version: 1
id: ansible-inventory-basics
title: Build an Ansible Inventory
summary: Author a static inventory grouping bastion and payments hosts with a shared deploy group.
difficulty: beginner
estimatedMinutes: 25
prerequisites: [linux-navigation]
image: alpine:3.21
shell: /bin/sh
setup:
  - "mkdir -p /workspace/ansible"
  - "printf 'Ticket: Create inventory.ini for payments.\\nbastion ansible_host=10.0.0.10\\npayments-01 ansible_host=10.0.1.11\\npayments-02 ansible_host=10.0.1.12\\nGroups: [bastion], [payments], [deploy:children] including both.\\n' > /workspace/ansible/TICKET.md"
tasks:
  - id: write-inventory
    title: Write inventory.ini
    description: 'Create /workspace/ansible/inventory.ini with hosts bastion (10.0.0.10), payments-01 (10.0.1.11), payments-02 (10.0.1.12), groups [bastion] and [payments], and a [deploy:children] group that includes bastion and payments. Write /workspace/ansible/STATUS.txt containing INVENTORY_OK.'
    hints:
      - 'Tip code MISSING_CHILDREN: use [deploy:children] then list child group names.'
      - 'Host lines look like payments-01 ansible_host=10.0.1.11'
      - 'STATUS.txt should include INVENTORY_OK.'
    checks:
      - type: file
        name: Bastion host present
        path: /workspace/ansible/inventory.ini
        value: "10.0.0.10"
      - type: file
        name: Payments hosts present
        path: /workspace/ansible/inventory.ini
        value: "10.0.1.11"
      - type: file
        name: Second payments host present
        path: /workspace/ansible/inventory.ini
        value: "10.0.1.12"
      - type: file
        name: Bastion group present
        path: /workspace/ansible/inventory.ini
        value: "[bastion]"
      - type: file
        name: Payments group present
        path: /workspace/ansible/inventory.ini
        value: "[payments]"
      - type: file
        name: Deploy children group present
        path: /workspace/ansible/inventory.ini
        value: "[deploy:children]"
      - type: command
        name: Deploy includes both groups
        command: "grep -A5 '\\[deploy:children\\]' /workspace/ansible/inventory.ini | grep -q bastion && grep -A5 '\\[deploy:children\\]' /workspace/ansible/inventory.ini | grep -q payments"
      - type: file
        name: Inventory status ok
        path: /workspace/ansible/STATUS.txt
        value: INVENTORY_OK
limits: {cpus: "0.5", memory: 128m, pids: 64, timeout: 1800, network: false}