How to create Custom facts on Windows servers

[dmccuk]

Talk title

Ansible on Windows! Create and collect custom facts from Windows servers using PowerShell.

Talk Description

With Windows being a massive growth area for Ansible, this talk will show you how to collect standard facts and create entirely new custom facts on remote windows servers. Custom facts allow us to target very specific server conditions in our Ansible Playbooks. Either store them locally to discover valuable information about your estate, or use them in your playbooks as conditionals to run specific tasks. Creating custom facts on Windows is a great tool to add to your Ansible Armoury, and it's not as hard as you think to get started.

Estimated Duration

20-25 minutes

Twitter Handle

@London_iac

Sponsorship

It's only me but I'm happy to buy a round of drinks.

[gundalow]

Dennis,
Thanks.
We will have Chocolatey presenting on 14th December, so maybe we can get this lined up for Jan/Feb?

FYI, we are hoping to have a larger Ansible presence at cfgmgmtcamp first week of Feb 2023

[dmccuk]

No worries! I'm always happy to talk about Ansible and the things I find useful. Jan/Feb would be perfect.

[gundalow]

Hi,
The Ansible London Meetup is back in-person. I know you made this kind offer to present many years ago, though the next meetup is Thursday 21st November, would you be interested in giving this talk then?

[dmccuk]

Hi John, I'd be more than happy to still give the talk. I'll need to make some small updates as some things have changed a little, but it's not a problem.

[gundalow]

@dmccuk Thanks for the quick reply.
I know you've got a few talk ideas, is How to create Custom facts on Windows servers still the one you've like to give?

FYI, we are looking for some Ansible Talks at cfgmgmtcamp in February we are planning on having a dedicated Ansible Contributors Summit day there as well.

[dmccuk]

@gundalow I'm still happy to give that talk, but I'm also working on another talk titled "How ansible saved my ass...(multiple times)" It will be more of a collection of incidents from my past where I've been able to bring the power of ansible to the fore and resolve some fairly large issues.

That talk would probably go down quite well in a room full of IT folk. It's not ready just yet, but I'd be happy to do the new talk instead of the custom windows facts talk.

let me know what you think.

[gundalow]

@dmccuk which ever talk you'd like. You are first to respond, so you can pick.

[dmccuk]

ok. Pencil me in for a talk on the 21st November. I'll work on the new talk and confirm which one it will be in the next week or so. Is that ok?

[gundalow]

Perfect. Thanks

[gundalow]

@dmccuk Did you get a chance to come up with a title and short description of your Thu, Nov 21, 2024 talk yet?

[gundalow]

@dmccuk You able to present on Thursday 21st November?
Don't worry if not, we've got another potential speaker