diff --git a/docs/fact_cache.md b/docs/fact_cache.md index 4026eff334..d1716d8aec 100644 --- a/docs/fact_cache.md +++ b/docs/fact_cache.md @@ -3,13 +3,13 @@ Tower can store and retrieve per-host facts via an Ansible Fact Cache Plugin. Th ## Tower Fact Cache Implementation Details ### Tower Injection -In order to understand the behavior of Tower as a fact cache you will need to understand how fact caching is achieved in Tower. Upon a Job invocation with `use_fact_cache=True`, Tower will inject, into memcached, all `ansible_facts` associated with each Host in the Inventory associated with the Job. The cache key is of the form `inventory_id-host_name` so that hosts with the same name in different inventories do not clash. A list of all hosts in the inventory is also injected into memcached with key `inventory_id` and value `[host_name1, host_name2, ..., host_name3]`. +In order to understand the behavior of Tower as a fact cache you will need to understand how fact caching is achieved in Tower. Upon a Job invocation with `use_fact_cache=True`, Tower will inject, into memcached, all `ansible_facts` associated with each Host in the Inventory associated with the Job. Jobs invoked with `use_fact_cache=False` will not inject `ansible_facts` into memcached. The cache key is of the form `inventory_id-host_name` so that hosts with the same name in different inventories do not clash. A list of all hosts in the inventory is also injected into memcached with key `inventory_id` and value `[host_name1, host_name2, ..., host_name3]`. ### Ansible plugin usage -The fact cache plugin running in Ansible will connect to the same memcached instance. A `get()` call to the fact cache interface in Ansible will result in a looked into memcached for the host-specific set of facts. A `set()` call to the fact cache will result in an update to memcached record along with the modified time. +The Ansible fact cache plugin that ships with Tower will only be enabled on Jobs that have fact cache enabled, `use_fact_cache=True`. The fact cache plugin running in Ansible will connect to the same memcached instance. A `get()` call to the fact cache interface in Ansible will result in a looked into memcached for the host-specific set of facts. A `set()` call to the fact cache will result in an update to memcached record along with the modified time. ### Tower Cache to DB -When a Job finishes running that has `use_fact_cache=True` enabled, Tower will go through memcached and get all records for the hosts in the Inventory. Any records with update times newer than the database per-host `ansible_facts_modified` value will result in the `ansible_facts`, `ansible_facts_modified` from memcached being saved to the database. +When a Job finishes running that has `use_fact_cache=True` enabled, Tower will go through memcached and get all records for the hosts in the Inventory. Any records with update times newer than the database per-host `ansible_facts_modified` value will result in the `ansible_facts`, `ansible_facts_modified` from memcached being saved to the database. Note that the last value of the Ansible fact cache is retained in `ansible_facts`. The globla timeout and/or individual job template `use_fact_cache` setting will not clear the per-host `ansible_facts`. ### Caching Behavior Tower will always inject the host `ansible_facts` into memcached. The Ansible Tower Fact Cache Plugin will choose to present the cached values to the user or not based on the per-host `ansible_facts_modified` time and the global `ANSIBLE_FACT_CACHE_TIMEOUT`.