Question

How does strategy: free improve performance for network playbook?

Answer 1

The strategy plugin tells Ansible how to order multiple tasks on multiple hosts. Strategy is set at the playbook level.

The default strategy is linear. With strategy set to linear, Ansible waits until the current task has run on all hosts before starting the next task on any host. Ansible may have forks free, but will not use them until all hosts have completed the current task. If each task in your playbook must succeed on all hosts before you run the next task, use the linear strategy.

Using the free strategy, Ansible uses available forks to execute tasks on each host as quickly as possible. Even if an earlier task is still running on one host, Ansible executes later tasks on other hosts. The free strategy uses available forks more efficiently. If your playbook stalls on each task, waiting for one slow host, consider using strategy: free to boost overall performance.