Question

A network engineer maintains an Ansible playbook that configures VLANs on Cisco IOS XE switches using the cisco.ios collection. Before a scheduled maintenance window, the change-management team requires proof of exactly what changes the playbook would apply to production—without altering any device configuration. The engineer wants to run the existing playbook unchanged and produce a per-task report of predicted modifications. Which approach satisfies this requirement?

Accepted Answer

Run the playbook with the --check and --diff flags so tasks execute in check mode and report predicted configuration changes without pushing them

Answer

Add 'ignore_errors: true' to each task and run the playbook normally, then review the failed-task output

Answer

Set 'gather_facts: false' and run the playbook with the -vvvv verbosity flag to capture the config that would be sent

Answer

Run the playbook with the --syntax-check flag to validate what the modules will configure on the switches