Ansible is a radically simple IT automation engine. This is new and great configuration management system (like Chef, Puppet) that has been created in 2012 year. Also Ansible is pretty simple and flexible system, that helps you in managing your servers and execute Ad-hoc commands. During this session I will explain how to start using Ansible in infrastructure orchestration and what are pros and cons of this system. Also I will explain you our experience in deployments, provisioning and other aspects.

1. Ansible is the
simplest way to
automate.
Alexander Schedrov aka sanchiz
Team Lead, DevOps Engineer, FFW
MoldCamp 2015

2. Alexander Schedrov
aka sanchiz
Team Lead, DevOps Engineer,
FFW (ex ProPeople)
I love Open Source
I'm contributor to Open Source
That’s why I’m here
Ukraine, Kyiv

3. How it was earlier
Developers wrote code
SysAdmins deployed code and
configure servers

4. until one day… DevOps and Ansible

5. What is Ansible
Ansible is a radically simple IT
automation engine.

6. Ansible
• Clear - Ansible uses a simple syntax (YAML).
• Fast - Fast to learn and fast to set up.
• Complete - You have everything you need in one
complete package.
• Efficient - No extra software on your servers. Extensible
with modules on any programming language.
• Secure - Ansible uses SSH and requires no extra open
ports or daemons

7. Ansible vs Shell scripts

8. # Install the PGP key
gpg --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 561F9B9CAC40B2F7
gpg --armor --export 561F9B9CAC40B2F7 | apt-key add -
# Install https support for apt
apt-get install apt-transport-https -y
# Add the passenger apt repository
echo "deb https://oss-binaries.phusionpassenger.com/apt/passenger
raring main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/passenger.list
chown root: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/passenger.list
chmod 600 /etc/apt/sources.list.d/passenger.list
# Update the apt cache so we can use the new repo
apt-get update
# Install nginx
apt-get install nginx-full passenger -y
# Set up passenger in the nginx configuration
sed -i "s/# passenger_root/passenger_root/" /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
sed -i "s/# passenger_ruby/passenger_ruby/" /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
# Start nginx
service nginx restart
Shell script

9. ---
- hosts: all
tasks:
- name: Ensure the PGP key is installed
apt_key: id=AC40B2F7 state=present url="http://keyserver.ubuntu.com/
pks/lookup?op=get&fingerprint=on&search=0x561F9B9CAC40B2F7"
- name: Ensure https support for apt is installed
apt: pkg=apt-transport-https state=present
- name: Ensure the passenger apt repository is added
apt_repository: state=present repo='deb https://oss-
binaries.phusionpassenger.com/apt/passenger raring main'
- name: Ensure nginx is installed
apt: pkg=nginx-full state=present
- name: Ensure passenger is installed
apt: pkg=passenger state=present update_cache=yes
- name: Ensure the nginx configuration file is set
copy: src=/app/config/nginx.conf dest=/etc/nginx/nginx.conf
- name: Ensure nginx is running
service: name=nginx state=started
Ansible script

10. Why do we love Ansible
• It perfectly fit into our infrastructure
• It has a lot of modules and roles
• Can easily be executed on multiple servers
• Popular system

11. Installation
sudo pip install ansible
*nix
Packages: python-pip and python-devel
Windows
• Cywgin
• PyYAML
• Jinja2
• …
https://servercheck.in/blog/running-ansible-within-windows

12. What next?

13. 3 main shell commands
• ansible-doc [options] [module...]
• ansible-playbook playbook.yml [options]
• ansible <host-pattern> <command> [options]

14. Additional commands
• ansible-galaxy [init|info|install|list|remove] [--help] [options]
• ansible-lint playbook.yml [options]
• ansible-pull [options] [playbook.yml]
• ansible-vault [create|decrypt|edit|encrypt|rekey] [--help]
[options] file_name

15. Playbook

16. What is playbook
Ansible playbook it’s a list of commands or
roles that will be executed on remote or local
machine.

17. What is Ansible role
Ansible role is clean, reusable abstraction
that provides certain functionality.

18. ---
- hosts: all
# Get facts about hosts(OS, user and so on)
gather_facts: no
remote_user: root
vars_prompt:
# Variables that need should be entered
vars:
# List of variables
var_files:
# List of files with variables
roles:
# List of roles that should be included
pre_tasks:
# List of pre-tasks
tasks:
# List of main tasks
post_tasks:
# List of post-tasks
handlers:
# List of handlers

19. Ansible task
- name: Install libraries
apt: pkg={{ item }} state=installed
with_items:
- git
- apache2
- php5
- php5-mysql
Comment/Documentation
Module
Item
Iterate through array

20. Run playbook on remote
machine
Host Guest
192.168.1.1 192.168.1.2
Playbook on host
192.168.1.2

21. Run playbook on local
machine
Host
192.168.1.1
Playbook on host
192.168.1.1

22. Inventory
# Group name
[localhost]
# Hosts in group
127.0.0.1
# Group name
[mysql_group]
# Hosts in group
mysqlserver.com
192.168.1.1
# Group vars
[mysql_group:vars]
ansible_ssh_user=root
ansible_ssh_port=2222
/etc/ansible/hosts or ./hosts
Requirements: connection by ssh without password.

23. Ansible uses
templates
Jinja2.

24. ---
- host: lamp_local
vars:
vhost_core_path: “/var/www/site.dev"
domain: "site"
tasks:
- name: Add Apache virtualhost for development.
template:
src: "templates/vhost.dev.conf.j2"
dest: "/etc/apache2/sites-available/{{ domain }}.dev.conf"
owner: root
group: root
mode: 0644
vhost.dev.conf.j2
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
ServerName {{ domain }}.192.168.60.25.xip.io
ServerAlias www.{{ domain }}.192.168.60.25.xip.io
DocumentRoot {{ vhost_core_path }}
<Directory "{{ vhost_core_path }}">
Options FollowSymLinks Indexes
AllowOverride All
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

25. Ansible keeps things
organized

26. Roles
---
- hosts: webservers
roles:
- jenkins
- webservers
roles/jenkins

27. Use includes
---
- hosts: mysql_group
sudo: yes
vars_files:
- solr_vars.yml
pre_tasks:
- include: pre_tasks.yml
tasks:
- { include: deploy.yml, user: admin, ssh_keys: [ 'keys/
one.txt', 'keys/two.txt' ] }
handlers:
- include: handlers/handlers.yml

28. Migrate to Ansible

29. Just run shell scripts through Ansible
- name: Deploy system module
sudo: yes
shell: /usr/bin/deploy -t -v --tags=system
Start from small changes

30. Where we use Ansible

31. 1. Configuration management
and infrastructure orchestration

32. Apahce, MySQL,
PHP

34. Dev Test
ProdLocal developer's server

35. 2. Deployments and builds

36. Our approach
• Code Driven Development
• Deployments and builds should be automated
• We should test each feature before merging into
master
• Everything that may be automated - should be
automated

37. Simple and efficient way
ansible-playbook [filename]

38. How do we generate builds
• GitHub Pull Requests to inject new features to
master branch
• Jenkins triggers ansible script within repo
• Ansible playbook download database from
production
• Ansible playbook apply changes to database

39. 3. Provisioner for Vagrant

40. PUPHPET
One day our Vagrantbox is
died

41. Vagrant + Ansible = ♥

42. Provisioning. Vagrant.
Vagrant.configure(VAGRANTFILE_API_VERSION) do |config|
config.vm.box = "ubuntu/trusty64"
config.vm.network :private_network, ip: "192.168.60.77"
config.vm.network :forwarded_port, host: 4567, guest: 80
config.vm.provision "ansible" do |ansible|
ansible.playbook = "playbook.yml"
end
end
Vagrantfile:

43. Meet the CIBox
https://github.com/propeoplemd/cibox
Kudos to @podarok,@ygerasimov, @m1r1k and other
contributors

44. CIBox uses Ansible for:
• Provisioning in CI server (Jenkins)
• Provisioning in Vagrantbox
• GitHub Pull Request builder

45. Conclusion
• Ansible is a promising technology
• Easy to start
• It solves 95% of our DevOps
problems
• Ansible is awesome and we love it

46. Thank you!
GitHub: https://github.com/Sanchiz
Blog: http://sanchiz.net
Email: alexander.schedrov@gmail.com
Twitter: @alexschedrov
Drupal.org: https://www.drupal.org/u/sanchiz