Ansible

And why it works for me

Charles L. Yost

2016-01

Description

A 45 minute overview of the what, where, how, and why of using Ansible. Covers alternatives, what Ansible is, what Ansible's dependencies are, jargon pertaining to Ansible, and what it can do to make your life easier. Also includes some tips and tricks for everyday use.

Speaker Bio

Charles Yost is currently a Security Developer at Binary Defense Systems. He has worked in the IT industry for over 10 years in a wide variety of roles including: Printer Technician, VoIP Systems Administrator, .Net Developer, and Web Developer. Throughout life his number one passion has been learning new skills. He can often be found researching a topic, attempting to keep up with the quickly evolving field of technology. Charles enjoys teaching and talking to others about technology. He is a member of NEOISF, and attends as many InfoSec conferences as he can justify with his wife.

Binary Defense

You can find our booth right outside the door after this talk. As well as our sister company: TrustedSec.

Contact

Twitter: @CHARLESLYOST

GitHub & YouTube: Yoshi325

This Talk:https://github.com/Yoshi325/talks-ansible

Polls

Showtime

Some Alternatives

Here are some alternatives:

• Chef
• Puppet
• Salt (a.k.a. SaltStack)
• and Many Others

Many differences exist between these alternatives and Ansible. We will review those differences later.

What is Ansible?

What's In A Name

It was named "Ansible" after the fictional instantaneous hyperspace communication system featured in Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game, and originally invented by Ursula K. Le Guin for her 1966 novel Rocannon's World."

Ansible (software) | Wikipedia

And this will make some sense, later ...

Server

(Control Machine)

Client

(Managed Node)

Does Windows Require Python?

And that really is it. Ansible is a very slim setup.

Learn The Lingo

• ini format
• list of hostnames or ips
• can also contain some variables
• can be grouped, and have grouped groups

• Ansible's documentation calls them it's orchestration language, and I feel it's pretty apt.

• Roles allow a smaller, reusable orgizational unit for T, H, & V.

• Tasks are a combo of a thing to do, a name for it, if it should be done, and what should be done after it.

• Handlers are special post-playbook tasks, which are de-duped before they are ran.

• Variables provide flexibility for a role to be configured.

Modules (also referred to as “task plugins” or “library plugins”) The tools you call on within a Task. Encapsulates an action, and the desired result.

Bonus Lingo

Other Details

Putting it all Together

• Create your inventory
• Create your playbook
  • Create tasks for your playbook or role; utilizing modules
  • Use variables in your tasks
  • Use handlers to chain dependent actions

Tips, Tricks, & Pitfalls

How-To iterate over a list from a shell command:

Tips, Tricks, & Pitfalls

Store host specific variables in a host_vars folder.

Tips, Tricks, & Pitfalls

To only run a task when a list is NOT empty.

when: list|length > 0

Tips, Tricks, & Pitfalls

If your task hangs forever and is using sudo, confirm that you passed the:

--ask-sudo-pass

comand line option when you ran ansible.

Tips, Tricks, & Pitfalls

There are two ways to structure variables:

networking.interface.ip

networking_interface_ip

when you set a value somewhere else, it will replace the entire dictionary. It does not merge it.

Back to Those Alternatives

The End

Resources and Credits

Insanely complete Ansible playbook, showing off all the options

Insanely complete Ansible playbook, showing off all the options | marktheunissen's fork

Install Ansible, Create Your Inventory File, and Run an Ansible Playbook and Some Ansible Commands

Ansible (Real Life) Good Practices

USING ANSIBLE TO RESTORE DEVELOPER SANITY

https://wikpedia.org

http://www.ansible.com/home