Table: ansible_group - Query Ansible Groups using SQL

Ansible is an open-source software provisioning, configuration management, and application-deployment tool. It provides large productivity gains to a wide variety of automation challenges. An Ansible Group is a collection of hosts, which can be managed collectively, rather than individually.

Table Usage Guide

The ansible_group table provides insights into Ansible Groups within Ansible configuration management. As a DevOps engineer, explore group-specific details through this table, including group names, hosts, and associated metadata. Utilize it to uncover information about groups, such as associated hosts, to aid in the management and configuration of Ansible Groups.

Examples

Query a simple file

Discover the segments that are part of a specific group in an Ansible inventory, gaining insights into the hierarchical relationships and variable configurations. This can aid in understanding the structure and configuration of your Ansible deployments.

Given the inventory file /etc/ansible/hosts with following configuration:

[atlanta]
host1
host2

[raleigh]
host2
host3

[southeast:children]
Atlanta
Raleigh

[southeast:vars]
some_server=foo.southeast.example.com
halon_system_timeout=30
self_destruct_countdown=60
escape_pods=2

[usa:children]
southeast
northeast
southwest
northwest

Query to retrieve the groups:

select
  name,
  hosts,
  parents,
  vars
from
  ansible_group;

select
  name,
  hosts,
  parents,
  vars
from
  ansible_group;

+-----------+---------------------------+---------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| name      | hosts                     | parents                   | vars                                                                                                                     |
+-----------+---------------------------+---------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| southeast | <null>                    | ["usa","all"]             | {"escape_pods":"2","halon_system_timeout":"30","self_destruct_countdown":"60","some_server":"foo.southeast.example.com"} |
| northwest | <null>                    | ["usa","all"]             | {}                                                                                                                       |
| all       | ["host1","host2","host3"] | <null>                    | {}                                                                                                                       |
| ungrouped | <null>                    | ["all"]                   | {}                                                                                                                       |
| Raleigh   | <null>                    | ["southeast","usa","all"] | {"escape_pods":"2","halon_system_timeout":"30","self_destruct_countdown":"60","some_server":"foo.southeast.example.com"} |
| northeast | <null>                    | ["usa","all"]             | {}                                                                                                                       |
| raleigh   | ["host2","host3"]         | ["all"]                   | {}                                                                                                                       |
| southwest | <null>                    | ["usa","all"]             | {}                                                                                                                       |
| atlanta   | ["host1","host2"]         | ["all"]                   | {}                                                                                                                       |
| Atlanta   | <null>                    | ["southeast","usa","all"] | {"escape_pods":"2","halon_system_timeout":"30","self_destruct_countdown":"60","some_server":"foo.southeast.example.com"} |
| usa       | <null>                    | ["all"]                   | {}                                                                                                                       |
+-----------+---------------------------+---------------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

List groups along with its parents and children

Explore the hierarchical structure within a group to understand its associations. This is useful for identifying the parent-child relationships within a group, which can help in managing or visualizing the group's organization.

select
  name,
  parents,
  children
from
  ansible_group;

select
  name,
  parents,
  children
from
  ansible_group;

+-----------+---------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| name      | parents                   | children                                                                                                    |
+-----------+---------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| southeast | ["usa","all"]             | ["Atlanta","Raleigh"]                                                                                       |
| northwest | ["usa","all"]             | <null>                                                                                                      |
| all       | <null>                    | ["Atlanta","Raleigh","northeast","raleigh","southwest","usa","ungrouped","atlanta","southeast","northwest"] |
| ungrouped | ["all"]                   | <null>                                                                                                      |
| Raleigh   | ["southeast","usa","all"] | <null>                                                                                                      |
| northeast | ["usa","all"]             | <null>                                                                                                      |
| raleigh   | ["all"]                   | <null>                                                                                                      |
| southwest | ["usa","all"]             | <null>                                                                                                      |
| atlanta   | ["all"]                   | <null>                                                                                                      |
| Atlanta   | ["southeast","usa","all"] | <null>                                                                                                      |
| usa       | ["all"]                   | ["southwest","northwest","Atlanta","Raleigh","northeast","southeast"]                                       |
+-----------+---------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Find groups with a specific variable key-value pair

Identify the groups that are associated with a specific server in your network. This can help in managing and organizing your resources effectively.

select
  name,
  parents,
  vars
from
  ansible_group
where
  vars ->> 'some_server' = 'foo.southeast.example.com';

select
  name,
  parents,
  vars
from
  ansible_group
where
  json_extract(vars, '$.some_server') = 'foo.southeast.example.com';

List hosts per group

Discover the segments that have active hosts within a certain group. This is beneficial for efficiently managing resources and ensuring optimal utilization.

select
  name,
  hosts
from
  ansible_group
where
  hosts is not null;

select
  name,
  hosts
from
  ansible_group
where
  hosts is not null;

List groups with no children

Explore which Ansible groups do not have any child groups. This can be useful for identifying isolated groups, potentially simplifying your infrastructure management tasks.

select
  name,
  hosts
from
  ansible_group
where
  children is null;

select
  name,
  hosts
from
  ansible_group
where
  children is null;

Schema for ansible_group

Name	Type	Operators	Description
_ctx	jsonb		Steampipe context in JSON form, e.g. connection_name.
children	jsonb		A list of child groups.
hosts	jsonb		A list of hosts listed under the group.
name	text		The name of the group.
parents	jsonb		A list of parent groups under which this group is located.
path	text	=	Path to the file.
vars	jsonb		A map of group variables.

Export

This table is available as a standalone Exporter CLI. Steampipe exporters are stand-alone binaries that allow you to extract data using Steampipe plugins without a database.

You can download the tarball for your platform from the Releases page, but it is simplest to install them with the steampipe_export_installer.sh script:

/bin/sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://steampipe.io/install/export.sh)" -- ansible

You can pass the configuration to the command with the --config argument:

steampipe_export_ansible --config '<your_config>' ansible_group