ci: Update ansible-core to 2.18 in CI

The ansible-core version used in the CI pipelines has been updated
from 2.16 to 2.18 to keep the testing environment current.

Additionally, the pull request pipeline has been enhanced to test
against the specific ansible-core versions that are packaged with the
latest stable distributions. This will help ensure that the roles remain
compatible with the versions users are likely to have installed.

Signed-off-by: Rafael Guterres Jeffman <rjeffman@redhat.com>

infra/azure/azure-pipelines.yml

@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ pool:
   vmImage: 'ubuntu-24.04'
 
 variables:
-  ansible_version: "-core >=2.16,<2.17"
+  ansible_version: "-core >=2.18,<2.19"
   ansible_latest: "-core"
   ansible_minimum: "-core <2.16"
   distros: "fedora-latest,c9s,c10s,fedora-rawhide"
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ stages:
 # Supported distros
 
 - ${{ each distro in split(variables.distros, ',') }}:
-  - stage: ${{ replace(distro, '-', '_') }}_ansible_2_16
+  - stage: ${{ replace(distro, '-', '_') }}_ansible_2_18
     dependsOn: []
     jobs:
     - template: templates/group_tests.yml
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ stages:
 
 # Galaxy on Fedora
 
-- stage: galaxy_fedora_latest_ansible_2_16
+- stage: galaxy_fedora_latest_ansible_2_18
   dependsOn: []
   jobs:
   - template: templates/group_tests.yml

infra/azure/nightly.yml

@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ variables:
   distros: "fedora-latest,fedora-rawhide,c10s,c9s,c8s"
   ansible_latest: "-core"
   ansible_minimum: "-core <2.16"
-  ansible_version: "-core >=2.16,<2.17"
+  ansible_version: "-core >=2.18,<2.19"
 
 stages:
 

infra/azure/pr-pipeline.yml

@@ -5,16 +5,27 @@ trigger:
 pool:
   vmImage: 'ubuntu-24.04'
 
+parameters:
+  # Not really a parameter, but variables cannot be arrays or dicts
+  # This maps the distro LATEST version to the avaiable ansible-core
+  # version of the latest released compose.
+  - name: "distro_ansible_map"
+    type: object
+    default:
+    - { distro: "c8s", ansible_version: "2.16" }
+    - { distro: "c9s", ansible_version: "2.14" }
+    - { distro: "c10s", ansible_version: "2.16" }
+
 variables:
-  distros: "fedora-latest,c10s,c9s,c8s,fedora-rawhide"
-  ansible_version: "-core >=2.15,<2.16"
+  distros: "fedora-latest,c10s,c9s,fedora-rawhide"
+  ansible_version: "-core >=2.18,<2.19"
 
 stages:
 
-# Test with repository in all distros
+# Test with repository in all "current" distros
 
 - ${{ each distro in split(variables.distros, ',') }}:
-  - stage: ${{ replace(distro, '-', '_') }}_ansible_2_16
+  - stage: ${{ replace(distro, '-', '_') }}_ansible_2_18
     dependsOn: []
     jobs:
     - template: templates/run_tests.yml
@@ -27,7 +38,7 @@ stages:
 
 # Galaxy on Fedora
 
-- stage: galaxy_fedora_latest_ansible_2_16
+- stage: galaxy_fedora_latest_ansible_2_18
   dependsOn: []
   jobs:
   - template: templates/run_tests.yml
@@ -37,3 +48,18 @@ stages:
       ansible_version: ${{ variables.ansible_version }}
       skip_git_test: false
       test_galaxy: true
+
+
+# Test with pinned ansible version for the distro
+
+- ${{ each config in parameters.distro_ansible_map }}:
+  - stage: ${{ config.distro }}_distro_ansible_${{ replace(config.ansible_version, '.', '_') }}
+    dependsOn: []
+    jobs:
+    - template: templates/run_tests.yml
+      parameters:
+        build_number: $(Build.BuildNumber)
+        distro: ${{ config.distro }}
+        ansible_version: -core==${{ config.ansible_version }}
+        skip_git_test: false
+        test_galaxy: false