mgr-ansible-ssh - Intelligent, Lightweight CLI for Distributed Remote Execution
an invention by deve5h
Description
By the end of Hack Week, the target will be to deliver a minimal functional version 1 (MVP) of a custom command-line tool named mgr-ansible-ssh (a unified wrapper for BOTH ad-hoc shell & playbooks) that allows operators to:
- Execute arbitrary shell commands on thousand of remote machines simultaneously using Ansible Runner with artifacts saved locally.
- Pass runtime options such as inventory file, remote command string/ playbook execution, parallel forks, limits, dry-run mode, or no-std-ansible-output.
- Leverage existing SSH trust relationships without additional setup.
- Provide a clean, intuitive CLI interface with --help for ease of use. It should provide consistent UX & CI-friendly interface.
- Establish a foundation that can later be extended with advanced features such as logging, grouping, interactive shell mode, safe-command checks, and parallel execution tuning.
The MVP should enable day-to-day operations to efficiently target thousands of machines with a single, consistent interface.
Goals
Primary Goals (MVP):
Build a functional CLI tool (mgr-ansible-ssh) capable of executing shell commands on multiple remote hosts using Ansible Runner. Test the tool across a large distributed environment (1000+ machines) to validate its performance and reliability.
Looking forward to significantly reducing the zypper deployment time across all 351 RMT VM servers in our MLM cluster by eliminating the dependency on the taskomatic service, bringing execution down to a fraction of the current duration. The tool should also support multiple runtime flags, such as:
mgr-ansible-ssh: Remote command execution wrapper using Ansible Runner
Usage: mgr-ansible-ssh [--help] [--version] [--inventory INVENTORY]
[--run RUN] [--playbook PLAYBOOK] [--limit LIMIT]
[--forks FORKS] [--dry-run] [--no-ansible-output]
Required Arguments
--inventory, -i Path to Ansible inventory file to use
Any One of the Arguments Is Required
--run, -r Execute the specified shell command on target hosts
--playbook, -p Execute the specified Ansible playbook on target hosts
Optional Arguments
--help, -h Show the help message and exit
--version, -v Show the version and exit
--limit, -l Limit execution to specific hosts or groups
--forks, -f Number of parallel Ansible forks
--dry-run Run in Ansible check mode (requires -p or --playbook)
--no-ansible-output Suppress Ansible stdout output
Secondary/Stretched Goals (if time permits):
- Add pretty output formatting (success/failure summary per host).
- Implement basic logging of executed commands and results.
- Introduce safety checks for risky commands (shutdown, rm -rf, etc.).
- Package the tool so it can be installed with pip or stored internally.
Resources
Collaboration is welcome from anyone interested in CLI tooling, automation, or distributed systems. Skills that would be particularly valuable include:
- Python especially around CLI dev (argparse, click, rich)
- Knowledge of Ansible /Ansible Runner
- Experience with large-scale cloud infrastructure
- Linux system administration & remote execution patterns
- (Optional) UX for command-line tools (help formatting, ergonomics)
- (Optional) Packaging skills (pip packaging)
Browse the codebase repository here: https://github.com/deve5h/mgr-ansible-ssh
This project is part of:
Hack Week 25
Activity
Comments
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17 days ago by deve5h | Reply
Version 1.0.0 was already functionally complete with clean code. Excited because today, I achieved about 50% of my secondary/stretched goals as well, so I’m tagging this update as v1.0.1. I will update the README.md with additional details on usage and access instructions.
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17 days ago by deve5h | Reply
While there are many but one of the most impactful improvements this tool brings is its performance. Previously, using the mgr-salt-ssh CLI, it often took 2–3 minutes or more to iterate over all 351 RMT servers in our MLM cluster for zypper deployments or get/list API operations. With the new mgr-ansible-ssh CLI developed during Hack Week, this time has been reduced to under 20 seconds, making routine operations dramatically faster and more efficient.
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