How to run Ansible on Windows?

If you need consistant way to run Ansible on Mac, Linux and Windows you'll face a surprise! Ansible is not supported on Windows - https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/os_guide/windows_faq.html#can-ansible-run-on-windows

Sad, right? But if you're doing tool like DevOps Pass, you need it.

So I was inspired by OpenTofu's tenv and created my own Ansible Version Manager, which allows you to run Ansible from Windows host, like on Mac or Linux.

Whats behind?

It uses Docker under the hood and allowing you to run Ansible tools from your local without installation of Python (on Mac/Linux) and on Windows.

It is running Docker container, pushing all your local environment variables related to Ansible, Molecule, SSH, AWS, Azure and GCP configuration.

🚀 Installation

MacOS / Linux

# Linux
curl -sL $(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/devopspass/dop-avm/releases/latest | grep "https.*linux_amd64" | awk '{print $2}' | sed 's/"//g') | tar xzvf - dop-avm
# MacOS
curl -sL $(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/devopspass/dop-avm/releases/latest | grep "https.*darwin_amd64" | awk '{print $2}' | sed 's/"//g') | tar xzvf - dop-avm

sudo mv dop-avm /usr/local/bin/
sudo sh -c "cd /usr/local/bin/ && dop-avm setup"

Windows

Download latest binary for Windows - https://github.com/devopspass/dop-avm/releases/

tar xzf dop-avm*.tar.gz
md %USERPROFILE%\bin
move dop-avm.exe %USERPROFILE%\bin\
setx PATH "%USERPROFILE%\bin;%PATH%"

cd %USERPROFILE%\bin\
dop-avm setup

DevOps Pass AI

In DOP you can add Ansible app and run action Install Ansible Version Manager, it will download and install dop-avm.

🤔 How it works?

dop-avm copying own binary with different names, which will be used later by user:

• ansible
• ansible-playbook
• ansible-galaxy
• ansible-vault
• ansible-doc
• ansible-config
• ansible-console
• ansible-inventory
• ansible-adhoc
• ansible-lint
• molecule

When you're running any of this command, it will run Docker container devopspass/ansible:latest and binary inside (source Dockerfile in repo).

AVM will pass environment variables from host machine:

• ANSIBLE_*
• MOLECULE_*
• GALAXY_*
• AWS_*
• GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS

Plus volumes (if exist):

• .ssh
• .aws
• .azure
• .ansible

And services, like SSH-agent and Docker socket.
As a result you can run Ansible on Windows, MacOS and Linux via Docker without installation of Python and Ansible on your local, especially it's useful for Windows where it's not possible to run Ansible at all.

🐳 Use another Docker container

Probably you may have Docker container built in your organization, which is used in pipelines or recommended for local, you can use it by specifying DOP_AVM_IMAGE_NAME environment variable. Be sure that all necessary binaries, like molecule are inside, when you're running it.

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