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So friends, it is now time to talk about the elusive Ansible Playbook. So the

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first thing that

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I'm going to recommend you do is to go to the Ansible documentation. So we

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search for Ansible

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Playbooks if you click the top link right here. So notice that it says that the

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Ansible Playbook

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allows for repeatable reusable and simple configuration management. This says

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really

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quick contrast from the ad hoc commands that were really just used for a one-

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off purpose.

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This time here, we are focused on automation that we expect to be repeatable
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This time here, we are focused on automation that we expect to be repeatable

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and reusable. So if

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you want to maybe update your servers once a week, that type of thing, we want

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to have all of this

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declared within a playbook. So if we look at the playbook syntax right here, no

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surprises to learn

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that we're going to be expressing our intentions via the YAML format. And

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notice that it says a

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playbook can be comprised of one or more plays. So let me just draw a brief

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distinction right now.

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So let me just draw this out. Inside of a playbook, we can have multiple plays.

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And inside of these

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plays, we can have multiple tasks. So as per the diagram, play one has three
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plays, we can have multiple tasks. So as per the diagram, play one has three

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tasks, play two has

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only one task, and play three has two tasks. So what actually is the

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distinction between a play

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and a task? Well, the tasks themselves are actually the actions that we want to

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perform.

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So say for example, you wanted to restart a web server, that would be performed

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with an

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a task. However, when we're talking about a particular play, we are talking

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about applying

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actions to a particular set of hosts. So let's maybe say play one targets the
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actions to a particular set of hosts. So let's maybe say play one targets the

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all group. And the

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three tasks that we perform say, for example, restarting the web server,

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creating a new directory,

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and maybe restarting a service. These three tasks are going to be applied at

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the same scope and

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apply to the all group. However, within the same playbook, the same file, if we

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want to perform

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another task that applies to a different set of hosts within our inventory, we

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create a new play.

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So the scope of play two, perhaps maybe it's only going to target the blue box,
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So the scope of play two, perhaps maybe it's only going to target the blue box,

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and then we can

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specify the particular tasks that we want to execute. And then play three can

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just target the

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yellow box. And in this example, here, we're going to perform two tasks that

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just apply to

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the yellow box. So playbooks is where we can set our instructions. We can

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target different groups

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of devices for particular tasks using these plays. And what we actually want to

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do within the plays

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are defined within the tasks. So in this particular play, I'm going to use

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something known as an

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answerable module will definitely talk more about this in greater detail. But
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answerable module will definitely talk more about this in greater detail. But

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for now,

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just understand that these modules allow us to perform particular actions in a

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much easier way.

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The module I'm going to be looking at is the file module. As we can see here,

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it is going to allow

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us to manage files and file properties. So let's just click this in here. Now,

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one thing to note

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is that this happens to be a built in file module so that when you happen to

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install answerable core,

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the module is already going to be there. You don't have to do anything else. Be

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aware that when we

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use this module, you can reference the short name, which is just file. However,
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use this module, you can reference the short name, which is just file. However,

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as it specifies here,

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they do recommend you use the fully qualified collection name, which in this

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case here would be

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answerable.builtin.file. So that is what we're going to do in this particular

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video. Now scrolling

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on down, you get to read the synopsis about what this particular module is

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going to do. So we can

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say attributes for files directory, sim links, whole bunch of stuff, as it says

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here. And very

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crucially, if we scroll on down, we can see these parameters. This effectively

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tells you how to

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actually use the module itself. So we can see an option here such as access
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actually use the module itself. So we can see an option here such as access

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time and below,

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it tells us that it takes a string value. Now a string value pretty much just

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means a regular word

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or sentence that type of thing, as opposed to a billion value, a true or false

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or an integer,

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which would be a number. So you can see here we have all of these options. If I

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go all the way down,

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say for example, to this parameter right here path, it tells us that this

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parameter happens to

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be required. Basically, when we use this particular module, we are also
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be required. Basically, when we use this particular module, we are also

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required to provide the

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specified file path. Same again, scrolling on down, we can see the state

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parameter. Once again,

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this takes a string value. And we can see some options here, we have the option

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absent. And it

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says here, if we specify absent directories are going to be recursive or

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deleted. Same with files

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and sim links will be unlinked. If we specify the state as directory, all the

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intermediate sub

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directories will be created. This would be like a nested directory structure.

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And we can see a whole

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bunch of other state options such as hard for a hard link, the word link for a
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bunch of other state options such as hard for a hard link, the word link for a

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sim link. So

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really, as you can see here, we have a whole ton of options. The reason why I'm

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pointing this out,

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if you're like me, the first time you see this, you will probably think, hey,

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where are you getting

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all of these options from? How do you know which keywords to use? Pretty much.

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All you need to do

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is to read the answerable documentation, find out which parameters do which and

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which ones suit

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your needs. And you simply populate the playbook as follows. So let me write a

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playbook to do such a
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playbook to do such a

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thing. So instead of my directory, I will just create a playbook. Let's just

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call this playbook

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one. And like I mentioned before, we can use the dot yaml extension. But the

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answerable convention

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is to use dot yml. So we'll stick with that. And let's just go in and edit this

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particular

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playbook. So let's go into insert mode. And the very first thing that I'm going

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to do is have my

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three hyphens to denote a yaml file. Okay, so to begin, what I'm going to do is

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to give my

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play a name. Now, one thing we're going to have is that within a playbook, we

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're going to have to

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specify our plays as an array object, even if we only happen to have one. So I
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specify our plays as an array object, even if we only happen to have one. So I

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will use my hyphen.

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And then the key name, remember, we discussed in yaml, our hyphens allow us to

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specify an array.

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This is all I'm doing here. And I'll just say create nested directory. Now the

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next thing I'm

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going to do is to specify the hosts. This is pretty much the group of devices

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that I want to target

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from my inventory. Now recall, we actually have an all group within my

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inventory, which comprises

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of the blue box and yellow box. And it is that group that I want to target. So

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I'll just specify
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I'll just specify

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all now I'm going to create my tasks by specifying the task keywords. And once

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again, we can have

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multiple tasks. So I will use an array. So I'll have a hyphen and then specify

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the name key.

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And then say the hero will just say task one. And let me just wrap this in

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quotation marks.

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So it's all a string. And I'll just say creating three directories. Now at the

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same level of indentation,

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we want to specify that we're going to use the answerable built in file module

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recall,

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the FQDN we just saw in the documentation. That is what I'm referring to here.
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the FQDN we just saw in the documentation. That is what I'm referring to here.

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If I hit enter,

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we go and dent it within, meaning that the next two options we supply are

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related to

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the built in file module. So remember, we happen to have the path parameter,

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which was required.

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So I would just type path. And now we'll just specify the path that I want to

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create. So within

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the temp directory, I will create their one, dirt to and their three. And again

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, at the same level

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of indentation, we want to specify the state which allows us to specify the

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directory. So what

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this now done, what I can do is press escape colon wq. Now with respect to our
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this now done, what I can do is press escape colon wq. Now with respect to our

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answerable ad

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hot commands, the way we could run these would just be to say answerable via

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the command line

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to actually run a playbook, we say answerable hyphen playbook, and then specify

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the name of the

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playbook that we've created, which in this case here is playbook one. So if I

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hit enter, the play

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runs, and we can see task one has executed, we have the summary suggesting we

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have a change,

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and we can see the blue box has changed as well as the yellow box indicating
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and we can see the blue box has changed as well as the yellow box indicating

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that the play

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targeted the correct scope, I eat it targeted the all group. And in the play

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recap, we see that we

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have an okay, nothing was unreachable, nothing was failed, and nothing was

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skipped and we have

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a change on both of these devices. So let's go and confirm this change actually

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took place.

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So let's go on to the yellow box here, we'll crack open a terminal, we'll see

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the

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enter the temp directory for doing LS, we can actually see here we have their

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one. So if I

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actually see the enter, their one and do an LS, we have a dirt to inside, we

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can see the enter

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to do an LS, we can see we also have a dirt three created. And similarly on the
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to do an LS, we can see we also have a dirt three created. And similarly on the

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other device,

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the blue box, once again, we see the enter the temp directory to an LS, we can

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see we have

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their one right here, see the enter their one LS, there is their two, going to

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that LS,

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and we also have their three right here. Now similarly, if you wanted to have a

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second task,

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and let's do it so that we actually create a fourth directory here, so I'll say

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therefore.

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Now we also want to add a second task, again, this is contained within the same

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place, so we're
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going to still target both devices, I either all group. So again, I will just

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have my hyphen

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specify the name, and this time we can have the second task to, or just say add

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content to fail.

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Now in this case here, I'm actually going to use the Ansible built in shell

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module,

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just like we saw with the add hot command, this is going to allow us to execute

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shell commands,

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and all I'm going to do here is say echo, this is a test, and I'm going to

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redirect that

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into the temp directory, and let's maybe put this inside of dirt too, what we
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into the temp directory, and let's maybe put this inside of dirt too, what we

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'll do is create a

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file called nuggets.txt. So this will be our second task, so let's try this

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right and quit,

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clear the screen, let's rerun the playbook, hit enter, and the playbook

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executes, we get a summary,

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here we have task one, it says creating three directories, I really should have

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updated the

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name to say creating four directories, because that is what it's actually done,

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but nevertheless,

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let's not worry about that, and the second task is adding content to a file,

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and that is also

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changed, so let's go and test out the results then, so back on the blue box, we
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changed, so let's go and test out the results then, so back on the blue box, we

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can go into the

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temp directory, do an LS, here we have our dirt one, if I do an LS, we have

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dirt two, now inside of

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dirt two, if we do an LS, notice we also have the nuggets.txt file, which we

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can actually cat right here,

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and it says this is a test, and inside of here also, we have dirt three, and

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inside of that,

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we should also have, which we can see here, the fourth directory we just

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created, and similarly,

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if we go on to the yellow box, go into the temp directory, do an LS, there is

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our dirt one,

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let's go into dirt two, inside of dirt two, we also have the newly created file
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let's go into dirt two, inside of dirt two, we also have the newly created file

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with the content,

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this is a test, and also we have inside of dirt three, the newly created dirt

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four directory,

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so those are the very very basics of creating a simple playbook, as we can see

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here, we created

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one play with multiple tasks, which allowed us to perform two different actions

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against the same

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set of hosts.