Output Ansible Playbooks as YAML with Callback Plugin

How to create YAML output of Ansible Playbook using the community.general.yaml Callback Plugin

Introduction

Ansible, a powerful open-source automation tool, simplifies complex IT tasks by automating configuration management, application deployment, and other repetitive operations. One of Ansible’s strengths lies in its extensibility, allowing users to customize their workflows. In this article, we’ll explore the use of Ansible callback plugins and how they can enhance playbook output.

Ansible Playbook Overview

Before diving into callback plugins, let’s examine a simple Ansible playbook. The playbook named ping.yml showcases the basic functionality of the Ansible ping module. It verifies the connectivity to target hosts and reports the results.

---
- name: Ping module demo
  hosts: all
  tasks:
    - name: Test connection
      ansible.builtin.ping:

Additionally, an inventory file specifies the target host, in this case, localhost with a local connection:

localhost ansible_connection=local