Ansibleconnect - connect to all hosts from the inventory with one command

Ansible Version	CI Status
2.7
2.8
2.9
2.10

SSH into all hosts in your inventory with one command.

Ansibleconnect creates a bash script based on your ansible inventory. That script will create a new tmux window or session and create a separate pane for each one of your 'sshable' inventory hosts. Inside of each of the panes an ssh connection to the pane's host will be established.

Setup example (on Ubuntu):

sudo apt install tmux
sudo apt install sshpass
pip install ansibleconnect

Usage examples:

Connect to all hosts in inventory:

source <(ansibleconnect -i inventory.yml)

Connect to all hosts from group1 and group2:

source <(ansibleconnect -i inventory.yml -g 'group1:group2')

Connect to all hosts from group1 except for hosts that are also in group2:

source <(ansibleconnect -i inventory.yml -g 'group1:!group2')

Connect to all hosts from inventory except for hosts in group1:

source <(ansibleconnect -i inventory.yml -g '!group1')

Connect to all hosts that have AWS provider:

source <(ansibleconnect -i inventory.yml -vars provider:aws)>

NOTE: In case you don't use bash. You can also use eval command, for example:

eval "$(ansibleconnect -i inventories/inventory.yml)"

Possible flags

• -i, --inventory - Path to ansible inventory
• -g, --groups - Inventory groups of hosts to connect to (multiple groups should be concentrated with :. ! in front of group name means that ansibleconnect should not connect to hosts form this group). Example: -g computes:!storage
• --hosts - List of hostnames to connect to. Example: --hosts hostA,hostB
• -vars, --variables - Variables that host should have defined in inventory to connect to it. Accepted format: key:value in case where host should have variable with specific value or key in case where host should have defined variable no matter what value. Example: -v type:dev,team:ui
• -novars, --no-variables - Variables that host should not have defined in inventory to connect to it. Accepted format: key:value in case where host should not have variable with specific value or key in case where host should not have defined variable no matter what value.Example: -novars type:prod,team:sales
• -w, --windows - If present, then the output tmux command will create new window for each host session instead of a new pane

Configuration

Ansibleconnect looks for the ansible.cfg file in the same locations as ansible.

Authentication

ssh-agent

For authentication one can use ssh keys. ansibleconnect will scan the inventory file for connection options (ansible_ssh_common_args, ansible_ssh_user, ansible_host, ansible_private_key_file, etc.). Ssh keys can be passed via them. Otherwise, one can use the ssh-agent tool. Environment args (SSH_AGENT_PID and SSH_AUTH_SOCK) will be passed to each one of the tmux shells.

ssh-agent setup example

eval $(ssh-agent)
ssh-add ~/.ssh/my_private_key.pem

sshpass

If ansible_ssh_pass variable is used in the inventory, one should install the sshpass and make it discoverable via PATH. Please note that when using the sshpass, password will passed in plaintext and it will be saved in each of the tmux shells' history.