Interview › Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Ansible)
What is a playbook, a play, and a task?
Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Ansible) · Intermediate level
Answer
A playbook is a YAML file containing one or more plays. A play maps hosts to roles or tasks. A task calls a module with arguments to enforce one piece of desired state, such as installing a package, rendering a template, or restarting a service.
Technical explanation
A play targets hosts and defines how to execute against them.
Tasks are executed in order unless strategies or async behavior alter execution.
Roles are commonly included from plays to keep playbooks readable.
Prefer idempotent modules over shell so repeated runs are safe and change reporting is meaningful.
Separate reusable role logic from inventory-specific variables so the same automation works across environments.
Run lint, syntax checks, check mode where useful, and staged rollouts before production-wide changes.
Hands-on example
1. Create a minimal Ansible control workflow for: What is a playbook, a play, and a task?
2. Inventory example:
[web]
web1 ansible_host=10.0.1.10 ansible_user=ec2-user
web2 ansible_host=10.0.1.11 ansible_user=ec2-user
[web:vars]
ansible_become=true
3. Playbook example:
---
- name: Configure web hosts
hosts: web
become: true
tasks:
- name: Ensure nginx is installed
ansible.builtin.package:
name: nginx
state: present
- name: Ensure nginx is running
ansible.builtin.service:
name: nginx
state: started
enabled: true
4. Run ansible -m ping web first, then ansible-playbook site.yml --check --diff, then the real run.
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