Glossary

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Ansible collection

An Ansible collection is a standardized packaging and distribution format in Ansible, an open-source IT automation tool. It bundles related automation content—such as roles, modules, plugins, playbooks, and other resources—into a reusable unit that simplifies organization, sharing, and reuse of automation logic across projects. These collections can be published, discovered, and installed using Galaxy.

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Ansible documentation

Ansible documentation refers primarily to the standard documentation provided in accordance with Ansible practices and standards. This includes README.md files within Ansible collections and roles, as well as Ansible module documentation in the form of YAML files. It can also encompass accompanying documentation in wikis, static websites, or other formats.

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Ansible Galaxy

Ansible Galaxy (often just called Galaxy) is the official community hub and repository hosted by Red Hat for discovering, sharing, and downloading Ansible content, specifically Ansible collections, see Ansible collection. It’s like a package manager for Ansible content—users can publish their collections to Galaxy for others to install. Galaxy ensures content is searchable, versioned, and accessible, promoting collaboration in the Ansible ecosystem.

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ansible group

See group.

Ansible inventory project

See inventory project.

collection

See Ansible collection.

content

The term content or Ansible content refers to Ansible roles, modules, plugins, playbooks, and other resources. This content is packaged in a standardized distribution format called the Ansible collection, making it easier to organize, share, and reuse automation logic.

documentation

See Ansible documentation.

Galaxy

See Ansible Galaxy.

group

A group, also known as an Ansible group, is a collection of servers or hosts defined in the inventory file within an inventory project. It allows referencing multiple associated hosts for automation or defining variables in bulk. Once defined, you can use patterns to select the hosts or groups for Ansible to run against.

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group-based environments

Group-based environments refer to an Ansible inventory strategy within an inventory project, where hosts are organized into groups representing different environments (e.g., dev, test, staging, prod). This allows for environment-specific variables and configurations to be managed efficiently using group_vars.

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inventory

See inventory file.

inventory file

An inventory file, also simply referred to as inventory, is a file used in Ansible to define the managed nodes (hosts) that you automate, along with variables associated with those hosts. You can also specify “groups” of hosts, see group. The inventory file is part of an inventory project.

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inventory project

An inventory project, also known as an Ansible inventory project, is a structured collection of files used in Ansible for managing hosts and configurations. It typically includes inventory files, playbooks, host configurations, group variables, and vault files. This type of project is sometimes referred to as a playbook project or configuration project.

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