Workshop Exercise - Projects & Job Templates

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Table Contents

• Objective
• Guide
• Setup Git Repository
• Create the Project
• Create a Job Template and Run a Job
• Challenge Lab: Check the Result
• What About Some Practice?

Objective

An Ansible automation controller Project is a logical collection of Ansible playbooks. You can manage your playbooks by placing them into a source code management (SCM) system supported by automation controller such as Git or Subversion.

This exercise covers:

• Understanding and using an Ansible automation controller Project
• Using Ansible playbooks stored in a Git repository.
• Creating and using an Ansible Job Template

Guide

Setup Git Repository

For this demonstration, we will use playbooks stored in a Git repository:

https://github.com/ansible/workshop-examples

A playbook to install the Apache web server has already been committed to the directory rhel/apache, apache_install.yml:

---
- name: Apache server installed
  hosts: web

  tasks:
  - name: latest Apache version installed
    ansible.builtin.yum:
      name: httpd
      state: latest

  - name: latest firewalld version installed
    ansible.builtin.yum:
      name: firewalld
      state: latest

  - name: firewalld enabled and running
    ansible.builtin.service:
      name: firewalld
      enabled: true
      state: started

  - name: firewalld permits http service
    ansible.builtin.firewalld:
      service: http
      permanent: true
      state: enabled
      immediate: yes

  - name: Apache enabled and running
    ansible.builtin.service:
      name: httpd
      enabled: true
      state: started

Tip

Note the difference from other playbooks you might have written! Most importantly there is no become and hosts is set to web.

To configure and use this repository as a Source Control Management (SCM) system in automation controller you have to create a Project that uses the repository

Create the Project

• Go to Automation Execution → Projects click the Create Project button. Fill in the form:

Parameter	Value
Name	Workshop Project
Organization	Default
Execution Environment	Default execution environment
Source Control Type	Git

Enter the URL into the Project configuration:

Parameter	Value
Source Control URL	https://github.com/ansible/workshop-examples.git
Options	Select Clean, Delete, Update Revision on Launch to request a fresh copy of the repository and to update the repository when launching a job.

• Click Create project

The new project will be synced automatically after creation. But you can also do this manually: Sync the Project again by selecting the ‘Sync project’ blue button.

After starting the sync job, go to the Jobs view, and you’ll find the job doing the project update.

Create a Job Template and Run a Job

A job template allows you to run an automation job. In order to run any type of automation, a job template must be created. A job template consists of knowning the following information:

• Inventory: On what hosts should the job run?

• Credentials What credentials are needed to log into the hosts?

• Project: Where is the playbook?

• Playbook: What playbook to use?

To create a Job Template, go to the Automation Execution -> Templates view,click the Create template button and choose Create job template.

Tip

Remember that you can often click on the question mark with a circle to get more details about the field.

Parameter	Value
Name	Install Apache
Job Type	Run
Inventory	Workshop Inventory
Project	Workshop Project
Playbook	rhel/apache/apache_install.yml
Execution Environment	Default execution environment
Credentials	Workshop Credential
Limit	web
Options	tasks need to run as root so check **Privilege Escalation**

• Click Create job template

You can start the job by directly clicking the blue Launch template button, or by clicking on the rocket in the Job Templates overview. After launching the Job Template, you are automatically brought to the job overview where you can follow the playbook execution in real time.

Template Details

Job Run

Since this might take some time, have a closer look at all the details provided:

• All details of the job template like inventory, project, credentials and playbook are shown.

• Additionally, the actual revision of the playbook is recorded here - this makes it easier to analyse job runs later on.

• Also the time of execution with start and end time is recorded, giving you an idea of how long a job execution actually was.

• Selecting Output shows the output of the running playbook. Click on a node underneath a task and see that detailed information are provided for each task of each node.

After the Job has finished go to the main Jobs view: All jobs are listed here, you should see directly before the Playbook run an Source Control Update was started. This is the Git update we configured for the Project on launch!

Challenge Lab: Check the Result

Time for a little challenge:

• Use an ad hoc command on both hosts to make sure Apache has been installed and is running.

You have already been through all the steps needed, so try this for yourself.

Tip

What about systemctl status httpd?

Warning

Solution Below

• Go to Automation Execution → Infrastructure → Inventories → Workshop Inventory

• In the Automation Execution → Infrastructure → Inventories → Workshop Inventory, select the Hosts tab and select node1, node2, node3 and click Run Command

Within the Details window, select Module command, in Arguments type systemctl status httpd and click Next.

Within the Execution Environment window, select Default execution environment and click Next.

Within the Credential window, select Workshop Credentials and click Next.

Review your inputs and click Finish.

Verify that the output result is as expected.

Tip

The output of the results is displayed once the command has completed.

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