Ansible Files

• In DevOps Pipelines, it will necessary to download/copy the package built by build system (Maven, Msbuild, make) to the Node.
• To Download the file into node use module get_url
• To copy the file from ACS to node use copy
• Now lets use the same lamp playbook and create a file called as info.php with following contnets

<?php
phpinfo();
?>

• Now lets add the copy module to the existing playbook

---
- hosts: webservers
  become: yes
  tasks:
    - name: fail if it is unsupported os
      fail:
        msg: This playbook is supported only on redhat and debain variants
      when: ansible_facts['os_family'] != "RedHat" and ansible_facts['os_family'] != "Debian"
    - name: install apache
      package: 
        name: "{{ package_name }}"
        state: present
      notify:
        - restart and enable apache
    - name: printing php modules
      debug:
        var: php_modules
    - name: install php modules
      package:
        name: "{{ item }}"
        state: present
      loop: "{{ php_modules }}"
    - name: copy the home page
      copy:
        src: info.php
        dest: /var/www/html/info.php
      notify:
        - restart and enable apache
    #- name: Download info php page
    #  get_url:
    #    url: https://qt-s3-new-testing.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/info.php
    #    dest: /var/www/html/info.php
    #  notify:
    #    - restart and enable apache
  handlers:
    - name: restart and enable apache
      service:
        name: "{{ package_name }}"
        enabled: yes
        state: restarted

Exercise

• Create a file called as Readme.txt in the root folder.
• The contents of the file should be

Create by Ansible
Os family is <os >
Os distribution is <distribution>
version is <version>

Solution to above Exercise

• Whenever you have dynamic values, ansible has a templating system which is widely used in python based developments. That templating system is Jinja
• Jinja templates are the files with extension .j2
• Lets try to solve the above situation
• Create a Readme.txt.j2 file with following content

Create by Ansible
Os family is {{ ansible_os_family }}
Os distribution is {{ ansible_distribution }}
version is {{ ansible_distribution_version }}

• Write a simple playbook with following content

---
- hosts: all
  tasks:
  - name: copy the readme
    template:
      src: Readme.txt.j2
      dest: "{{ ansible_user_dir }}/Readme.txt"

• Run this playbook and check the results
• In the J2 file facts and variables (user defined) can be used.
• Individual find and replaces can be done with a module lineinfile

Pre-Tasks and Post-Tasks

• Pre-Tasks are the tasks which get executed before execution of tasks
• Post-Tasks are the tasks which get executed after execution of tasks

---
- hosts: all
  become: yes
  pre_tasks:
    - name: write a message
      debug:
        msg: "Starting Execution of Playbook"
  tasks:
    - name: install tree
      package:
        name: tree
        state: present
  post_tasks:
    - debug:
        msg: Playbook execution completed

How to Reuse Playbooks

• You already have lamp.yaml, now you want to use same lamp installation along with some other configurations
• You can call existing playbooks using include or import playbooks. Refer
• Lets write a simple playbook to call other playbook

---
- hosts: all
  become: yes
  tasks:
   - name: call lamp playbook
     import_playbook: lamp.yaml
   - name: install mysql
     package:
       name: mysql-server
       state: present

Ansible roles

• Its all about reusability
• Using others automation efforts in ansible is simplified using roles
• Any user can share the work by converting playbook to ansible role and submit to ansible community. Ansible community which shares these roles is Ansible Galaxy
• As an example lets install java using Ansible Galaxy role. Refer Here
• Download the Ansible Role by executing ansible-galaxy install geerlingguy.java
• Now to install java lets write a playbook

--- 
- hosts: all 
  become: yes
  roles:
    - role: geerlingguy.java

Creating Ansible Roles

• Sample folder structure
  • playbooks
    • roles
      • rolename
• Login into the ACS and create a new directory called roles and execute the following command

ansible-galaxy init lamp

• Now use lamp playbook to copy tasks in to tasks\main.yml, and do the same for handlers
• if you have any files or templates copy them in files or templates folder
• Now cd into playbooks folder and create one more folder called as environments
  • playbooks
    • roles
      • lamp (folder)
    • environments
      • DEV (file)
      • TEST (file)
      • UAT (file)
    • myplaybook.yml
• Edit myplaybook.yml file with

---
- hosts: webservers
  become: yes
  roles:
    - role: lamp

• To create DEV Environment execute

ansible-playbook -i environments/DEV  myplaybook.yml