# Parallel execution

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/parallel-execution/21813>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [June 20, 2016, 6:06am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/parallel-execution/21813 "2016-06-20T06:06:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Tom\_De\_Blende](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e19adc/32.png) [@Tom\_De\_Blende](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Tom_De_Blende)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 6:06am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/parallel-execution/21813/1 "2016-06-20T06:06:49Z")

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Hi all,

From the docs, I read that by default, tasks within a playbook are executed in parallel. This behavior can be changed by using the serial directive.

Now I have simple playbook to update Red Hat servers. It looks like this:

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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:** [June 20, 2016, 1:18pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/parallel-execution/21813/2 "2016-06-20T13:18:46Z")

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The parallelization is limited by number of forks (5 by default) you can change this on the command line with -f.

Be mindful that each fork consumes more resources on your controller machine, so you are mostly limited by available resources there.

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**Author:** ![Tom\_De\_Blende](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e19adc/32.png) [@Tom\_De\_Blende](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Tom_De_Blende)\
**Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 1:23pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/parallel-execution/21813/3 "2016-06-20T13:23:00Z")

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Thanks Brian, that is indeed the case.