Lab 3: Using tags with Ansible¶

Overview¶

In this lab, we will use tags to selectively run only certain parts of the playbook. You can learn more about tags from the Ansible Tags Documentation.

Objective¶

Use tags to re-run a subset of the first playbook

Lab Requirements¶

SSH or Terminal access to the Ubuntu Jumpbox/Ansible Host
Access to the BIG-IP TMUI (Web GUI)

Estimated completion time: 10 minutes

TASK 1 - Delete the virtual server¶

1. In the BIG-IP web GUI, from the left-hand navigation menu, navigate to Local Traffic -> Virtual Servers

Select the web_vip virtual server, and click Delete…

On the following screen, click Delete again to confirm.

Note

The Virtual Server list should now be empty

TASK 2 ‑ Re-run the playbook with a specific tag¶

1. From the SSH or terminal session, re-run the playbook with the “virtual” tag:

$ ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts first.yaml --tags virtual

Watch the output from the ansible-playbook command… do you see all of the same lines that you did in the last lab?

Back in the BIG-IP GUI, refresh the Virtual Servers list.

TASK 3 - Remove the configuration from the first playbook¶

From the SSH or terminal session, examine the firstdel.yaml playbook:

$ less firstdel.yaml

Note

You’ll notice two main differences between this playbook and the first.yaml playbook. First, you’ll see that each task includes the state: absent parameter. This tells Ansible to remove the object defined in the task rather that create it. You’ll also notice that the tasks are in the opposite order from the first playbook. This is because Ansible executes tasks in order, and it is necessary to delete objects in the correct order, i.e.: you cannot delete a pool if a virtual server is using it.

Execute the firstdel.yaml playbook:

$ ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts firstdel.yaml

4. Back in the BIG-IP GUI, go back to the Virtual Servers, Pools, and Nodes screens, and confirm that the configuration has been deleted.

Note

Keep your SSH or terminal session open for the next lab.