ARA Records Ansible

ARA Records Ansible records the results of Ansible runs and turns them into searchable reports to help you understand, audit, and troubleshoot automation. It can run locally for single-user workflows or as a centralized API server to aggregate runs from many machines and CI jobs.

Key Features

• Records ansible and ansible-playbook executions using an Ansible callback plugin
• Stores run data in SQLite, MySQL, or PostgreSQL
• Web reporting interface for browsing playbooks, hosts, tasks, and results
• REST API for querying recorded data and integrating with other systems
• CLI for listing and inspecting recorded runs without relying on the web UI
• Supports many execution contexts (local terminal, containers, CI/CD, AWX/Automation Controller, Molecule, ansible-runner)

Use Cases

• Troubleshoot failed playbooks by drilling into task results and host-level details
• Centralize visibility into automation runs across CI pipelines and multiple environments
• Maintain an audit trail of what automation changed and when

Limitations and Considerations

• The callback plugin must be installed for the same Python interpreter used by Ansible
• Recording high-volume playbooks can require tuning (for example, excluding unneeded data) and choosing an appropriate database backend

ARA is a practical reporting layer for Ansible that works for both local-first workflows and shared dashboards. It is especially useful when you need consistent run history and fast investigation across many playbook executions.