Reliably run playbooks with job templates

Name

Enter a name for the job.

N/A

Description

Enter an arbitrary description as appropriate (optional).

N/A

Job Type

Choose a job type:

• Run: Start the playbook when launched, running Ansible tasks on the selected hosts.
• Check: Perform a "dry run" of the playbook and report changes that would be made without actually making them. Tasks that do not support check mode are missed and do not report potential changes.

Yes

Inventory

Choose the inventory to use with this job template from the inventories available to the logged in user.

A System Administrator must grant you or your team permissions to be able to use certain inventories in a job template.

Yes.

Inventory prompts show up as its own step in a later prompt window.

Project

Select the project to use with this job template from the projects available to the user that is logged in.

N/A

Source control branch

This field is only present if you chose a project that allows branch override. Specify the overriding branch to use in your job run. If left blank, the specified SCM branch (or commit hash or tag) from the project is used.

For more information, see Job branch overriding.

Yes

Execution Environment

Select the container image to be used to run this job. You must select a project before you can select an execution environment.

Yes.

Execution environment prompts show up as its own step in a later prompt window.

Playbook

Choose the playbook to be launched with this job template from the available playbooks. This field automatically populates with the names of the playbooks found in the project base path for the selected project. Alternatively, you can enter the name of the playbook if it is not listed, such as the name of a file (such as foo.yml) you want to use to run with that playbook. If you enter a filename that is not valid, the template displays an error, or causes the job to fail.

N/A

Credentials

Select the icon to open a separate window.

Choose the credential from the available options to use with this job template.

Use the drop-down menu list to filter by credential type if the list is extensive. Some credential types are not listed because they do not apply to certain job templates.

• If selected, when launching a job template that has a default credential and supplying another credential replaces the default credential if it is the same type. The following is an example of this message:

Job Template default credentials must be replaced with one of the same type. Please select a credential for the following types in order to proceed: Machine.

• You can add more credentials as you see fit.
• Credential prompts show up as its own step in a later prompt window.

Labels

• Optionally supply labels that describe this job template, such as dev or test.
• Use labels to group and filter job templates and completed jobs in the display.
• Labels are created when they are added to the job template. Labels are associated with a single Organization by using the Project that is provided in the job template. Members of the Organization can create labels on a job template if they have edit permissions (such as the admin role).
• Once you save the job template, the labels appear in the Job Templates overview in the Expanded view.
• Select beside a label to remove it. When a label is removed, it is no longer associated with that particular Job or Job Template, but it remains associated with any other jobs that reference it.
• Jobs inherit labels from the Job Template at the time of launch. If you delete a label from a Job Template, it is also deleted from the Job.

• If selected, even if a default value is supplied, you are prompted when launching to supply additional labels, if needed.
• You cannot delete existing labels, selecting only removes the newly added labels, not existing default labels.

Forks

The number of parallel or simultaneous processes to use while executing the playbook. A value of zero uses the Ansible default setting, which is five parallel processes unless overridden in /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg.

Yes

Limit

A host pattern to further constrain the list of hosts managed or affected by the playbook. You can separate many patterns by colons (:). As with core Ansible:

• a:b means "in group a or b"
• a:b:&c means "in a or b but must be in c"
• a:!b means "in a, and definitely not in b"

Yes

If not selected, the job template executes against all nodes in the inventory or only the nodes predefined on the Limit field. When running as part of a workflow, the workflow job template limit is used instead.

Verbosity

Control the level of output Ansible produces as the playbook executes. Choose the verbosity from Normal to various Verbose or Debug settings. This only appears in the details report view. Verbose logging includes the output of all commands. Debug logging is exceedingly verbose and includes information about SSH operations that can be useful in certain support instances.

Verbosity 5 causes automation controller to block heavily when jobs are running, which could delay reporting that the job has finished (even though it has) and can cause the browser tab to lock up.

Yes

Job Slicing

Specify the number of slices you want this job template to run. Each slice runs the same tasks against a part of the inventory. For more information about job slices, see Job Slicing.

Yes

Timeout

This enables you to specify the length of time (in seconds) that the job can run before it is canceled. Consider the following for setting the timeout value:

• There is a global timeout defined in the settings which defaults to 0, indicating no timeout.
• A negative timeout (<0) on a job template is a true "no timeout" on the job.
• A timeout of 0 on a job template defaults the job to the global timeout (which is no timeout by default).
• A positive timeout sets the timeout for that job template.

Yes

Show Changes

Enables you to see the changes made by Ansible tasks.

Yes

Instance Groups

Choose Instance and Container Groups to associate with this job template. If the list is extensive, use the icon to narrow the options. Job template instance groups contribute to the job scheduling criteria, see Job Runtime Behavior and Control where a job runs for rules. A System Administrator must grant you or your team permissions to be able to use an instance group in a job template. Use of a container group requires admin rights.

• Yes.

If selected, you are providing the jobs preferred instance groups in order of preference. If the first group is out of capacity, later groups in the list are considered until one with capacity is available, at which point that is selected to run the job.

• If you prompt for an instance group, what you enter replaces the normal instance group hierarchy and overrides all of the organizations' and inventories' instance groups.
• The Instance Groups prompt shows up as its own step in a later prompt window.

Job Tags

Type and select the Create menu to specify which parts of the playbook should be executed.

Yes

Skip Tags

Type and select the Create menu to specify certain tasks or parts of the playbook to skip.

Yes

Extra Variables

• Pass extra command line variables to the playbook. This is the "-e" or "-extra-vars" command line parameter for ansible-playbook that is documented in the Ansible documentation at Defining variables at runtime.
• Provide key or value pairs by using either YAML or JSON. These variables have a maximum value of precedence and overrides other variables specified elsewhere. The following is an example value: git_branch: production release_version: 1.5

Yes.

If you want to be able to specify extra_vars on a schedule, you must select Prompt on launch for Variables on the job template, or enable a survey on the job template. Those answered survey questions become extra_vars.