Ansible

Ansible (an IT automation, Configuration Management and Provision tool) is a simple, flexible, and
extremely powerful tool that gives you the ability to automate common infrastructure tasks, run ad
hoc commands, and deploy multitier applications spanning multiple machines.

Main features

● Age tless ● Se u e ● P o isio i g AND deplo e t ● Eas to sta t ● Ide pote t

Controller: This is the only host that needs to have Ansible installed, and works as a controller. This
is used to launch the ansible-playbook commands from the controller.

Ansible is agentless and manages nodes using SSH transport, no additional setup is needed on the
nodes except for ensuring that the SSH service is running.

KEY COMPONENTS

★ Modules (Tools) ★ Tasks ★ Inventory ★ Plays ★ Playbook (Plan)

A playbook consists of one or more plays, which map groups of hosts to well-defined tasks.

YAML – the playbook language:

• The fi st li e of a pla ook should egi ith "--- " (three hyphens) which indicates the beginning
of the YAML document.

• Lists i YAML a e ep ese ted ith a h phe follo ed a white space. A playbook contains a list
of plays; they are represented with "- ". Each play is an associative array, a dictionary, or a map in
terms of key-value pairs.

• I de tatio s a e i po ta t. All e e s of a list should e at the sa e i de tatio le el. • Ea h

play can contain key-value pairs separated by ":" to denote hosts, variables, roles, tasks, and so on.

Creating a host inventory:

Before we even start writing our playbook with Ansible, we need to define an inventory of all hosts
that need to be configured, and make it available for Ansible to use. Later, we will start running plays
against a selection of hosts from this inventory. For text-based local inventory, the default location is
/etc/ansible/hosts.

Tasks:

Plays map hosts to tasks. Tasks are a sequence of actions performed against a group of hosts that
match the pattern specified in a play. Each play typically contains multiple tasks that are run serially
on each machine that matches the pattern.

Modules:

Modules are the encapsulated procedures that are responsible for managing specific system
o po e ts o spe ifi platfo s. Co side the follo i g e a ple: • The apt odule fo De ia a d
the u odule fo RedHat helps a age s ste pa kages • The use odule is responsible for
addi g, e o i g, o odif i g use s o the s ste • The se i e odule ill sta t/stop s ste
services Modules abstract the actual implementation from users. They expose a declarative syntax
that accepts a list of the parameters and states of the system components being managed. All this
can be declared using the human-readable YAML syntax, using key-value pairs.

Bits of code copied to the target system. Executed to satisfy the task declaration.

LIST ALL MODULES

#ansible-doc -l

VIEW MODULE DOCUMENTATION

#ansible-doc <module_name>

The modules and idempotence:

Idempotence is an important characteristic of a module. It is something which can be applied on

your system multiple times, and will return deterministic results. It has built-in intelligence. For
instance, we have a task that uses the apt module to install Nginx and ensure that it's up to date.
Here is what happens if you run it multiple times:

• E e ti e ide pota e is u ultiple ti es, the apt odule ill o pa e hat has been
declared in the playbook versus the current state of that package on the system. The first time it
runs, Ansible will determine that Nginx is not installed, and will go ahead with the installation.

• Fo e e o se ue t u , it ill skip the installation part, unless there is a new version of the
package available in the upstream repositories. This allows executing the same task multiple times
without resulting in the error state. Most of the Ansible modules are idempotent, except for the
command and shell modules. Users will have to make these modules idempotent.
Understanding roles:

Roles provide a way to create modular code, which then can then be shared and reused.

Lab setup:

server1:

# iptables -F

#service iptables stop

# chkconfig iptables

# vi /etc/sysconfig/selinux

SELINUX=disabled

# vi /etc/hosts

IPaddr1 server1

IPaddr2 server2

IPaddr3 server3

#userdd test

# passwd test

# visudo

test ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL

# reboot

Perform above steps on server2 and server3.

server1:

# yum install epel-release

# yum install ansible

# cd /etc/ansible

#mv hosts hosts.bak

#vi hosts

[webserver]
server2

server3

# su – test

$ ssh-keygen

$ ssh-copy-id server2

$ ssh-copy-id server3

Discuss about ad-hoc commands in class.

All the below example run as test user.

Example1:

$ vi webserver.yml

--- # webserver setup

- hosts: webserver

remote_user: test

become: yes

tasks:

- name: installing httpd package

yum: name=httpd state=present

- name: copy index.html

copy: src=index.html dest=/var/www/html

- name: start httpd server

service: name=httpd state=started

$ ansible-playbook webserver.yml

Example2:

$ vi variables.yml

--- # Learning about variables

- hosts: '{{host}}'

remote_user: test

become: yes

vars:

pkg1: httpd

vars_files:

- abc.yml

vars_prompt:

- name: pkg3

prompt: enter package name

private: no

tasks:

- name: installing httpd package

yum: name={{pkg1}} state=present

- name: copy index.html

copy: src=index.html dest=/var/www/html

- name: start httpd server

service: name={{pkg1}} state=started

- name: installing telnet package

yum: name={{pkg2}} state=present

- name: installing user given package

yum: name={{pkg3}} state=present

$ more abc.yml

---

pkg2: telnet

$ ansible-playbook variables.yml –extra-vars hosts=webserver

Example3:
Dealing with errors.

$ vi errors.yml

--- # errors programs

- hosts: webserver

remote_user: test

become: yes

tasks:

- name: installing httpd package

yum: name=httpd1 state=present

ignore_errors: yes

- name: copy index.html

copy: src=index.html dest=/var/www/html

- name: start httpd server

service: name=httpd state=started

$ ansible-playbook errors.yml

Example4:

Handler usage:

● Spe ial task, u s o l if the e as ha ge.

● Usa le fo se i e esta ts, data ase upload, ...

$ vi handler.yml

--- # handler usage

- hosts: webserver

remote_user: test

become: yes

tasks:

- name: installing httpd package

yum: name=httpd state=present

 - name: copy index.html

copy: src=index.html dest=/var/www/html

notify: start httpd service

handlers:

- name: start httpd service

service: name=httpd state=restarted

$ ansible-playbook handler.yml

Example5:

Command,Shell, Raw amd Script modules.

$ vi commands.yml

--- # commands example

- hosts: webserver

remote_user: test

become: yes

tasks:

- name: create a file

command: touch testfile creates=/home/user1/testfile

- name: list of all files

shell: ls > /tmp/abc

- name: create directory

raw: mkdir /home/user1/testdir3 creates=/home/user1/ppp

- name: execute a script

script: ./xyz.sh

$ more xyz.sh

#! /bin/bash
echo "hello" > /home/user1/file1

$ ansible-playbook commands.sh
Example6:

Gathering facts

$ vi fact.yml

--- # gather facts

- hosts: webserver

remote_user: test

become: yes

gather_facts: yes

tasks:

- name: installing httpd package

yum: name=httpd state=present

- name: copy index.html

copy: src=index.html dest=/var/www/html

- name: start httpd server

service: name=httpd state=started

$ ansible-playbook fact.yml

Example7:

$ vi condition.yml

--- # example on condition

- hosts: webserver

remote_user: test

become: yes

tasks:

- name: installing httpd package on Redhat

yum: name=httpd state=present

when: ansible_os_family == "RedHat"

- name: installing httpd package on ubuntu

 yum: name=apache2 state=present

when: ansible_os_family == "Debian"

- name: copy index.html

copy: src=index.html dest=/var/www/html

- name: start httpd server

service: name=httpd state=started

$ ansible-playbook condition.yml

Example8:

$ vi template.yml

--- # template example

- hosts: webserver

remote_user: test

become: yes

tasks:

- name: copy new index.html

template: src=index.html.j2 dest=/tmp/index.html

$ more index.html.j2

hello

{{ansible_hostname}}

World

$ ansible-playbook template.yml

Example 9:

$ vi register.yml

- hosts: webserver

remote_user: test
 become: yes

tasks:

- name: installing httpd package

yum: name=httpd state=present

- name: copy index.html

copy: src=index.html dest=/var/www/html

- name: start httpd server

service: name=httpd state=started

register: result

- debug: var=result

$ ansible-playbook template.yml

Example10:

$ vi tag.yml

--- # tag example

- hosts: webserver

remote_user: test

become: yes

tasks:

- name: installing httpd package

yum: name=httpd state=present

tags:

- install

- name: copy index.html

copy: src=index.html dest=/var/www/html

tags:

- copy

- name: start httpd server

 service: name=httpd state=started

tags:

- service

$ ansible-playbook tag.yml --tags install

Example11:

Loops:

$ vi loops.yml

- hosts: webserver

remote_user: test

become: yes

tasks:

- name: installing packages

yum: name={{item}}httpd state=present

with_items:

- lynx
- telnet
- curl

$ ansible-playbook loops.yml

Example12:

$ vi unarchive.yml

--- # unarchive example

- hosts: server2

remote_user: test

become: yes

tasks:

- name: unarchiving to server 2 for test

 unarchive: src=playbook.tar.gz dest=/home/test

$ ansible-playbook unarchive.yml

Example13:

$ vi url.yml

--- # get url setup

- hosts: server2

remote_user: test

become: yes

tasks:

- name: get url data

get_url: url=http://rediff.com/index.html dest=/home/test/rediff.html

$ ansible-playbook url.yml

Example14:

Roles

$ cd /home/test

$ mkdir roles

$ cd roles; mkdir webservers; cd webservers

$ mkdir {defaults,files,handlers,meta,tasks,templates,vars}

$ cd tasks

$ vi main.yml

---

- name: Install apache package

yum: pkg=httpd state=present

 -name: copy index.html

copy: src=index.html dest=/var/www/html

notify: restart httpd

-name: start httpd service

service: name=httpd state=started

$ cd ../files

$ vi index.html

Checking roles concept

$ cd ../handlers

$ vi main.yml

---

-name: restart httpd

Service: name=httpd state=restarted

$ vi role1.yml

--- # role 1 Webserver setup

- hosts: webserver

remote_user: test

become_method: sudo

become: yes

roles:

- webservers

$ ansible-playbook role1.yml

Example15:

Tomcat installation:

$ vi tomcat.yml
--- # tomcat setup

- hosts: server2

remote_user: test

become: yes

tasks:

- name: remove older version of tomcat

file: path=/usr/local/tomcat state=absent

- name: download tomcat

get_url: url=http://mirror.fibergrid.in/apache/tomcat/tomcat-7/v7.0.78/bin/apache-tomcat-
7.0.78.tar.gz dest=/tmp

- name: create tomcat folder

command: mkdir /usr/local/tomcat

- name: extract archive

unarchive: src=/tmp/apache-tomcat-7.0.78.tar.gz dest=/usr/local/tomcat copy=no

- name: create tomcat users

copy: src=/home/user1/tomcat-users.xml dest=/usr/local/tomcat/apache-tomcat-7.0.78/conf/

- name: start tomcat

command: nohup /usr/local/tomcat/apache-tomcat-7.0.78/bin/startup.sh &

$ ansible-playbook tomcat.yml

Example16:

Ansible-vault can encrypt any structured data.

$ ansible-vault encrypt webserver.yml

$ ansible-playbook webserver.yml --ask-vault-pass

Example 17:

Using an Ansible playbook:

1. Change SELINUX to permissive mode on all your hosts

2. Install HTTPD on your web hosts only

3. Start and Enable HTTPD service on web hosts only if a new httpd package is installed.

4. Copy an motd file saying Welcome to my server! to all your hosts

5. Copy an hello world index.html file to your web hosts in /var/www/html

6. Modify the sshd.conf to set PermitRootLogin at no

Solution:

$ vi sol1.yml

--

- hosts: all

remote_user: test

become: yes

vars:

selinux: permissive

tasks:

- name: Configure selinux to {{ selinux }}

selinux: policy: targeted state: "{{ selinux }}"

- name: Copy motd file

copy: src=motd dest=/etc/motd

-hosts: web

remote_user: test

become: yes

tasks:

- name: Install Apache

yum: name=httpd state=present

notify: Restart Apache

- name: Copy Index.html

copy: src=index.html dest=/var/www/html/index.html

 - name: Set ssh root login at no

lineinfile: dest=/etc/ssh/sshd_config line="PermitRootLogin no" state=present

notify: RestartSSH

handlers:

- name: Restart Apache

service: name=httpd state=restarted enabled=yes

- name: RestartSSH

service: name=sshd state=restarted enable=yes

$ ansible-playbook sol1.yml

Discuss about Ansible Tower and Ansible Galaxy along with other cases in class.