---
title: "How to Add Hosts to Your Ansible Inventory"
description: "Every server you manage with Ansible needs to be added to your Inventory.yml file. Your Ansible inventory organizes these remote hosts into groups for easier configuration within your playbooks...."
url: https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/edu/ansible/add-hosts-to-ansible-inventory/
date: 2020-01-09
modified: 2021-08-16
author: "InMotion Hosting Contributor"
categories: ["Ansible Tutorials"]
type: post
lang: en
---

# How to Add Hosts to Your Ansible Inventory

Every server you manage with [Ansible](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/ansible) needs to be added to your Inventory.yml file. Your Ansible inventory organizes these remote hosts into groups for easier configuration within your playbooks.

Below we cover how to [add hosts to your Ansible inventory](#edit), [sample groups](#sample), and [testing an inventory connection](#test).

Manage your Ansible inventory with our reliable [Cloud Server Hosting](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/cloud-vps).

## Edit Your Ansible Inventory.yml

1. [Log into SSH](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/server/ssh/how-to-login-ssh/)
2. [Navigate to your Ansible directory](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/server/linux/using-the-linux-cd-command/)
3. Edit the inventory.yml file: `nano inventory.yml`
4. Copy both code blocks below within your inventory as needed: Ctrl + V

### Sample Inventory.yml

The `all` group is the first group and includes all hosts listed within your inventory. The `vars` indicator allows global default variables for using the group. The variables in the example below state to connect to remote hosts via **SSH** as user **root**. The `ansible_connection` can be set to any [Ansible connection plugin](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/plugins/connection.html).

```
all:
  vars:
    ansible_connection: ssh
    ansible_user: root
```

Other groups can follow the format below. Keep in mind, there are other ways to [build your Ansible inventory](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/user_guide/intro_inventory.html#adding-variables-to-inventory) with groups and variables. Hosts can be defined as a domain or [server IP address](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/edu/cpanel/how-to-find-your-shared-ip-address-of-your-server-in-cpanel/).

Only one host is required for a playbook to run.

```
group-1:
  hosts:
    domain-1.tld:
      example-var-1: # variable affects domain-1.tld only
    domain-2.tld:
  vars:
    example-var-2: # variable affects all hosts within group
```

## Test Your Inventory

After editing your inventory file, test your Ansible connection to your remote host: `ansible -m ping  -i inventory.yml`

The results should resemble the following:

```
domain.com | SUCCESS => {
   "ansible_facts": {
       "discovered_interpreter_python": "/usr/local/bin/python "
   },
   "changed": false,
   "ping": "pong"
}
```

Learn more about IT automation in our [Ansible Education Channel](https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/ansible/).