Skillintermediate

Ansible Testing

This directory contains test materials for validating the ansible-validator skill, including both playbooks and roles.

Claude Code Knowledge Pack7/10/2026

Overview

Ansible Testing

This directory contains test materials for validating the ansible-validator skill, including both playbooks and roles.

Directory Structure

test/
├── README.md              # This file
├── test_regressions.sh     # Regression tests for validator scripts
├── inventory/              # Inventory fixtures for validation tests
│   └── localhost-nested.yml
├── playbooks/             # Example playbooks for testing
│   ├── good-playbook.yml  # Well-written playbook
│   ├── bad-playbook.yml   # Playbook with issues
│   ├── regression-inline-fqcn.yml
│   └── regression-mixed-import.yml
└── roles/                 # Test roles
    └── geerlingguy.mysql/ # Production-quality MySQL role

Test Playbooks

good-playbook.yml

A well-written Ansible playbook that follows best practices:

All tasks are named
Uses appropriate modules instead of shell/command
Proper file permissions
No hardcoded secrets
Uses handlers correctly
Implements tags for granular execution
OS-specific tasks have conditionals

Expected validation results: Should pass all checks (yamllint, ansible-lint, syntax check)

bad-playbook.yml

A poorly-written playbook with multiple issues:

Hardcoded password (security issue)
Tasks without names
Using shell instead of modules
Missing changed_when for commands
Command injection risk (unquoted variables)
Missing file permissions
Deprecated with_items
Handler name mismatch
Overly permissive file permissions (777)
Disabled SSL verification
Missing OS conditionals

Expected validation results: Should fail multiple checks and report numerous issues

Test Role: geerlingguy.mysql

This is a well-maintained, production-quality Ansible role by Jeff Geerling for installing and configuring MySQL.

Source: https://github.com/geerlingguy/ansible-role-mysql

Features:

Complete role structure (tasks, defaults, handlers, meta, templates, vars)
Molecule testing configured
Multi-platform support (Debian, RedHat, Ubuntu, etc.)
Comprehensive variable management
Well-documented

This role serves as an excellent example for:

Proper role structure
Best practices implementation
Molecule testing setup
Multi-OS compatibility patterns

Testing Commands

Playbook Testing

# Validate good playbook (should pass)
bash ../scripts/validate_playbook.sh playbooks/good-playbook.yml

# Validate bad playbook (should fail with multiple errors)
bash ../scripts/validate_playbook.sh playbooks/bad-playbook.yml

# Extract modules from playbook
bash ../scripts/extract_ansible_info_wrapper.sh playbooks/good-playbook.yml
bash ../scripts/extract_ansible_info_wrapper.sh playbooks/bad-playbook.yml

# Individual validation steps
yamllint -c ../assets/.yamllint playbooks/good-playbook.yml
ansible-playbook --syntax-check playbooks/good-playbook.yml  # if ansible installed
ansible-lint -c ../assets/.ansible-lint playbooks/good-playbook.yml  # if ansible-lint installed

Script Regression Testing

# Run targeted regressions for ansible-validator scripts
bash test_regressions.sh

Role Testing

# Preflight tool/runtime readiness
bash ../scripts/setup_tools.sh

# Comprehensive role validation
bash ../scripts/validate_role.sh roles/geerlingguy.mysql

# This checks:
# - Role directory structure
# - YAML syntax (yamllint)
# - Ansible syntax (if ansible is installed)
# - Ansible lint (if ansible-lint is installed)
# - Molecule configuration

Extract Module Information

# Extract modules from role
bash ../scripts/extract_ansible_info_wrapper.sh roles/geerlingguy.mysql

# Extract modules from playbook
bash ../scripts/extract_ansible_info_wrapper.sh playbooks/good-playbook.yml

Run Molecule Tests

# Run full molecule test suite
# Note: Molecule will be automatically installed in a temporary venv if not already installed
bash ../scripts/test_role.sh roles/geerlingguy.mysql

# Or run molecule directly (if installed)
cd roles/geerlingguy.mysql
molecule test

Note: The test_role.sh script automatically handles molecule installation. If molecule is not found on your system, the script will:

Create a temporary Python virtual environment
Install molecule, ansible-core, ansible-lint, and yamllint
Run the full test suite
Clean up the temporary environment automatically

No permanent installation required.

Exit codes:

0 = Molecule tests completed successfully
1 = Molecule tests ran but role/test stages failed
2 = Molecule blocked by runtime/dependency environment (for example Docker/Podman unavailable)

Expected Validation Results

Structure Check

✅ All required directories present (tasks/)
✅ All recommended directories present (defaults/, handlers/, meta/, templates/, vars/)
✅ Molecule directory configured
✅ Main YAML files exist

YAML Syntax

✅ All YAML files are syntactically correct
⚠️ Some warnings about line length (acceptable)
⚠️ Minor trailing spaces in CI workflow files

Ansible Lint

Should pass most checks (role follows best practices)
May have minor warnings about formatting

Molecule

Configured with default scenario
Tests across multiple platforms (Ubuntu, Debian, Rocky Linux)
Includes idempotency checks

Adding More Test Roles

To add additional test roles for validation:

# Download from Ansible Galaxy
cd test/roles
ansible-galaxy role install namespace.rolename -p .

# Or clone from GitHub
git clone https://github.com/author/ansible-role-name.git author.rolename

Recommended Test Roles

Popular, well-maintained roles for testing:

# Web servers
git clone https://github.com/geerlingguy/ansible-role-apache.git geerlingguy.apache
git clone https://github.com/geerlingguy/ansible-role-nginx.git geerlingguy.nginx

# Databases
git clone https://github.com/geerlingguy/ansible-role-postgresql.git geerlingguy.postgresql
git clone https://github.com/geerlingguy/ansible-role-redis.git geerlingguy.redis

# Languages/Runtimes
git clone https://github.com/geerlingguy/ansible-role-php.git geerlingguy.php
git clone https://github.com/geerlingguy/ansible-role-nodejs.git geerlingguy.nodejs

# DevOps tools
git clone https://github.com/geerlingguy/ansible-role-docker.git geerlingguy.docker
git clone https://github.com/geerlingguy/ansible-role-kubernetes.git geerlingguy.kubernetes

Integration Testing

Test the Full Validation Pipeline

#!/bin/bash
# test_all_roles.sh - Validate all roles in test directory

for role in roles/*; do
    if [ -d "$role" ]; then
        echo "Validating $(basename $role)..."
        bash ../scripts/validate_role.sh "$role"
        echo ""
    fi
done

Test Module Extraction

#!/bin/bash
# extract_all_modules.sh - Extract modules from all roles

for role in roles/*; do
    if [ -d "$role" ]; then
        echo "=== $(basename $role) ==="
        bash ../scripts/extract_ansible_info_wrapper.sh "$role"
        echo ""
    fi
done

Common Role Issues to Test

The validation scripts can detect:

Structure Issues:
- Missing required directories (tasks/)
- Missing main.yml files
- Incorrect file naming
Syntax Issues:
- Invalid YAML syntax
- Indentation problems
- Missing colons or quotes
Best Practice Violations:
- Tasks without names
- Hard-coded values instead of variables
- Missing handlers
- Improper use of command vs. shell
Security Issues:
- Hard-coded secrets
- Overly permissive file modes
- Missing no_log on sensitive tasks
Documentation Issues:
- Missing README.md
- Missing role metadata (meta/main.yml)
- Missing variable documentation

Molecule Testing Details

The geerlingguy.mysql role includes molecule configuration:

molecule/
└── default/
    ├── molecule.yml       # Molecule configuration
    ├── converge.yml       # Playbook to test the role
    └── verify.yml         # Verification tests

Running Molecule Tests

cd roles/geerlingguy.mysql

# Full test sequence
molecule test

# Individual stages
molecule create       # Create test instances
molecule converge     # Run the role
molecule verify       # Run verification tests
molecule destroy      # Clean up

# Debug mode
molecule converge
molecule login        # SSH into test instance

Creating Your Own Test Role

To create a minimal test role:

mkdir -p test/roles/mytest/tasks
cat > test/roles/mytest/tasks/main.yml <<EOF
---
- name: Install package
  apt:
    name: vim
    state: present
  when: ansible_os_family == "Debian"
EOF

# Validate it
bash scripts/validate_role.sh test/roles/mytest

CI/CD Integration

These test roles can be used in CI/CD pipelines:

# .github/workflows/validate-roles.yml
name: Validate Ansible Roles

on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  validate:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: |
          pip install ansible ansible-lint yamllint

      - name: Validate all roles
        run: |
          for role in test/roles/*; do
            bash scripts/validate_role.sh "$role"
          done

Troubleshooting

Role validation fails with "ansible-playbook not found"

Install Ansible:

pip install ansible

Molecule tests fail with "docker not found"

The test_role.sh script will automatically install molecule in a temporary venv, but you still need Docker installed for molecule to create test containers:

# macOS
brew install docker

# Start Docker Desktop
open -a Docker

# Linux
sudo apt-get install docker.io    # Debian/Ubuntu
sudo yum install docker           # RHEL/CentOS

Note: Molecule itself doesn't need to be installed - the script handles that automatically.

YAML lint warnings about line length

This is acceptable for readability. Adjust .yamllint if needed:

rules:
  line-length:
    max: 200  # Increase limit
    level: warning

Resources

Ansible Galaxy - Find more roles to test
Molecule Documentation - Learn about role testing
Jeff Geerling's Roles - High-quality example roles
Ansible Best Practices