# How do I record just what ansible is doing

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-do-i-record-just-what-ansible-is-doing/23886>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [March 5, 2017, 1:33am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-do-i-record-just-what-ansible-is-doing/23886 "2017-03-05T01:33:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![David\_Brendlinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ccd318/32.png) [@David\_Brendlinger](https://forum.ansible.com/u/David_Brendlinger)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2017, 1:33am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-do-i-record-just-what-ansible-is-doing/23886/1 "2017-03-05T01:33:25Z")

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writing scripts and trying them in a sandbox environment is one thing however …

If I run Ansible in a production environment and someone wants to know exactly what I have changes, they are going to want some kind of log or history of what the playbook has done.

How do I record just what ansible has done to each host ?

Regards

timfox123

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**Author:** ![Madhu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a8b319/32.png) [@Madhu](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Madhu)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2017, 2:02am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-do-i-record-just-what-ansible-is-doing/23886/2 "2017-03-05T02:02:38Z")

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You can mention the log\_path= in the ansible.cfg file. The playbook run logs will be saved in the log file you mentioned.

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**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2017, 4:12pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-do-i-record-just-what-ansible-is-doing/23886/3 "2017-03-06T16:12:43Z")

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You can use callbacks to log to a database/syslog/file/etc, some  
existing plugins do this or you can add your own.

By default ansible logs any actions to the target's machine syslog/journal.

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**Author:** ![Spike1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@Spike1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Spike1)\
**Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 3:17pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-do-i-record-just-what-ansible-is-doing/23886/4 "2017-03-07T15:17:11Z")

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Tim,

just the other day I found this openstack’s project called Ara which you can use standalone and is basically what Brian was referring to, a callabck plugin. I haven’t tried it yet, but looks very promising, not just recording everything that happened, but also providing a very nice interface to review the changes.

[https://github.com/openstack/ara](https://github.com/openstack/ara)

That said for my own setup I’m experimenting with rundeck which should be able to collect all the output along with providing access control to the jobs and a record of who initiated it.

best,

Spike