Execute .exe on Windows with Ansible - windows

Question

We want to deploy an application on a Windows Server 2012 with Ansible 1.8.2.
I have searched and found a list of modules for Windows. Is there a module to execute a .exe?
Did someone already launch a .exe on Windows with Ansible?

Answer 1

The raw module can work, as others have suggested. One challenge is that it won't "know" if the executable has already been run before. In combination with the win_stat module and the when conditional, you can build a script that detects if something has been installed and runs if not installed. For example, I wanted to install the MSBuild development tools:
- name: Check to see if MSBuild is installed
win_stat: path='C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\12.0\Bin\MSBuild.exe'
register: msbuild_installed
- name: Download MS Build Tools 2013
win_get_url:
url: 'http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/B/B/9BB1309E-1A8F-4A47-72A3B3/BuildTools_Full.exe'
dest: 'c:\temp\BuildTools_Full.exe'
when: not msbuild_installed.stat.exists
- name: Install MS Build Tools 2013
raw: 'c:\temp\BuildTools_Full.exe /Quiet /NoRestart /Full'
when: not msbuild_installed.stat.exists
Note that I found the command line arguments for BuildTools_Full.exe by manually running
.\BuildTools_Full.exe /h

Answer 2

The documentation says 'Note there are a few other Ansible modules that don’t start with “win” that also function, including “slurp”, “raw”, and “setup” (which is how fact gathering works).' (http://docs.ansible.com/intro_windows.html), so I would assume that the 'raw' module (http://docs.ansible.com/raw_module.html) should work (I have no Windows VM currently available to play around):
So please try a playbook with:
- raw: <your .exe>
or an Ansible adhoc command:
ansible <your server> -m raw -a '<your .exe>'

Answer 3

There´s another way (and modules) which is not so obvious in the first place: the win_service module combined with the win_nssm module.
As sfuqua already mentioned, most of the time you want to know the "state" of your application - e.g. if it was already installed, is currently running, stopped and so on. Therefore the concept of a Windows service is a very good solution. And it´s very easy to get such a service through the usage of the Non-Sucking Service Manager (nssm).
With the Ansible win_nssm module that´s a cakewalk:
- name: Install & start application as Windows service (via nssm)
win_nssm:
name: "your_app_name"
application: "{{path_to_your_apps_exe}}"
state: restarted
Now we have a real Windows service and can manipulate the state with the help of the win_service module, just as we are used to from applications running on Linux:
- name: Control app Windows service
win_service:
name: "your_app_name"
state: stopped
This approach frees us of the need to use the raw module (which has some disadvantages, like disabling change handler support) and the troubles to write and maintain scripts for this simple task.

Answer 4

As mentioned here, you can use win_command. But if you need to run an interactive .exe, you may need to run it through PsExec. An example Playbook can then look like this:
- name: Test PsExec
hosts: windows
tasks:
- name: Copy PsExec
win_copy:
src: <WORKING_FOLDER>/PsExec.exe
dest: "{{ ansible_user_dir }}/Desktop/PsExec.exe"
force: no
- name: Run Windows Calculator
win_command: "{{ ansible_user_dir }}/Desktop/psexec.exe -accepteula -nobanner -i 1 -s calc.exe"
register: output
- debug: var=output

Answer 5

I have resolved the issue with psexec
In the Playbook
- name: test raw module
hosts: Windows
gather_facts: false
tasks:
- name: Stop process 01
script: startProcess.ps1
And startProcess.ps1
#Creating the credential for the invoke-command.
$strScriptUser = "COMPUTERNAME\USer"
$strPass = "PASSWORD"
$PSS = ConvertTo-SecureString $strPass -AsPlainText -Force
$cred = new-object system.management.automation.PSCredential $strScriptUser,$PSS
#Invoke-Command to call the psexec to start the application.
invoke-command -Computer "." -Scriptblock {
c:\AnsibleTest\ps\psexec.exe -accepteula -d -h -i 1 -u COMPUTERNAME\USER -p PASSWORD PATH_TO_THE_EXE\PROGRAM.EXE
} -Credential $cred
You need to install the psexec in the remote PC. Switches for the psexec