Ansible - Hands on Training

Agenda
● Fundamentals
● Key Components
● Best practices
● Spring Boot REST API Deployment
● CI with Ansible
● Ansible for AWS
● Provisioning a Docker Host
● Docker&Ansible

Mehmet Ali Aydın
DevOps Engineer
@maayd_in

DevOps & MicroServices
Consultancy
We consult you move towards Containerization, Automated
Provisioning, Deployment/Release Automation, Test
Automation, Performance Tuning and moving to Cloud…
blog.kloia.com
@kloia_com
kloia.co.ukkloia.com

Fundamentals
● What is Ansible?
● Why Ansible?
● Terms
○ Inventory
○ Host
○ Group
○ Playbook
○ Play
○ Task
○ Modules
○ Library

What is Ansible?
● Radically simple IT automation engine that automates
○ Cloud provisioning
○ Configuration management
○ Application deployment
○ Intra-service orchestration

Why Ansible?
● Simple
○ Easy to write, read, maintain and evolve- without writing
scripts or custom code
● Fast to learn and setup
○ It uses a very simple language (YAML, in the form of
Ansible Playbooks) that allow you to describe your
automation jobs in a way that approaches plain English.

Why Ansible?
● Efficient
○ Doesn't require a custom agent or software to install
○ Ansible works by connecting to your nodes and pushing
out small programs, called "Ansible modules" to them.
● Secure
○ No agent
○ Runs on OpenSSH

Inventory
Ansible works against multiple systems in your infrastructure at
the same time. It does this by selecting portions of systems listed
in Ansible’s inventory file, which defaults to being saved in the
location /etc/ansible/hosts.
[webservers]
192.168.35.140
192.168.35.141
192.168.35.142
192.168.35.143
[appservers]
192.168.100.1
192.168.100.2
192.168.100.3
[dbservers]
172.35.0.5

Host
A host is simply a remote machine that Ansible manages. They
can have individual variables assigned to them, and can also be
organized in groups.
[webservers]
192.168.35.140
192.168.35.141
192.168.35.142
192.168.35.143
[appservers]
192.168.100.1
192.168.100.2
192.168.100.3
[dbservers]
172.35.0.5

Group
A group consists of several hosts assigned to a pool that can be
conveniently targeted together, and also given variables that they
share in common.
[webservers]
192.168.35.140
192.168.35.141
192.168.35.142
192.168.35.143
[appservers]
192.168.100.1
192.168.100.2
192.168.100.3
[dbservers]
172.35.0.5

Playbook
Playbooks are the language by which Ansible orchestrates,
configures, administers, or deploys systems. Playbooks contain
Plays.
Install application server and database server
Install & Start Apache Tomcat Install & Start MySQL & Import Data
Install Java Install Tomcat Install MySQL Import Data

Play
A play is a mapping between a set of hosts selected by a host
specifier and the tasks which run on those hosts to define the
role that those systems will perform.

Task
Tasks combine an action with a name and optionally some other
keywords (like looping directives). Tasks call modules .

Module
Modules are the units of work that Ansible ships out to remote
machines. Ansible refers to the collection of available modules as
a library.
Install Java
Download Oracle JDK
get_url:
url:http://download.oracle.com
dest:jdk-1.8.0-linux-x64.rpm
Install Oracle JDK
yum:
name:
jdk-1.8.0-linux-x64.rpm
state: present

Library
A collection of modules made available to /usr/bin/ansible or an
Ansible playbook.

Install Ansible
# install the epel-release RPM if needed on CentOS, RHEL, or Scientific Linux
$ sudo yum install ansible
Latest Release via Yum
$ sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
$ sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ansible/ansible
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install ansible
Latest Release via Apt

Install Ansible
$ sudo easy_install pip
$ sudo pip install ansible
Latest Release via Pip

Control Machine System Requirements
Currently Ansible can be run from any machine with Python 2.6
or 2.7 installed (Windows isn’t supported for the control
machine).

Node Machine System Requirements
On the managed nodes, you need a way to communicate, which
is normally ssh. By default this uses sftp. If that’s not available,
you can switch to scp in ansible.cfg.
You also need Python 2.4 or later. If you are running less than
Python 2.5 on the remotes, you will also need:
● python-simplejson

Install Ansible
$ git clone https://github.com/maaydin/ansible-tutorial.git
$ cd ansible-tutorial
Let’s start with cloning the repository we will walk during the trainig
$ vagrant up
$ vagrant ssh control
$ sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
$ sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ansible/ansible
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install ansible
Provision the Control Machine and install ansible

Validate Ansible Installation
$ ansible --version
ansible 2.2.0.0
config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
configured module search path = Default w/o overrides
Check the ansible version

Ad-Hoc Commands on Local Machine
$ ansible -m ping localhost
[WARNING]: provided hosts list is empty, only localhost is available
localhost | SUCCESS => {
"changed": false,
"ping": "pong"
}
Ping the localhost

Inventory Concepts
● Hosts & Groups
● Host & Group Variables
● Groups of Groups
● Inventory Parameters
● Dynamic Inventory

Hosts & Groups
The format for /etc/ansible/hosts is an INI-like format and looks
like this:mail.example.com
[webservers]
foo.example.com
bar.example.com
[dbservers]
one.example.com
two.example.com
three.example.com

Hosts & Groups
Different SSH port:
web1:2222
Using aliases:
web2 ansible_port=22 ansible_host=192.168.35.102
Ranges:
[webservers]
www[01:50].example.com

Host & Group Variables
Assign variables to hosts that will be used later in playbooks
[webservers]
web1 http_port=80 https_port=443
web2 http_port=8080 https_port=8443
Variables can also be applied to an entire group at once
[webservers:vars]
ntp_server=tr.pool.ntp.org
proxy=proxy.example.com

Groups of Groups
To make groups of groups use the :children suffix.
[euwest]
host1
[eucentral]
host2
[eu:children]
euwest
eucentral

Inventory Parameters
ansible_user
The default ssh user name to use.
ansible_ssh_private_key_file
Private key file used by ssh. Useful if using multiple keys and you don’t want to use
SSH agent.
ansible_become
Equivalent to ansible_sudo or ansible_su, allows to force privilege escalation

Dynamic Inventory
Inventory can also be gathered on demand from other sources dynamically. Those
sources include:
● Cobbler ( http://cobbler.github.io/ )
● Cloud APIs
○ Rackspace
○ Amazon
○ Digital Ocean
○ OpenStack

Create the Hosts in the Inventory
web1 192.168.35.101
web2 192.168.35.102
app 192.168.35.103
db 192.168.35.104
Create the Ansible Inventory for given hosts:

Create the Groups in the Inventory
webservers: web1 & web2
appservers: app
dbservers: db
dc: webservers & appservers & dbservers
Create the Inventory for given groups consist of below servers & groups

Inventory
web1 ansible_host=192.168.35.101
web2 ansible_host=192.168.35.102
app ansible_host=192.168.35.103
db ansible_host=192.168.35.104
[webservers]
web1
web2
[appservers]
app
[dbservers]
db
[dc:children]
webservers
appservers
dbservers

Ad-Hoc Commands on Inventory
$ ansible -m ping web1
$ ansible -m ping app
$ ansible -m ping webservers
$ ansible -m ping dc
Ping the hosts and groups you defined

Tip #1: SSH Keys
$ vagrant ssh control
$ ssh-agent bash
$ ssh-add /vagrant/keys/key
To set up SSH agent to avoid retyping passwords, you can add the private key
$ ssh-keygen
Creating a New SSH Key Pair

Tip #2: Host Key Checking
[defaults]
host_key_checking = False
If you wish to disable host key checking, you can do so by editing
/etc/ansible/ansible.cfg or ~/.ansible.cfg:
$ export ANSIBLE_HOST_KEY_CHECKING=False
Alternatively this can be set by an environment variable:

Ad-Hoc Commands on Inventory
$ ansible -m shell -a 'ls -al' web1
$ ansible -m shell -a 'whoami' app
$ ansible -m shell -a 'ifconfig' webservers
$ ansible -m shell -a 'hostname' dc
Run some shell commands on the hosts and groups you defined

Tip #3: Patterns
$ ansible -m ping all
$ ansible -m ping web*
$ ansible -m ping 'appservers:dbservers'
$ ansible -m ping 'dc:!webservers'
$ ansible -m ping 'dc:&webservers'
A pattern usually refers to a set of groups (which are sets of hosts)

Tasks
A task is a discrete action that is a declaration about the state of a
system.
● Example Tasks:
● Directory should exist
● Package should be installed
● Service should be running
● Cloud Instance should exist

Tasks as Ad-Hoc Commands
Ansible can execute single tasks on sets of hosts to full-fill an
ad-hoc declarations.
$ ansible webservers -m file -a "path=/var/www/html/assets state=directory"
$ ansible webservers -m apt -a "name=nginx state=present"
$ ansible webservers -m service -a "name=nginx enabled=yes state=started"

Modules
Modules are the bits of code copied to the target system to be
executed to satisfy the task declaration.
● Code need not exist on remote host -- ansible copies it over
● Many modules come with Ansible -- "batteries included"
● Custom modules can be developed easily
● Command/shell modules exists for simple commands
● Script module exists for using existing code
● Raw module exists for executing raw commands over ssh

Modules Documentation
● Module listing and documentation via ansible-doc
$ ansible-doc -l
$ ansible-doc apt
● Module index
http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/modules_by_category.html

Install Nginx with Ad-Hoc Commands
$ ansible -m apt -a "name=nginx state=present update_cache=yes" web1
Install the nginx server on webservers with apt module

Tip #4: Become (Privilege Escalation)
Ansible can use existing privilege escalation systems to allow a user to execute tasks as
another.
Ansible allows you to ‘become’ another user, different from the user that logged into
the machine (remote user). This is done using existing privilege escalation tools, which
you probably already use or have configured, like sudo, su, pfexec, doas, pbrun, dzdo,
ksu and others.
$ ansible -m shell -a "whoami" web1 --become

$ ansible -m apt -a "name=nginx state=present update_cache=yes" web1 --become
Install the nginx server on webservers with apt module
$ ansible -m service -a "name=nginx state=started enabled=yes" webservers
--become
Ensure service enabled and started on webservers with service module

$ ansible -m file -a "path=/usr/share/nginx/html state=directory" webservers
--become
Ensure /usr/share/nginx/html directory exists on webservers with file module
$ ansible -m copy -a "src=index.html dest=/usr/share/nginx/html/index.html"
webservers --become
Update /usr/share/nginx/html/index.html file a custom file with copy module

Modules Exercises
● Ensure default-jdk package installed on appservers.
● Ensure greeting user created on appservers.
● Ensure /var/log/greeting directory owned by greeting user created on appservers.
● Ensure mongodb-server package installed on dbservers.

Plays
Plays are ordered sets of tasks to execute against host selections
from your inventory.

Plays
---
- name: Nginx Play
hosts: webservers
vars:
assets_dir: /var/www/html/static
become: true
tasks:
- name: ensure nginx is installed
apt: name=nginx state=present
- name: ensure directory exists
file: path={{ assets_dir }} state=directory
Host
Selection
Privilege
Escalation
Naming
Variables
Tasks

Conditionals
tasks:
- command: /bin/false
register: result
ignore_errors: True
- command: /bin/something
when: result|failed
- command: /bin/something_else
when: result|succeeded
- command: /bin/still/something_else
when: result|skipped

Loops
tasks:
- command: /bin/false
register: result
ignore_errors: True
- command: /bin/something
when: result|failed
- command: /bin/something_else
when: result|succeeded
- command: /bin/still/something_else
when: result|skipped

Handlers
tasks:
- name: Update nginx default config
copy: src=default.conf dest=/etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default
notify:
- Test nginx configuration
- Reload nginx configuration
handlers:
- name: Test nginx configuration
command: nginx -t
- name: Reload nginx configuration
command: nginx -s reload

Playbooks
Playbooks are ordered sets of plays to execute against inventory
selections.

Running Playbooks
$ ansible-playbook play.yml
To run a play book use ansible-playbook command.
$ ansible-playbook -i production play.yml
Hosts can be changed by providing a inventory file
$ ansible-playbook -e "assets_dir=/var/www/html/assets/" play.yml
Environment variables can be set globally

Running Playbooks
$ ansible-playbook -i production play.yml
Hosts can be limited by providing a subset
$ ansible-playbook -f 30 play.yml
Number of parallel processes to use can be specified (default=5)

Install Nginx with a Single Play
Install the nginx server on webservers
---
- hosts: webservers
become: true
tasks:
- name: Install nginx
apt: name=nginx state=present
- name: Start nginx
service: name=nginx state=started enabled=yes

Install Nginx with a Single Play
$ ansible-playbook /vagrant/lab-04/install-nginx.yml -l web1
PLAY [webservers] **************************************************************
TASK [setup] *******************************************************************
ok: [web1]
TASK [Install nginx] ***********************************************************
ok: [web1]
TASK [Start nginx] *************************************************************
ok: [web1]
PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************
web1 : ok=3 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0

Install Nginx & JDK & MongoDB in a Playbook
● Install the nginx server on webservers
● Install JDK on appservers
● Install MongoDB on dbservers

Roles
Roles are portable units of task organization in playbooks and is
the best way to organize your playbooks.
Roles are just automation around ‘include’ directives, and really
don’t contain much additional magic beyond some
improvements to search path handling for referenced files.
However, that can be a big thing!

Example Project Structure
site.yml
webservers.yml
fooservers.yml
roles/
common/
files/
templates/
tasks/
handlers/
vars/
defaults/
meta/
webservers/
tasks/

Example Playbook
---
- hosts: webservers
roles:
- common
- webservers

Example Role
---
- name: Install EPEL repo
yum: name=epel-release state=present
- name: Install nginx server
yum: name=nginx enablerepo=epel state=present
- name: Create static content directory
file: path=/usr/share/nginx/static state=directory

LAB #5
Running Playbooks with Roles

Install NTP & Nginx with in Roles
Install the ntp service & nginx server on webservers and deploy static content
---
- hosts: webservers
become: true
roles:
- ntp
- nginx
- deploy_static_content

Install Nginx & JDK & MongoDB with in Roles
● Install ntp service on all servers
● Install the nginx server on webservers
● Deploy static content on webservers
● Install JDK on appservers
● Install MongoDB on dbservers

● Strive for simplification
● Optimize for readability
● Think declaratively
Complexity Kills

Project Layout
├── config.yml
├── provision.yml
├── roles
│ ├── myapp
│ │
│ │
│ │
│ ├── nginx
│ │ └── etc.etc
│ └── proxy
├── tasks
│ └── main.yml
└── etc.etc
│ └── etc.etc
└── site.yml

Meaningful Inventory Names
10.1.2.75
10.1.5.45
10.1.4.5
10.1.0.40
w14301.acme.com
w17802.acme.com
W19203.acme.com
w19304.acme.com
db1 ansible_host=10.1.2.75
web1 ansible_host=w14301.acme.com

Vertical Reading is Easier
- name: install telegraf
yum: name=telegraf-{{ telegraf_version
}} state=present update_cache=yes
disable_gpg_check=yes enablerepo=telegraf
- name: install telegraf
yum: YES
name: telegraf-{{ telegraf_version }}
state: present
update_cache: yes
disable_gpg_check: yes
enablerepo: telegraf

Meaningful Task Names
- hosts: web
tasks:
- yum:
name: httpd
state: latest
- service:
name: httpd
state: started
enabled: yes
- hosts: web
name: installs and starts apache
tasks:
- name: install apache packages
yum:
name: httpd
state: latest
- name: starts apache service
service:
name: httpd
state: started
enabled: yes

Meaningful Task Names
PLAY [web]
*****************************************
TASK [setup]
*****************************************
ok: [web1]
TASK [yum]
*****************************************
ok: [web1]
TASK [service]
*****************************************
ok: [web1]
PLAY [installs and starts apache]
******************************************
TASK [setup]
******************************************
ok: [web1]
TASK [install apache packages]
******************************************
ok: [web1]
TASK [starts apache service]
******************************************
ok: [web1]

Use Smoke Tests
- name: check for proper response
uri:
url: http://localhost/myapp
return_content: yes
register: result
until: '"Hello World" in result.content'
retries: 10
delay: 1

Consider Writing a Module
- hosts: all
vars:
cert_store: /etc/mycerts
cert_name: my cert
tasks:
- name: check cert
shell: certify --list --name={{ cert_name }}
register: output
- name: create cert
command: certify --create --user=chris
when: output.stdout.find(cert_name)" != -1
register: output
- name: sign cert
command: certify --sign
- hosts: all
vars:
cert_store: /etc/mycerts
cert_name: my cert
tasks:
- name: create and sign cert
certify:
state: present
sign: yes
user: chris
name: "{{ cert_name }}"
cert_store: "{{ cert_store }}"

LAB #6
Spring Boot Rest API Deployment

Deploy Greeting REST Service
Download and build the sample REST service from github and deploy on appservers.
$ git clone https://github.com/spring-guides/gs-rest-service.git
$ cd gs-rest-service/complete
$ mvn package
* Requires java 8

Tip #5: Installing JDK 8 on Ubuntu 14.04
You should add ‘ppa:openjdk-r/ppa’ repo first:
---
- name: Install openjdk repository
apt_repository: repo='ppa:openjdk-r/ppa'
- name: Install openjdk
apt: name=openjdk-8-jdk state=present

Continuous Integration
with Ansible

● https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Ansible+Plugin
Jenkins Ansible Plugin

Teamcity Ansible Plugin
● https://github.com/andreizhuk/tc-ansible-runner

Boto is a Python package that provides interfaces to Amazon
Web Services. Currently, all features work with Python 2.6 and
2.7. Ansible uses boto to communicate with AWS API.
It can be installed via OS package manager or pip.
Boto
$ apt-get install python-boto
$ pip install boto

To get started with dynamic inventory management, you’ll need
to grab the EC2.py script and the EC2.ini config file. The EC2.py
script is written using the Boto EC2 library and will query AWS
for your running Amazon EC2 instances.
Amazon EC2 Inventory Management
$ wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ansible/ansible/devel/contrib/inventory/ec2.py
$ wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ansible/ansible/devel/contrib/inventory/ec2.ini

$ export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID='YOUR_AWS_API_KEY'
$ export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY='YOUR_AWS_API_SECRET_KEY'
$ export ANSIBLE_HOSTS=/etc/ansible/ec2.py
$ export EC2_INI_PATH=/etc/ansible/ec2.ini
$ ssh-agent bash
$ ssh-add ~/.ssh/keypair.pem

$ /etc/ansible/ec2.py --list
$ ansible -m ping tag_Ansible_Slave
10.1.2.137 | success >> {
"changed": false,
"ping": "pong"
}
10.1.2.136 | success >> {
"changed": false,
"ping": "pong"
}

From the beginning, Ansible has offered deep support for AWS.
Ansible can be used to define, deploy, and manage a wide variety
of AWS services. Even the most complicated of AWS
environments can be easily described in Ansible playbooks.
● http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/list_of_cloud_modules.html
Ansible Cloud Modules

Create Elastic Load Balancer
- name: Configure Load Balancer
ec2_elb_lb:
name: y-lb-{{suffix}}
state: present
region: "{{ec2_region}}"
connection_draining_timeout: 60
cross_az_load_balancing: yes
security_group_ids: "{{lb_security_group.group_id}}"
subnets: "{{subnet_az_a}},{{subnet_az_b}}"
listeners:
- protocol: http
load_balancer_port: 80
instance_port: 80

Configure Autoscaling Group
- name: Configure Autoscaling Group
ec2_asg:
name: y_asg_{{suffix}}
region: "{{ec2_region}}"
launch_config_name: "{{launch_config.name}}"
load_balancers: "y-lb-{{suffix}}"
availability_zones: "{{az_a}},{{az_b}}"
health_check_period: 60
health_check_type: ELB
replace_all_instances: yes
min_size: "{{min_size}}"
max_size: "{{max_size}}"
desired_capacity: "{{desired_capacity}}"
vpc_zone_identifier: "{{subnet_az_a}},{{subnet_az_b}}"
wait_timeout: 600

Say Goodbye to "Works on my Machine" Bugs
BakeryTestCode IMAGE

LAB #7
Deploy Greeting REST Service to AWS

Deploy Greeting REST Service to AWS
For instructions visit https://github.com/maaydin/ansible-tutorial/tree/master/lab-07 .
PLAY [localhost] ***************************************************************
TASK [setup] *******************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [ec2-auto-scale : Configure Launch Configuration Security Group] **********
ok: [localhost]
TASK [ec2-auto-scale : debug] **************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "Launch Configuration Security Group id=sg-961ee6f0"
}

To get the latest version of docker it is better (and easier) to
install from the script provided by docker.
● https://get.docker.com/
It is also required to install docker-py via pip to manage your
containers from Ansible.
Installing Docker

● If you know docker-compose, you know Ansible (almost).
● Because you need to configure the system that your
containers are running on.
● Because you want to call out to other systems to configure
things.
● Because you want to build testing directly into your
container deployment process.
Ansible Makes Docker Better

● docker_container - manage docker containers
● docker_image - Manage docker images.
● docker_image_facts - Inspect docker images
● docker_login - Log into a Docker registry.
● docker_network - Manage Docker networks
● docker_service - Manage docker services and containers.
Ansible Docker Modules

Creating a Container
---
- name: Create a redis container
docker_container:
name: myredis
image: redis
state: present
With docker_container module you can manage your docker
containers.

LAB #8
Install Docker & Create a Container

Install Docker on Ansible Controller
---
- name: Download Installation Script
get_url:
url: https://get.docker.com/
dest: /tmp/docker.sh
- name: Install docker
shell: sh /tmp/docker.sh
args:
creates: /usr/bin/docker

Create a Redis Container
---
- name: Create a redis container
docker_container:
name: myredis
image: redis
command: redis-server --appendonly yes
state: present
exposed_ports:
- 6379

/maaydin @maayd_in
Thank you!
Let’s get in touch!
blog.kloia.com
@kloia_com
kloia.co.ukkloia.com

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