Anyone who has ever attempted to create some sort of automation code, whether via Bash or Perl scripts, knows that being able to define variables is an essential component. While Ansible does not compare to other programming languages mentioned, it does contain some core programming language features, such as variable substitution.
To start, let's first define the meaning of variables and use it in the event that this is a new concept. Wikipedia defines it as:
Variable (computer science), a symbolic name associated with a value and whose associated value may be changed.
Using a variable allows you to set a symbolic placeholder in your automation code that you can substitute values for, on each execution. Ansible accommodates defining variables within your playbooks and roles in various ways. When dealing with OpenStack and/or cloud technologies in general, being able to adjust your execution parameters on the fly is critical.
We will see a few ways in which you can...