Skip to content

Testing in Ansible

Testing is a crucial part of Ansible automation development that helps ensure your playbooks, roles, and modules work as expected across different environments. This guide covers comprehensive testing approaches for Ansible.

Testing Levels in Ansible

  1. Syntax Testing
  2. Basic YAML validation
  3. Ansible-specific syntax checking

  4. Role structure verification

  5. Unit Testing

  6. Individual task testing
  7. Module functionality verification

  8. Custom module testing

  9. Integration Testing

  10. Full playbook execution
  11. Role integration testing

  12. Multi-host scenarios

  13. System Testing

  14. End-to-end infrastructure testing
  15. Environment validation
  16. Performance testing

Common Testing Tools

  • ansible-lint: Static code analysis tool
  • Molecule: End-to-end testing framework
  • ansible-test: Official testing tool
  • Test Kitchen: Infrastructure testing framework
  • pytest: Python testing framework for custom modules

Best Practices

  1. Test Early and Often
  2. Implement CI/CD pipeline testing
  3. Run tests before merging changes

  4. Automate test execution

  5. Maintain Test Independence

  6. Each test should run in isolation
  7. Avoid test interdependencies

  8. Clean up test environments

  9. Use Test Environments

  10. Implement staging environments
  11. Use containerization for testing

  12. Mirror production configurations

  13. Document Test Cases

  14. Maintain clear test documentation
  15. Include test prerequisites
  16. Document expected outcomes

Next Steps

Continue to the following sections for detailed examples and implementations of: - Molecule Testing Examples - Unit Testing Guide - Integration Testing Patterns