---
name: schematics-getting-started-ansible-new
title: Using actions to perform configuration management
description: Use one of the IBM® provided Ansible playbooks to start and stop IBM Cloud® Virtual Servers for Virtual Private Cloud.
last-updated: 2025-03-13
---

> ## Documentation Index
> The table of contents for this documentation set is at https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/schematics?format=markdown
> The index for all IBM Cloud docs is at: https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use these files to discover more information as needed.

# Using actions to perform configuration management 
{: #getting-started-ansible}

Use one of the IBM® provided Ansible playbooks to start and stop IBM Cloud® Virtual Servers for Virtual Private Cloud.
{: shortdesc}

An [Ansible playbook](https://www.redhat.com/en/topics/automation/what-is-an-ansible-playbook){: external} is a set of instructions or automation tasks that you can configure to run on a single target host or a group of hosts. You create a Schematics action that points to your playbook and use the built-in Ansible capabilities in to run the instructions in your playbook. For more information about how Schematics runs your Ansible playbooks? see [Configuration management with IBM Cloud Schematics](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/schematics?topic=schematics-how-it-works&format=markdown#how-to-actions).

## Before you begin
{: #ansible-prereq}

Before you can use this Ansible playbook, you must complete the following tasks:

- Make sure that you have the permissions to [Create a Schematics actions](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/schematics?topic=schematics-access&format=markdown#access-roles).
- Create an IBM Cloud® Virtual Private Cloud and a Virtual Servers for VPC. For more information, see [Getting started with Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-creating-a-vpc-using-the-ibm-cloud-console&format=markdown){: external}.

    Note your **Private** or **Floating IP** address of your Virtual Servers for VPC.
    {: note}

## Starting and stopping Virtual Servers for VPC
{: #ansible-vsi}

1. Log in to [IBM Cloud console](https://cloud.ibm.com/){: external}.
2. Click the **Menu** icon ![hamburger icon](images/icon_hamburger.svg) > **Platform Automation** > **Schematics** > [**Ansible**](https://cloud.ibm.com/automation/schematics/ansible){: external}.
3. Enter a name for your action, for example, `Stop_VSIaction`, resource group, and the region where you want to create the action. Then, click **Create** to view the **Details** section.
4. Click **Edit icon** and enter `https://github.com/Cloud-Schematics/ansible-is-instance-actions` in the **GitHub or GitLab repository URL** field.
5. Click **Retrieve playbooks**.
6. Select the **`stop-vsi-playbook.yaml`** playbook. see [floating IP address](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/vpc?topic=vpc-using-instance-vnics&interface=ui&format=markdown#editing-network-interfaces){: external} of the VSI to set your input variable.
7. Expand the **Advanced options**.
8. In the **Define your variables** section, enter `instance_ip` as the **key** and the floating IP address of your Virtual Servers for VPC as the **value**.
9. Click **Save**.
10. Click **Check action** to verify your action details. The **Jobs** page opens automatically and you can view the results of this check by looking at the logs.
11. Click **Run action** to stop the Virtual Servers for VPC. You can monitor the progress of this action by reviewing the logs on the **Jobs** page.
12. Verify that your Virtual Servers for VPC stopped.
    1. From the [Virtual Servers for VPC dashboard](https://cloud.ibm.com/infrastructure/compute/vs){: external}, find your Virtual Servers for VPC.
    2. Verify that your instance shows a `Stopped` status.
13. Optional: Repeat the steps in this getting started tutorial to create another action, and select the **`start-vsi-playbook.yaml`** Ansible playbook to start your Virtual Servers for VPC again.

You used the built-in Ansible capabilities of Schematics to start and stop a Virtual Servers for VPC instance.

## What's next? 
{: #ansible-whats-next}

Now that you ran first operation on an Cloud resource, you can explore the following options:

- Learn how to [create your own Ansible playbooks](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/schematics?topic=schematics-create-playbook&format=markdown).
- Explore other [IBM-provided playbooks](https://github.com/Cloud-Schematics){: external}.
- Set up the Schematics [CLI](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/schematics?topic=schematics-setup-cli&format=markdown) or [API](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/schematics?topic=schematics-setup-api&format=markdown) to start automating the configuration of Cloud resources.