Ansible: How to get service status by Ansible?

Question

I want to get service like redis-server running status by Ansible.

I know how to use Ansible service module to stop or start system service. But how can I get the current service status?

Answer 1

You can also use the service_facts module.

Example usage:

- name: collect facts about system services
  service_facts:
  register: services_state

- name: Debug
  debug:
    var: services_state

Example output:

...

TASK [Debug] ***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [local] => {
    "services_state": {
        "ansible_facts": {
            "services": {
                "cloud-init-local.service": {
                    "name": "cloud-init-local.service",
                    "source": "systemd",
                    "state": "stopped"
                },
                "firewalld.service": {
                    "name": "firewalld.service",
                    "source": "systemd",
                    "state": "stopped"
                },
                ...
            }
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

Just run the task service: name=httpd state=started with the option --check. This tells you, if the service needs to be started, which means that it is down. If the task shows no change, it is up already.

Example service is down, changed is true, because it needs to be started:

$ ansible -m service -a 'name=rpc/bind state=started' --check host
host | SUCCESS => {
    "changed": true, 
    "msg": "service state changed"
}

Example service is up, changed is false, because nothings need to be done:

$ ansible -m service -a 'name=system-log state=started' --check host
host | SUCCESS => {
    "changed": false, 
    "name": "system-log", 
    "state": "started"
}

Answer 3

A very short program for checking services using ansible -

- name: checking service status
  hosts: www.linuxfoundation.org
  tasks:
  - name: checking service status
    command: systemctl status "{{ item }}"
    with_items:
    - firewalld
    - httpd
    - vsftpd
    - sshd
    - postfix
    register: result
    ignore_errors: yes
  - name: showing report
    debug:
     var: result