ansible.builtin.service: Manage Services with Ansible (Complete Guide) — Video Tutorial

How to restart services on remote hosts 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. Ansible restart services on remote hosts Today we're talking about the Ansible module `service`. The full name is `ansible.builtin.service` which means is part of the collection of modules "builtin" with ansible and shipped with it. This module is pretty stable and out for years. The purpose is to controls services on remote hosts. The Supported service systems include BSD, OpenRC, SysV, Solaris SMF, systemd, and upstart. For Windows targets, use the `ansible.windows.win_service` module instead. Parameters - name _path_ - name of the service - state _string_ - started / stopped / restarted / reloaded - enabled _boolean_ - no/yes - sleep _integer_ - seconds after the restart - arguments/args _string_ - extra args The parameter list is pretty wide but I'll summarize the most useful. The only required parameter is "name" that specifies the name of the service. At least one between the "state" and "enabled" parameters is mandatory. The "state" parameter defines the action that we are going to take. It has four alternatives options: "started" and "stopped" options allow you to run or stop the service. "restarted" is a combination of stop and start - you could also customize the number of seconds between using the "sleep" parameter The "reloaded" option is useful if the service needs to reload the configuration file. The "enable" parameter allows you to decide if the service should start on boot or not. The "arguments or args" parameter allows you to specify some additional arguments provided on the command line. ## Playbook Let's jump into a real-life playbook on how to controls services on remote hosts with Ansible Playbook. - service.yml ```yaml --- - name: service module Playbook hosts: all become: true tasks: - name: sshd restart ansible.builtin.service: name: sshd state: restarted enabled: true ``` [code with ❤️ in GitHub](https://github.com/lucab85/ansible-pilot/tree/master/restart%20services%20on%20remote%20hosts) Conclusion Now you know how to restart and control services on remote hosts with Ansible. Service Management Examples Start and enable ```yaml - name: Start and enable nginx ansible.builtin.service: name: nginx state: started enabled: true become: true ``` Stop a service ```yaml - name: Stop old application ansible.builtin.service: name: myapp-legacy state: stopped enabled: false become: true ``` Reload (without restart) ```yaml - name: Reload nginx config ansible.builtin.service: name: nginx state: reloaded become: true ``` Using as a Handler ```yaml tasks: - name: Update nginx config ansible.builtin.template: src: nginx.conf.j2 dest: /etc/nginx/nginx.conf notify: restart nginx become: true handlers: - name: resta