Ansible Monitoring: Integrate with Prometheus, Grafana & Alerting (Complete Guide)
By Luca Berton · Published 2024-01-01 · Category: installation
How to use Ansible for monitoring automation. Deploy Prometheus, Grafana, and alerting. Monitor Ansible playbook execution with callback plugins and metrics. Complete integration guide.
Ansible Monitoring: Integrate with Prometheus, Grafana & Alerting (Complete Guide)
Ansible serves two monitoring roles: deploying monitoring infrastructure (Prometheus, Grafana, alerting) and being monitored itself (tracking playbook execution, task metrics, and automation health). This guide covers both.
Part 1: Deploy Monitoring Stack with Ansible
Install Prometheus
Install Node Exporter on All Hosts
Install Grafana
Part 2: Monitor Ansible Execution
Callback Plugins for Metrics
Timer Callback (Built-in)
JSON Logging
Custom Prometheus Metrics
AAP / AWX Built-in Metrics
Ansible Automation Platform provides: • Job success/failure rates • Execution time per playbook • Host status summaries • REST API for custom dashboards • Prometheus endpoint at /api/v2/metrics/
Alerting on Ansible Failures
Ansible Callback to Slack/Teams on Failure
Part 3: Self-Healing with Ansible
FAQ
How do I monitor Ansible playbook execution?
Use callback plugins like timer and profile_tasks for execution metrics. For centralized monitoring, push metrics to Prometheus Pushgateway or use AAP/AWX which provides built-in metrics endpoints and job tracking dashboards.
Can Ansible deploy Prometheus and Grafana?
Yes. Ansible is ideal for deploying monitoring stacks. Use playbooks to install Prometheus, Node Exporter, Grafana, and Alertmanager across your infrastructure, then configure dashboards and alerting rules as code.
How do I get alerts when Ansible playbooks fail?
Use callback plugins to send notifications to Slack, Teams, or email. In AAP/AWX, configure notification templates. For custom alerting, push metrics to Prometheus and create alert rules in Alertmanager.
Can Ansible do self-healing automation?
Yes, especially with Event-Driven Ansible (EDA) in AAP. EDA listens for monitoring alerts and automatically triggers remediation playbooks. With open-source Ansible, schedule periodic health-check playbooks via cron.
Conclusion
Ansible excels at both deploying monitoring infrastructure and being monitored. Use it to automate Prometheus, Grafana, and alerting setup, then monitor Ansible itself with callback plugins, metrics endpoints, and integration with your alerting stack.
Related Articles • Ansible Callback Plugins: Customize Output & Logging • Ansible uri Module: HTTP REST API Calls • Ansible Automation Platform (AAP) Guide
Category: installation