Ansible - Ansible-vault

About

ansible-vault is a command line utility that permits to add/get sensitive data (file or property value) into an encrypted format called a vault

Example of sensitive data:

• password
• private keys

When running a playbook, Ansible finds:

• the sensitive variables from an encrypted file / string
• and the other variables in a unencrypted file / string

Encrypted data can include

• group_vars/ or host_vars inventory variables,
• variables loaded by *include_vars* or *vars_files*, or variable files
• variables passed at the command line via the *-e @file.yml* or *-e @file.json* option of ansible-playbook
• Role variables and defaults are also included
• Ansible tasks, handlers, and other objects because they are data
• An individual task file

The vault id used with vault currently must be the same for all files you wish to use together at the same time.

Articles Related

Syntax

Usage: ansible-vault [create|decrypt|edit|encrypt|encrypt_string|rekey|view] [options] [vaultfile.yml]

encryption/decryption utility for Ansible data files

Options:
  --ask-vault-pass      ask for vault password
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --new-vault-id=NEW_VAULT_ID
                        the new vault identity to use for rekey
  --new-vault-password-file=NEW_VAULT_PASSWORD_FILE
                        new vault password file for rekey
  --vault-id=VAULT_IDS  the vault identity to use
  --vault-password-file=VAULT_PASSWORD_FILES
                        vault password file
  -v, --verbose         verbose mode (-vvv for more, -vvvv to enable
                        connection debugging)
  --version             show program's version number and exit

 See 'ansible-vault <command> --help' for more information on a specific
command.

Management

Encrypt

When encrypting content one vault-id can be used.

String

Encrypt a property value. See Ansible - Encrypt a property (password, private key)

File

ansible-vault encrypt

Decrypt

Decrypt-string

Decrypt a property value. See Ansible - Decrypt a property (password, private key)

Run

Password file

• to use a password file dev-password for the label dev:

ansible-playbook --vault-id dev@dev-password site.yml

• Prior to Ansible 2.4 for only one label. Default password file can be specified in a conf. See default-vault-password-file

ansible-playbook --vault-password-file dev-password site.yml

Example

• to use a password store in the text file /path/to/my/vault-password-file:

ansible-playbook --vault-id /path/to/my/vault-password-file site.yml

Prompt

• To prompt for the dev vault id

ansible-playbook --vault-id dev@prompt site.yml
# Prior to Ansible 2.4
ansible-playbook --ask-vault-pass site.yml

Example:

• To prompt for a vault id password:

ansible-playbook --vault-id @prompt site.yml

executable script

To get the password from a vault password executable script my-vault-password.py:

ansible-playbook --vault-id my-vault-password.py

Support

ERROR! Decryption failed (no vault secrets were found that could decrypt) on - for -

Your vault passphrase is not the good one.

Documentation / Reference

• https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/user_guide/vault.html