How To - Ansiable Playbook Output - JSON Format

Hello Everyone,

In this blog post lets see how to execute ansible-playbook with custom output format like JSON

Lets say you have a playbook like below

---
- hosts: 127.0.0.1
  gather_facts: false

  tasks:
    - name: execute uptime command
      command: uptimer
      register: result

    - debug: var=result.stdout

And if you execute the playbook with below command

ansible-playbook playbook.yaml

You will get normal ansible standard output format like below

▶ ansible-playbook ansible_uptime.yaml
[WARNING]: No inventory was parsed, only implicit localhost is available
[WARNING]: provided hosts list is empty, only localhost is available. Note that the implicit localhost does not match 'all'

 _______________________________
< TASK [execute uptime command] >
 -------------------------------
      
changed: [127.0.0.1]

ok: [127.0.0.1] => {
    "result.stdout": "12:34  up  4:03, 2 users, load averages: 3.42 3.62 3.10"
}


127.0.0.1 : ok=2    changed=1    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0


~/my_learning/ansible

If you want output in JSON format for example, you can use ANSIBLE_STDOUT_CALLBACK env variable. Set the variable value with respect to output format you want. If its JSON

ANSIBLE_STDOUT_CALLBACK=json ansible-playbook ansible_uptime.yaml

▶ ANSIBLE_STDOUT_CALLBACK=json ansible-playbook ansible_uptime.yaml
[WARNING]: No inventory was parsed, only implicit localhost is available
[WARNING]: provided hosts list is empty, only localhost is available. Note that the implicit localhost does not match 'all'
{
    "custom_stats": {},
    "global_custom_stats": {},
    "plays": [
        {
            "play": {
                "duration": {
                    "end": "2021-10-26T07:06:58.968665Z",
                    "start": "2021-10-26T07:06:58.419247Z"
                },
                "id": "acde4800-1122-4989-e4cc-000000000005",
                "name": "127.0.0.1"
            },
            "tasks": [
                {
                    "hosts": {
                        "127.0.0.1": {
                            "_ansible_no_log": false,
                            "action": "command",
                            "changed": true,
                            "cmd": [
                                "uptime"
                            ],
                            "delta": "0:00:00.008988",
                            "end": "2021-10-26 12:36:58.904425",
                            "invocation": {
                                "module_args": {
                                    "_raw_params": "uptime",
                                    "_uses_shell": false,
                                    "argv": null,
                                    "chdir": null,
                                    "creates": null,
                                    "executable": null,
                                    "removes": null,
                                    "stdin": null,
                                    "stdin_add_newline": true,
                                    "strip_empty_ends": true,
                                    "warn": false
                                }
                            },
                            "msg": "",
                            "rc": 0,
                            "start": "2021-10-26 12:36:58.895437",
                            "stderr": "",
                            "stderr_lines": [],
                            "stdout": "12:36  up  4:05, 2 users, load averages: 3.78 3.54 3.14",
                            "stdout_lines": [
                                "12:36  up  4:05, 2 users, load averages: 3.78 3.54 3.14"
                            ]
                        }
                    },
                    "task": {
                        "duration": {
                            "end": "2021-10-26T07:06:58.942858Z",
                            "start": "2021-10-26T07:06:58.448326Z"
                        },
                        "id": "acde4800-1122-4989-e4cc-000000000007",
                        "name": "execute uptime command"
                    }
                },
                {
                    "hosts": {
                        "127.0.0.1": {
                            "_ansible_no_log": false,
                            "_ansible_verbose_always": true,
                            "action": "debug",
                            "changed": false,
                            "result.stdout": "12:36  up  4:05, 2 users, load averages: 3.78 3.54 3.14"
                        }
                    },
                    "task": {
                        "duration": {
                            "end": "2021-10-26T07:06:58.968665Z",
                            "start": "2021-10-26T07:06:58.949451Z"
                        },
                        "id": "acde4800-1122-4989-e4cc-000000000008",
                        "name": "debug"
                    }
                }
            ]
        }
    ],
    "stats": {
        "127.0.0.1": {
            "changed": 1,
            "failures": 0,
            "ignored": 0,
            "ok": 2,
            "rescued": 0,
            "skipped": 0,
            "unreachable": 0
        }
    }
}

~/my_learning/ansible

Hope it helps.

Thank you.
Raaz