AnsibleByExample

Ansible.Windows 3.8.0 - Whats New and How to Test

Beginner
2024-01-013By Luca Berton

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Ansible Foundations to Production — full curriculum
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  2. 2. Installing and Configuring Ansible
  3. 3. Running Ad-Hoc Commands
  4. 4. Writing Your First Playbook
  5. 5. Understanding and Using Modules
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  13. 13. Real-World Automation Examples
  14. 14. Final Project: Deploy a Web Server
  15. 15. Bonus - What's Next with Ansible?
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Ansible.Windows 3.8.0 - Whats New and How to Test

Introduction

ansible.windows is the Ansible Content Collection that ships the core modules and plugins used to manage Windows hosts over WinRM (and PSRP), including file operations, service management, updates, and the win_* family of modules that most Windows-focused playbooks depend on. Version 3.8.0 has just been published to Ansible Galaxy and introduces a new module, two minor feature additions, and one bugfix. This is the first tracked release for this collection on ansiblebyexample.com, so there is no direct comparison against a previous known version, but the changelog for this exact release is detailed below.

Whats New

New Modules

  • win_reboot_info - a new module that retrieves reboot status information for a Windows host. This is useful for checking pending reboot state (e.g. after patching or feature installation) without having to shell out to registry checks manually.

Minor Changes

  • win_copy - diff support has been added when copying single files. Running with --diff will now show the actual file differences for single-file copy operations performed by win_copy and win_template. Copying multiple files at once still does not produce diff output. See issue #16.
  • win_updates - a new maximum_retries_on_failed_updates option has been added to control how many attempts the module makes at installing an update that has been rolled back. This addresses issue #762, where a single failed/rolled-back update could otherwise block the update run.

Bugfixes

  • win_copy - fixed an error that occurred when dest was set to just a filename with no path. In that case the destination is now correctly resolved relative to the working directory set by the connection plugin, instead of raising an error.

Whats Changed at a Glance

ComponentTypeChange
win_reboot_infoNew moduleGet reboot status information for a Windows host
win_copyFeatureDiff support for single-file copies
win_updatesFeaturemaximum_retries_on_failed_updates option
win_copyBugfixFixed error when dest is just a filename

How to Install and Test

Install or upgrade the collection from Ansible Galaxy and confirm the version and new module are available:

# Install the collection at the exact version
ansible-galaxy collection install ansible.windows:==3.8.0

# Or upgrade to the latest available version
ansible-galaxy collection install ansible.windows --upgrade

# Verify the installed version
ansible-galaxy collection list ansible.windows

# Confirm the new win_reboot_info module is available
ansible-doc ansible.windows.win_reboot_info

# Quick smoke test against a Windows host in inventory
ansible windows_host -m ansible.windows.win_reboot_info -i inventory.ini

# Test the new diff support on a single-file copy
ansible windows_host -m ansible.windows.win_copy \
  -a "src=./notes.txt dest=C:\\Temp\\notes.txt" \
  --diff -i inventory.ini

After upgrading, review any playbooks that rely on win_updates and consider setting maximum_retries_on_failed_updates explicitly if the environment has previously seen updates get stuck in a rolled-back state. Playbooks using win_copy with a bare filename in dest should also be re-tested to confirm the corrected destination resolution matches expectations.

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