Ansible Execution Environments and ansible-navigator

Bonus: Beyond the Blueprint / Guide 42 of 45 / Advanced

• OSUbuntu 26.04 LTS
• ansible-core2.20.1
• Python3.14.4
• TimeAbout 17 min

ansible-navigator needs a container runtime - podman here, docker also works with --ce docker. The image used is community-ee-minimal at 445MB; Red Hat's supported images are larger and require a registry login. --pp never stops it re-pulling on every run, which matters on a slow link.

This guide includes

Use this when the control node's own Python is the problem. This matters because an execution environment is the control node packaged as a container image - so the collections and dependencies travel with the playbook.

• naming the problem an execution environment actually solves
• checking the container runtime, and the tool that drives it
• looking inside the image, since it is only a container
• running a playbook inside it
• moving the flags into a config file, and finding what the container can and cannot see

Before you start

• A control node with podman, ansible-navigator and an EE image already pulled - the session installs none of them, it uses them.
• This guide changes nothing on the managed nodes.

1. 1

   The configuration this guide assumes

2. 2

   The problem it solves

3. 3

   A container runtime and the tool

4. 4

   What is inside one

5. 5

   Running a playbook inside it

6. 6

   The config file that saves the flags

7. 7

   What the container can and cannot see

Official sources

• ansible-navigator documentation
• Execution environments
• ansible-builder