So, in the last couple of years (between 2020-2022), Ansible has changed significantly, with the introduction of Collections, and a number of older commands either already deprecated or slated to be deprecated.
Some core Ansible files such as hosts.ini are also to be deprecated and replaced with YAML equivalent instead (i.e. hosts.yml – or whatever else you want to name it). Further, Ansible is also encouraging administrators to use “connection = network_cli” for network automation instead of “connection = local” that the network geeks were using prior to 2020, and a number of other changes.
All of this has resulted in playbooks that look significantly different than before. All of this is a GOOD change – this will make Ansible scale better and ultimately be an even more awesome tool – but it is also a bit of a hassle to update playbooks.
So, how can you get started with Ansible Network Automation in 2022, without having to reference old and outdated playbooks that don’t work with newer versions of Ansible (2.9 and later) anymore? I got a video and a Github repository for you showing step-by-step on how to get started!
Salman Naqvi - 2xCCIE 