Ansible Testing with Molecule Flashcards

What is Ansible Molecule used for?

Answer: Testing Ansible roles and collections by automatically provisioning test instances, running playbooks, and verifying the resulting state

Molecule provides a structured framework for testing Ansible roles across multiple platforms and scenarios, enabling TDD for infrastructure code.

What is the default driver used by Molecule when initializing a new scenario?

Answer: Docker

Docker is Molecule's default driver because containers start quickly and are lightweight, making them ideal for rapid test iteration.

What command initializes a new Molecule scenario inside an existing Ansible role?

Answer: molecule init scenario

'molecule init scenario' creates the molecule/ directory structure with default configuration files for a new test scenario.

What does 'molecule converge' do?

Answer: It applies the role to the test instance by running the converge.yml playbook, without destroying the instance afterward

'molecule converge' applies the role to existing test instances, leaving them running for iterative development and debugging.

What is the difference between 'molecule test' and 'molecule converge'?

Answer: 'molecule test' runs the full lifecycle (create→converge→verify→destroy) for CI; 'molecule converge' only applies the role for interactive development

'molecule test' is for CI pipelines (full ephemeral lifecycle); 'molecule converge' is for development (persistent instances for iteration).

Which Molecule verifier uses Python test code with assertions about the remote system state?

Answer: Testinfra (via pytest)

Testinfra (integrated with pytest) allows writing Python assertions to verify file contents, service states, packages, users, and more on test instances.