Ansible {Tools}

From personal use

• pseudo synchronize devices
  • ansible all -a "sudo ntpdate 1.be.be.pool.ntp.org" --ask-sudo-pass
• ansible-playbook -C myPlaybook.yml only check, no actual change done
• ansible-playbook -l targetHost myPlaybook.yml limit the hosts to only the listed ones
• ansible-playbook -D myPlaybook.yml shows diffs
  • great to check short modifications to configuration files

Process so far

1. pick a managing computer (kind of master with its minions)
2. git clone https://github.com/ansible/ansible
   • or apt-get depending on your desire to be on the bleeding edge (devel)
3. add minions to inventory file
4. install sshd on all minions
5. ssh-copy-id to all minions
6. consider for each minion if the Ansible user has to be sudoer or not
7. creating playbooks e.g. lighttpd.yml
   • using become: true to enable privilege escalation
   • using --ask-sudo-pass when running a playbook requiring root
     • cf doc recommending to type the password rather than forcing it somewhere somehow
8. running playbooks

To explore

• Ansible with docker
  • https://www.ansible.com/docker
• OVH DNS wrapper to facilitate migration
  • https://github.com/gheesh/ansible-ovh-dns
• use on AWS instance
  • http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/guide_aws.html
    • see also http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/intro_dynamic_inventory.html#example-aws-ec2-external-inventory-script
• using the vault for sensitive data http://suspicious.website/2015/01/22/testing-ansible-playbooks-with-vagrant/
  • e.g. client side certificate, cf Lighttpd for cloud.benetou.fr
• using vagrant to test playbooks http://suspicious.website/2015/01/22/testing-ansible-playbooks-with-vagrant/
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efR0o1dqtOI
  • http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/guide_vagrant.html
  • https://adamcod.es/2014/09/23/vagrant-ansible-quickstart-tutorial.html
• good practices
  • testing on virtual machines?
  • where to store the seeding files?
  • backup excluded directories?
  • dedicated Ansible user?
• Ansible doc
  • http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/quickstart.html http://www.ansible.com/resources
  • http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/copy_module.html
    • wiki.d
    • dot files
    • probably have to be stored on the master
  • http://docs.ansible.com/git_module.html
    • https://github.com/Utopiah
• Wikipedia:Comparison of open-source configuration management software
  • Ansible
  • Salt

Note

My notes on Tools gather what I know or want to know. Consequently they are not and will never be complete references. For this, official manuals and online communities provide much better answers.