Ansible Modules & Task Execution Flashcards

What is the purpose of handlers in Ansible?

Answer: Tasks triggered by the 'notify' directive that run once at the end of a play if notified

Handlers are special tasks that only run when notified by another task, and they execute once at the end of the play regardless of how many times they are notified.

How do you tag a task so it can be selectively run or skipped?

Answer: tags: [tagname]

The 'tags' keyword on a task or play accepts a list of tag strings that can be referenced with --tags or --skip-tags at runtime.

Which ansible-playbook flag runs only tasks that are tagged with a specific tag?

Answer: --tags

The --tags flag filters playbook execution to only run tasks whose tags match the specified value(s).

What does the 'async' keyword on a task enable?

Answer: Runs the task asynchronously so Ansible does not wait for it to complete

Setting async: launches a long-running task in the background and Ansible polls or checks its status later rather than waiting.

What module is used to check the result of an async task?

Answer: async_status

The async_status module queries the status of an async task using its jid (job ID) captured via register.

What does 'changed_when: false' on a task do?

Answer: Marks the task result as never changed, preventing spurious handler notifications

changed_when: false tells Ansible to always report the task as unchanged regardless of outcome, preventing unnecessary handler triggers.