Ansible Modules

Modules are essentially Python programs that can be used in the Ansible roles. They extend Ansible by providing additional actions that can be used in the YAML to do things that aren’t bundled with Ansible or provided by default.

There’s also the option to use binary programs as modules as an alternative to using Python, but in my view that’s a last resort and the modules should be written in Python wherever possible.

The module is expected to return JSON data so that Ansible can use the information as part of the playbook.

For example, you might need to create a module to send a message using a message queue to trigger an action when criteria are fulfilled. Perhaps you need to write a record to a database, or spin up something as a one-off. I don’t know your use-case, but if you need to integrate a specific platform or product into your Ansible workflow you’ll need a module to handle the interactions and make it work cleanly.

I’m sure there is plenty of odd edge cases out there beyond the core of Ansible. The weird things you want to do are all yours and yours alone. Modules are how you make the magic happen. Certainly a module offers better integration with Ansible than using shells scripts, which is perhaps the strongest reason to use modules.

Core modules

Ansible comes with a collection of core modules. You can depend on these being present, as Ansible would be utterly useless without them. Some examples of the modules provided are:

copy
synchronize
template
get_url
package

You can find the source for the core modules on GitHub: https://github.com/ansible/ansible-modules-core