ansible/async.md

Async

Run tasks asynchronously to avoid blocking:

Key Parameters

• async: Maximum number of seconds to wait for the task to complete
• poll: Number of seconds to wait between checks (0 means no polling)

Example Playbook

- name: Restart service asynchronously
  service:
    name: apache2
    state: restarted
  async: 10
  poll: 0

# Check async task status:
# ansible-playbook site.yml --check

Best Practices

1. Use async for long-running tasks (e.g., backups, migrations)
2. Combine with ignore_errors: yes for resilient task execution
3. Monitor task status using async_status module
4. Use --check flag to simulate async operations

Troubleshooting

• Check task output with --verbosity=2
• Use async_status to track task progress:

  - name: Check async task status
    async_status:
      jid: "{{ async_jid }}"
    register: task_result