Collections

What is collection?

A Collection is new distribution format to package and deliver all types of Ansible content. It is introduced in Ansible v2.8+ as a tech preview feature.

Requirements

• Ansible 2.8+
• Mazer (It is a new command-line tool for managing Ansible content)

Collection Data Structure

collection_name/
├── README.md
├── galaxy.yml
├── plugins
│   ├─ modules/
│   ├─ module_utils/
│   ├─ inventory/
│   ├─ lookup/
│   └─ callback/
├── tests/
├── playbooks/
└── roles/

More details at here.

Create, Build and Upload Collections

Step 1: Creating Collection

• Create a directory with the name same as Galaxy Namespace name

# mkdir namespace && cd namespace

• Create another directory with required name inside namespace directory and this will be the Collection directory.

# mkdir collection_name && collection_name

NOTE: Namespace and Collection name may only contain alphanumeric characters and underscores. Additionally the namespace cannot start with underscores or numbers and cannot contain consecutive underscores.