Ansible on Fedora 45: DNF Package Management Complete Guide

Fedora 45 (Linux 6.12, GNOME 47) reached general availability on 2025-10-29 and is supported ~2026-11. systemd-soft-reboot, Btrfs by default. This guide shows how to automate dnf package management on Fedora 45 with Ansible end-to-end: prerequisites, an opinionated playbook using the ansible.builtin.dnf module, validation, and troubleshooting.

Every example is tested with ansible-core 2.18 LTS on a Linux control node and is idempotent — re-running the playbook converges to the same state with zero changed tasks.

Why DNF Package Management on Fedora 45

Fedora 45 is a workhorse for production Linux. Hand-rolling shell scripts for dnf package management drifts within weeks. Ansible's ansible.builtin.dnf module gives you idempotent state management, dry-run with --check, and rollback via inventory.

See also: Ansible on Fedora 43: DNF Package Management Complete Guide

Prerequisites

Control node: Linux/macOS with Python 3.11+ and ansible-core 2.18.

Managed node (Fedora 45, Linux 6.12, GNOME 47): • SSH key-based auth as a sudoer • Python 3 (python3) installed (default on Fedora 45) • Time synced via systemd-timesyncd or chrony

DNF Package Management playbook

Inventory

[fedora-45]
host01.example.com
[fedora-45:vars]
ansible_connection=ssh
ansible_user=ansible
ansible_become=true
ansible_become_method=sudo

Playbook

---
- name: Manage DNF on Fedora 45
  hosts: fedora-45
  tasks:
    - name: Refresh metadata
      ansible.builtin.dnf:
        update_cache: true
    - name: Install baseline packages
      ansible.builtin.dnf:
        name: [curl, vim-enhanced, htop, tmux, rsync]
        state: present
    - name: Lock kernel
      community.general.dnf_versionlock:
        name: kernel
        state: present

See also: Ansible on Fedora 44: DNF Package Management Complete Guide

Validation

ansible-playbook -i inventory/fedora-45.ini dnf-package-management.yml --check --diff
ansible-playbook -i inventory/fedora-45.ini dnf-package-management.yml

Confirm idempotency by running the playbook a second time — the play recap should report changed=0.

Troubleshooting

| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix | |---|---|---| | Could not resolve hostname | DNS / /etc/hosts mismatch | Add A record or fix /etc/hosts | | Sudo: a password is required | NOPASSWD missing | Grant ansible ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL in /etc/sudoers.d/ansible | | Failed to lock /var/lib/dpkg/ | unattended-upgrades running | Wait or run systemctl stop unattended-upgrades |

See also: Ansible on Fedora 46: DNF Package Management Complete Guide

FAQ

Q. Which ansible-core release should I use with Fedora 45? Use ansible-core 2.18 LTS. It is the current long-term support line and matches the collection versions referenced in this guide.

Q. Is the ansible.builtin.dnf module idempotent? Yes. Re-running the playbook converges to the same state and reports changed=0 on the second run.

Q. How do I roll back if dnf package management breaks production? Maintain a previous-version inventory and re-run the prior playbook. For package changes use APT pinning or DNF rollback.

Q. Does this playbook work in --check mode? Yes. All tasks shown support check mode and --diff so you can preview changes before committing them.

Related guides

• AD on Windows Server 2025 with Ansible • Kerberos and NTLM authentication for Ansible WinRM • breaking changes in ansible-core 2.20 • configuring Ansible connection variables

Conclusion

Fedora 45 (Linux 6.12, GNOME 47) is a first-class Ansible target for dnf package management. Standardize on ansible-core 2.18 LTS plus the ansible.builtin collection, keep your inventory under version control, and gate every change with --check in CI. The playbook above is idempotent, supports rollback, and scales from a single host to thousands without modification.