Execute shell commands using Ansible

Question

I want to check on all my hosts and this command is perfect for it

ansible -m shell -a "ps -eo pcpu,user,args | sort -r -k1 | head -n5"

But the problem is I have to execute it in multiple places and that gets annoying. Can I use this shell command in Ansible playbook? 

Answer 1

You can use a playbook for this obviously, it will definitely make your work easier. You could use this playbook, it worked for me

hosts: all
  gather_facts: no
  tasks:
    - shell: ps -eo pcpu,user,args | sort -r -k1 | head -n5
      register: ps

    - debug: var=ps.stdout_lines

ok: [host1] => {
    "ps.stdout_lines": [
        "%CPU USER     COMMAND",
        " 1.0 root     /usr/bin/python",
        " 0.6 root     sshd: root@ayaan ",
        " 0.2 root     java",
        " 0.0 root     sort -r -k1"
    ]
}
ok: [host2] => {
    "ps.stdout_lines": [
        "%CPU USER     COMMAND",
        " 4.0 root     /usr/bin/python",
        " 0.6 root     sshd: root@ayaan ",
        " 0.1 root     java",
        " 0.0 root     sort -r -k1"
    ]
}