ARA
Ansible reporting tool that records playbook runs for easier troubleshooting and analysis via CLI, REST API, and web interface.
What is ARA?
ARA Records Ansible is an open-source reporting and troubleshooting tool for Ansible automation. It captures detailed execution data from ansible and ansible-playbook commands, storing results in databases and providing multiple interfaces for analysis. The tool helps users understand what happened during playbook runs, identify issues, and gain insights into their infrastructure automation.
Ansible users, DevOps engineers, and infrastructure automation teams who need better visibility into their playbook executions. It's particularly valuable for those managing complex Ansible deployments across multiple environments or CI/CD pipelines.
ARA provides comprehensive Ansible reporting without requiring changes to existing playbooks or workflows. Its flexibility—working with various execution methods and offering both local and server-based deployment—makes it accessible for individual users while scalable for team collaboration.
Overview
ARA Records Ansible and makes it easier to understand and troubleshoot.
Use Cases
Best For
- Troubleshooting failed Ansible playbook runs across distributed systems
- Analyzing playbook execution patterns and performance over time
- Auditing infrastructure changes made by Ansible automation
- Sharing playbook run results with team members via a web dashboard
- Aggregating Ansible execution data from multiple CI/CD jobs or servers
- Debugging complex automation workflows involving multiple tools and environments
Not Ideal For
- Environments where minimizing Ansible playbook execution latency is critical
- Teams already using Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform or similar with built-in reporting
- Simple, infrequent Ansible usage where setup overhead outweighs benefits
- Projects requiring real-time alerting and proactive monitoring beyond historical analysis
Pros & Cons
Pros
Records Ansible runs from terminals, scripts, CI/CD platforms, containers, and tools like AWX and Molecule, as stated in the README, ensuring broad applicability.
Supports local SQLite for quick starts and server-based setups with MySQL/PostgreSQL, allowing scalability from individual use to team collaboration with minimal configuration changes.
Provides a CLI, REST API, and self-hosted web interface, enabling users to query and visualize data in ways that fit their workflow, as demonstrated in the getting started examples.
Seamlessly works with Automation Controller, Semaphore, and git forges, enhancing existing Ansible toolchains without disrupting workflows, per the README's tool integration section.
Cons
The callback plugin introduces execution latency, and the README includes a troubleshooting guide for improving playbook recording performance, indicating it's a known trade-off.
Deploying the persistent API server requires container management or Ansible role installation, which can be cumbersome for users unfamiliar with these technologies, as shown in the server setup instructions.
Focuses on post-execution analysis without built-in mechanisms for real-time notifications or proactive monitoring, relying on external integrations for alerting needs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Projects
AWXAWX provides a web-based user interface, REST API, and task engine built on top of Ansible. It is one of the upstream projects for Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform.
Ansible SemaphoreModern UI and powerful API for Ansible, Terraform/OpenTofu/Terragrunt, PowerShell and other DevOps tools.
Ansible Lintansible-lint checks playbooks for practices and behavior that could potentially be improved and can fix some of the most common ones for you
KICSFind security vulnerabilities, compliance issues, and infrastructure misconfigurations early in the development cycle of your infrastructure-as-code with KICS by Checkmarx.
Found a gem we're missing?
Open-Awesome is built by the community, for the community. Submit a project, suggest an awesome list, or help improve the catalog on GitHub.