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Ansible: Usage

Show Available Installations

$ cd ${ANSIBLE_GIT_REPO}/tocco
$ ansible-inventory --graph
  @all:
  |--@tocco_installations:
  |  |--@customer_abbts:
  |  |  |--abbts
  |  |  |--abbtstest
  |  |--@customer_agogis:
  |  |  |--agogis
  |  |  |--agogistest
  |  |--@customer_anavant:
  |  |  |--anavant
  |  |  |--anavanttest
  …
abbts, abbtstest, agogis, … are installations
customer_abbts, customer_agogis, … are customers

Run Full Playbook (=Configure Everything)

Important

Always update your repository clone first:

$ cd ${ANSIBLE_GIT_REPO}/tocco
$ git pull --rebase

$ cd ${ANSIBLE_GIT_REPO}/tocco
$ ansible-playbook playbook.yml -l abbts

Tip

-l/--limit limits on which installations the playbook is executed. You may specify multiple installations and customers separated by comma:

-l abbts,customer_anavant

This will execute the playbook on installation abbts and all installations of customer anavant.

Without -l/--limit the playbook is executed on all installations.

Run Playbook Partially (Tags)

Important

Always update your repository clone first:

$ cd ${ANSIBLE_GIT_REPO}/tocco
$ git pull --rebase

It’s possible to run only parts of the playbook by using what’s called tags. For instance, you can use the tags postgres and s3 only run tasks setting up these services:

$ cd ${ANSIBLE_GIT_REPO}/tocco
$ ansible-playbook playbook.yml -t postgres,s3

Important Tags:

mail

Configure allowed sender domains and default sender addresses.

postgres

Setup Postgres user and database and configure connection settings in Tocco.

route

Configure routes including enabling TLS certificates via Let’s Encrypt.

s3

Setup S3 user and bucked and configure it in Tocco.

teamcity

Setup continuous delivery in TeamCity

Hint

A more complete and current list of tags can be obtained via --list-tags. To see what tags tasks have assigned use --list-tasks.

Hint

--skip-tags TAG1,TAG2 to skip tasks having certain tags assigned.

Run Playbook in Batches

When applying changes to a large number of installations, in particular if the change involves an automatic restart, it’s preferable to run the playbook on a limited number of installations at a time. To this end, -e batch=BATCH_DEFINITION can be used to run the playbook in batches.

Examples:

Run the playbook for one installation at a time:

-e batch=1

Run playbook on one installation first, then on five, and then keep running it 20% of the installations:

-e batch="[1,5,'20%']"

The next batch is started only when all changes could be applied successfully.

This is internally implemented using Ansible’s serial keyword. Any value accepted by serial can be used.

Check Mode

The check mode can be used to show what would be changed without actually applying the changes:

$ cd ${ANSIBLE_GIT_REPO}/tocco
$ ansible-playbook playbook.yml --check

Warning

Many of the tasks modifying OpenShift/kubernetes configurations currently report incorrectly changes when running in check mode.

Namely, these tasks currently report changes incorrectly:

  • create ansible-edit rolebinding / grant TeamCity access for deployments

  • create nice deployment config

  • set mail domains

Troubleshooting

Debug output:

Use -v show parameters passed to a module and the result returned by it. Use -vvv to show full debug output.

Analyze variables:

You can display variables set for an installation:

$ cd ${ANSIBLE_GIT_REPO}/tocco
$ ansible-inventory --yaml --host ${INSTALLATION}

or all installations:

$ cd ${ANSIBLE_GIT_REPO}/tocco
$ ansible-inventory --yaml --list

Ansible Vault - Passwords and API Tokens

All passwords are stored in an encrypted Vault. See secrets.yml and secrets2.yml.