Plan instance

The second stage is creating a Plan instance. While Template contains unfilled variables (therefore the name "template"), Plan instance fills these things in by combining the template with an inventory file. This file contains all information that needs to be filled in the template. After instantiation, everything is ready to create a Run.

Warning

After creating the Plan instance only the Execution variables can be left unfilled and must be explicitly defined as a string.

Inventory files

When you create a template, you don't always have all the information you need for directly executing it. Or you simply want to make it reusable for other people in their environment. To provide variability in templates we support inventory files. These inventory files can be used to provide variable values to templates using Jinja language.

A valid Plan file is written in YAML format with variables in the Jinja format, which have to be replaced during the instantiation process.

Inventory file example:

names:
  stage1_target: 192.168.56.102

Template example:

  # Stage two: target is web server
  - target: {{names.stage1_target}}