Ansible win_ping Module: Test Windows Host Connectivity (Examples) — Video Tutorial

How to test Windows host availability? Today we're going to talk about the simplest way to test if a Windows-managed host is available to receive our commands. I'm Luca Berton and welcome to today's episode of Ansible Pilot. Ansible module win_ping Today we're talking about Ansible module win_ping. The full name is `ansible.windows.win_ping`, which means that is part of the collection of the "windows" modules of ansible. Previously was part of the built-in collection. It's a module pretty stable and out for years. It verifies the ability of Ansible to login to the managed host and that there is a shell, usually PowerShell, that is able to execute our code. So it's pretty different for the ping in the network context. It's the Windows corresponding to the [Ansible ping module](/articles/test-host-availability-ansible-module-ping). Main Parameters - data _string_ - pong Main Return Values - ping _string_ success pong People usually don't specify any parameters or use the return value. The `win_ping` module usually delivers the `pong` text to the endpoint. It's possible to personalize the text using the "data" parameter. The return value is the "ping" string, that contains the same string of the data input parameter. If we keep the default value we are going to use "pong" as a parameter and as the return value. ## Playbook Are you ready to make your hands dirty? Let's jump in a quick live Playbook of a playbook about the win_ping module. - win_ping.yml ```yaml --- - name: win_ping module Playbook hosts: all become: false gather_facts: false tasks: - name: test connection ansible.windows.win_ping: ``` [code with ❤️ in GitHub](https://github.com/lucab85/ansible-pilot/tree/master/test%20host%20availability) Conclusion Now you know better the Ansible module win_ping and you could use it successfully in your playbook. Testing Windows Connectivity Basic win_ping test ```bash ansible windows_hosts -m ansible.windows.win_ping -i inventory.yml ``` Expected output: ``` win-server1 | SUCCESS => { "changed": false, "ping": "pong" } ``` win_ping in a playbook ```yaml --- - name: Test Windows connectivity hosts: windows tasks: - name: Ping Windows hosts ansible.windows.win_ping: register: ping_result - name: Show result ansible.builtin.debug: var: ping_result ``` Windows Inventory Setup ```yaml inventory.yml all: children: windows: hosts: win-server1: ansible_host: 192.168.1.100 win-server2: ansible_host: 192.168.1.101 vars: ansible_user: Administrator ansible_password: "{{ vault_win_password }}" ansible_connection: winrm ansible_winrm_transport: ntlm ansible_winrm_server_cert_validation: ignore ansible_port: 5986 # HTTPS ``` Troubleshooting Connection Failures Error: "winrm or requests is not installed" ```bash pip install pywinrm ``` Error: "connection refused" or time