After completing this section, you should be able to run ad hoc commands to execute single, one-time tasks.

An ad hoc command is a single, manually run Ansible task that you want to perform quickly and do not need to save to run again later.

This is the form of an ad hoc command:

ansible host-pattern -m module [-a 'module arguments'] [-i inventory]

When module arguments are enclosed within single or double quote marks, the space that follows the -a option and the arguments is optional.

When are ad hoc commands useful? It depends on the module.

To enable the netconf service on a platform that supports it, run the following command:

[user@host ~]$ ansible -m junos_netconf host-identifier

To test Ansible connectivity and authentication to a managed resource (not ICMP), run the following command:

[user@host ~]$ ansible -m ping host-identifier

To determine if you can reach an IP address from a managed resource (using ICMP), run the following command:

[user@host ~]$ ansible -m ios_ping host-identifier -a "dest=ip-address"

You can pass arguments to modules with the -a option.

[user@host ~]$ ansible -m vyos_command -a "commands='command'" host-identifier

To gather facts about an IOS network device, run the following command:

[user@host ~]$ ansible -m ios_facts ios-device-host-identifier

To gather facts about a JunOS device, run the following command:

[user@host ~]$ ansible -m junos_facts junos-device-host-identifier