Ansible pause Module: Wait for Input or Delay Playbook Execution

How to pause a playbook execution for a certain amount of time with Ansible?

I'm going to show you a live Playbook with some simple Ansible code. I'm Luca Berton and welcome to today's episode of Ansible Pilot

See also: Ansible synchronize Module: Rsync Files & Directories Between Hosts

Ansible pause execution

Today we're talking about the Ansible module pause. This module is also supported for Windows targets. The full name is ansible.builtin.pause, which means that is part of the collection of modules "builtin" with Ansible and shipped with it. The default behavior is to pause with a prompt. Pauses playbook execution for a set amount of time, or until a prompt is acknowledged.

Parameters

• minutes string - a positive number of minutes • seconds string - a positive number of seconds • prompt string - "Text message" • echo boolean - yes/no

All parameters are optional. The default behavior is to pause with a prompt. You could specify the amount of time using the parameters "minutes" and "seconds". Starting in Ansible 2.2, if you specify 0 or negative for minutes or seconds, it will wait for 1 second, previously it would wait indefinitely. When minutes or seconds are specified, user input is not captured or echoed, regardless of the echo setting. I'll cover the user input in another video.

## Playbook Let's jump in a real-life Ansible Playbook to pause a playbook execution.

code

• pause.yml

---
- name: pause module Playbook
  hosts: all
  vars:
    wait_seconds: 10
  tasks:
    - name: pause for {{ wait_seconds | int }} second(s)
      ansible.builtin.pause:
        seconds: "{{ wait_seconds | int }}"
- name: message
      ansible.builtin.debug:
        msg: "The end"

output

$ ansible-playbook -i Playbook/inventory pause/pause.yml
PLAY [pause module Playbook] **************************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ****************************************************************************
ok: [demo.example.com]
TASK [pause for 10 second(s)] *********************************************************************
Pausing for 10 seconds
(ctrl+C then 'C' = continue early, ctrl+C then 'A' = abort)
ok: [demo.example.com]
TASK [message] ************************************************************************************
ok: [demo.example.com] => {
    "msg": "The end"
}
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
demo.example.com           : ok=3    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0

output with manual continue (CTRL+C and "C")

$ ansible-playbook -i Playbook/inventory pause/pause.yml
PLAY [pause module Playbook] **************************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ****************************************************************************
ok: [demo.example.com]
TASK [pause for 10 second(s)] *********************************************************************
Pausing for 10 seconds
(ctrl+C then 'C' = continue early, ctrl+C then 'A' = abort)
Press 'C' to continue the play or 'A' to abort 
ok: [demo.example.com]
TASK [message] ************************************************************************************
ok: [demo.example.com] => {
    "msg": "The end"
}

output with manual abort (CTRL+C and "A")

$ ansible-playbook -i Playbook/inventory pause/pause.yml
PLAY [pause module Playbook] **************************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ****************************************************************************
ok: [demo.example.com]
TASK [pause for 10 second(s)] *********************************************************************
Pausing for 10 seconds
(ctrl+C then 'C' = continue early, ctrl+C then 'A' = abort)
Press 'C' to continue the play or 'A' to abort 
fatal: [demo.example.com]: FAILED! => {"msg": "user requested abort!"}
NO MORE HOSTS LEFT ********************************************************************************
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
demo.example.com           : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=1    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0

code with ❤️ in GitHub

See also: Ansible pause Module: Wait, Prompt, and Delay Execution (Complete Guide)

Conclusion

Now you know how to pause a playbook execution for certain amount of time with Ansible.

Pause for Duration

- name: Wait 30 seconds for service startup
  ansible.builtin.pause:
    seconds: 30
- name: Wait 5 minutes for DNS propagation
  ansible.builtin.pause:
    minutes: 5

See also: Add Windows Registry on Windows-like systems - Ansible module win_regedit

Pause for User Input

- name: Confirm before proceeding
  ansible.builtin.pause:
    prompt: "Press Enter to continue or Ctrl+C to abort"
- name: Get user input
  ansible.builtin.pause:
    prompt: "Enter the deployment version"
  register: version_input
- debug:
    msg: "Deploying version: {{ version_input.user_input }}"

Approval Gate

- name: Show deployment plan
  debug:
    msg: |
      Deploying to: {{ ansible_play_hosts | join(', ') }}
      Version: {{ app_version }}
      Environment: {{ env }}
- name: Manual approval
  ansible.builtin.pause:
    prompt: "Review the plan above. Type 'yes' to proceed"
  register: approval
- name: Abort if not approved
  ansible.builtin.fail:
    msg: "Deployment cancelled by user"
  when: approval.user_input != 'yes'

Wait for Service

# Better alternative to pause for services
- name: Wait for port to be available
  ansible.builtin.wait_for:
    port: 8080
    delay: 5
    timeout: 60
- name: Wait for URL to respond
  ansible.builtin.uri:
    url: http://localhost:8080/health
  register: result
  retries: 12
  delay: 5
  until: result.status == 200

Deployment Patterns

Rolling deploy with pause

- hosts: webservers
  serial: 1
  tasks:
    - name: Deploy
      import_tasks: deploy.yml
- name: Verify deployment
      uri:
        url: "http://{{ inventory_hostname }}:8080/health"
      delegate_to: localhost
- name: Pause between servers
      pause:
        seconds: 10
        prompt: "{{ inventory_hostname }} deployed. Waiting before next..."

Drain connections before shutdown

- name: Remove from load balancer
  uri:
    url: "http://lb/api/disable/{{ inventory_hostname }}"
    method: POST
  delegate_to: localhost
- name: Wait for connections to drain
  pause:
    seconds: 30
- name: Stop service
  service:
    name: myapp
    state: stopped

pause vs wait_for

| Module | Use Case | |--------|----------| | pause | Fixed delay or user input | | wait_for | Wait for port/file/condition | | wait_for_connection | Wait for SSH to be available | | uri + until | Wait for HTTP endpoint |

FAQ

Does pause work in AWX/AAP?

Time-based pauses work. Prompts for user input use AWX's approval workflow instead of terminal input.

How do I skip pauses in CI/CD?

- pause:
    seconds: 30
  when: not ci_mode | default(false)

ansible-playbook site.yml -e ci_mode=true

Can I pause with a countdown?

The pause module shows elapsed time. For a visual countdown, use shell: sleep or a loop with decreasing delays.

Related Articles

• Ansible inventory groups and variables • configuring Windows services via Ansible