Inventory

A list of instances to manage. You can use IP or hostname. You can group them as well

server1.company.com
server2.company.com
 
[mail]
192.168.10.10
server3.company.com

Alias

You can specify an alias by using ansible_host parameter

web ansible_host=server1.company.com
db ansible_hsot=server2.company.com

ansible_host is used to specify an FQDN or an IP

There are other inventory parameters, like:

• ansible_connection: ssh/winrm/localhost
• ansible_port: 22/5986
• ansible_user: root/administrator
• ansible_ssh_pass: Password

web1 ansible_host=server1.company.com ansible_connection=ssh ansible_user=root ansible_ssh_pass=Password123!

Parent Groups, ini vs yaml format

For a small company, basic ini format is fine. But for complex orgs, you would need yaml

ini formating

[all_servers:children]
web_servers
db_servers
 
[web_servers]
web1 ansible_host=server1.company.com
server2.company
 
[db_servers]
sql1.company
sql2.company

yaml formatting

all:
	children:
		webservers:
			children:
				webservers_us:
					hosts:
						web1.example.com
							ansible_host: 192.168.8.101
						web2.example.com
				webservers_eu:
					hosts:
						web3.example.com
						web4.example.com
		dbservers:
			hosts:
				db1.example.com
				db2.example.com