defined. In most cases, you can use the short module name wait_for_connection even without specifying the collections keyword. synchronize is a wrapper around rsync to make common tasks in your playbooks quick and easy. I wanted to execute rsync between remote hosts and copy files between remote hosts. 50. ’) }}” until: lookup_result != ‘NXDOMAIN’ retries: 20 delay: 3 But looks like lookup runs only single time at start and never again. You can use ctrl+c if you wish to advance a pause earlier than it is set to expire or if you need to abort a playbook run entirely. It waits for a condition before continuing, for example for a port to become open or closed, for a file to exist or not, or for some content in a file. windows. With_items vs loop explained. You should use another host. wait_for: timeout: 300 delegate_to: localhost Other wise you can use shell module and use command “sleep 300”. So here is the example oriented article. --- - hosts: all tasks: - name: kill pid 12345 ansible. In most cases, we can use the short module name reboot even without specifying the collections: keyword. ssh user@192. this is very helpful for any task require the reboot. So I try to use this task: name: Wait DNS A record host. posix. rc == 0 You can also change retries and delay, check the documentation for details. How can I force Ansible to slow down how quickly it runs the task against each host? Feb 24, 2024 · Ansible Retry until file exists - A Quick example to Ansible Retry In this quick example, you can see that we are trying to validate if the file is created at a certain path. This means within a playbook, each task blocks the next task by default, meaning subsequent tasks will not run until the current task completes. Dec 18, 2018 · In this blog post, I will cover some tips and tricks for dealing with unreliable connections to cloud-centric APIs and how I build Ansible Playbooks in a reliable manner. meta for easy linking to the module documentation and to avoid conflicting with other collections that may have the same Oct 27, 2015 · can you check on the hosts that it gets 'stuck on'? see what the ansible process is doing. I simply wanted to do make ansible rsync. If you use Ansible to manage a large number of servers, network devices, and cloud resources, you may define Ansible behavior in several different places May 24, 2018 · September 2018 Update: Ansible 2. Keywords are one of several sources for configuring Ansible behavior. Mar 30, 2023 · You could use a sleep task between this two tasks and assign 120sec sleep time. pause Dec 27, 2023 · The pause module introduces a simple 60 second delay, avoiding race conditions between installing Apache and checking its status. Tasks execution below are done in sequential manner. After each attempt, Ansible evaluates the condition of the ping result. So please give a suggestion to execution of one playbook in mulltiple hosts Is there a way to stagger task execution in ansible? i. Loops ¶ Sometimes you want to repeat a task multiple times. To continue early press ctrl+c Jun 8, 2021 · Running the above playbook would result in Ansible executing the reload command against each host with little to no pause between each invocation. Learn how to use SSH options to fix this problem. wait_for_connection: - name: Gather facts manually ansible. Examples of commonly-used loops include changing ownership on several files and/or directories with the file module, creating multiple users with the user module, and repeating a polling step until a certain result is reached. reboot: That's it! Much easier than the older technique I used in Ansible < 2. rsyncs work outside of ansible just fine. This allows for all items to be created, then checked that the task finishes successfully. This playbook is from a project, project based on From the Ansible docs on the wait_for module, you may actually improve your wait condition, for specific ssh connectivity (default "timeout" value of 300s): # Do not assume the inventory_hostname is resolvable and delay 10 seconds at start Jan 9, 2024 · Learn how to reboot a Windows machine using Ansible with a detailed playbook example, including custom reboot messages and delay settings. This guide will walk you Patterns: targeting hosts and groups When you execute Ansible through an ad hoc command or by running a playbook, you must choose which managed nodes or groups you want to execute against. Sep 9, 2024 · Quickly test if a node is available with the Ansible ping command. Aug 2, 2021 · Faster parallel execution of Ansible playbooks In this blog post I will show you a technique that can be used to parallelize any task loop in Ansible. In most cases, you can use the short module name meta even without specifying the collections keyword. Here - name: sleep for 300 seconds and continue with play wait_for: timeout=300 delegate_to: localhost - name: Wait 300 seconds for port 8000 to become open on the host, don't start checking for 10 seconds wait_for: port: 8000 delay: 10 - name: Wait 300 seconds for port 8000 of any IP to close active connections, don't start checking for 10 seconds wait_for: host: 0. Feb 13, 2023 · Hello, When triggering an AWX job (through the WEB UI or the API), i have a big delay (1 minute and 20 seconds roughly) between the moment i press launch and the moment where the playbook start (when stdout starts with the “PLAY” line). wait_for for easy linking to the module documentation and to avoid conflicting with other collections that may have Jul 22, 2023 · The Ansible Pause module, as the name suggests, is used to add pauses or delays during the execution of an Ansible playbook. This enables copying between two remote hosts or entirely on one remote machine. 1 just wait maybe 30s then prompt password to entry, but when using ansible, it will prompt unreachable for the host, how can i config in the yaml? Thank you. We'll look at the most basic type of loop, and then see a few different kinds. ospf6interface: state: present name: "vlan10" areaId: 0 tagId: "22" instanceId: 0 Return Values Sep 19, 2024 · We’ve observed intermittent instances where the first step of the Ansible playbook, which gathers facts, hangs for certain VMs. 8 and later, this module can also be used to wait for active connections to be closed before continuing, useful if a node is being rotated out of a load balancer pool. This behavior can create challenges. The user and permissions for the synchronize src are those of the user running the Ansible task on the local host (or the remote_user for a delegate_to host when delegate_to is used). 7 (to be released around October 2018) will include a new reboot module, which makes reboots a heck of a lot simpler (whether managing Windows, Mac, or Linux!): - name: Reboot the server and wait for it to come back up. Automation for the People! A Subreddit dedicated to fostering communication in the Ansible Community, includes Ansible, AWX, Ansible Tower, Ansible Galaxy, ansible-lint, Molecule, etc. For example, a task may take longer to complete than Oct 18, 2018 · Hi! I want to wait for some DNS record registered in DNS server. 7ozu92ob8uq3xezgqg1sq4flpzkb9cnxv30kkgxwxji9jcs