Bianca Henderson
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Bianca Henderson
Introduction to Ansible Builder
Hello and welcome to another introductory Ansible blog post, where we'll be covering a new command-line interface (CLI) tool, Ansible Builder. Please note that this article will cover some intermediate-level topics such as containers (Ansible Builder uses Podman by default), virtual environments, and Ansible Content Collections. If you have some familiarity with those topics, then read on to find out what Ansible Builder is, why it was developed, and how to use it.
This project is currently in development upstream on GitHub and is not yet part of the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform product. As with all Red Hat software, our code is open and we have an open source development model for our enterprise software. The goal of this blog post is to show the current status of this initiative, and start getting the community and customers comfortable with our methodologies, thought process, and concept of Execution Environments. Feedback on this upstream project can be provided on GitHub via comments and issues, or provided via the various methods listed on our website. There is also a great talk on AnsibleFest.com, titled “Creating and Using Ansible Execution Environments,” available on-demand, which Continue reading
Introduction to Ansible Builder
Hello and welcome to another introductory Ansible blog post, where we'll be covering a new command-line interface (CLI) tool, Ansible Builder. Please note that this article will cover some intermediate-level topics such as containers (Ansible Builder uses Podman by default), virtual environments, and Ansible Content Collections. If you have some familiarity with those topics, then read on to find out what Ansible Builder is, why it was developed, and how to use it.
This project is currently in development upstream on GitHub and is not yet part of the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform product. As with all Red Hat software, our code is open and we have an open source development model for our enterprise software. The goal of this blog post is to show the current status of this initiative, and start getting the community and customers comfortable with our methodologies, thought process, and concept of Execution Environments. Feedback on this upstream project can be provided on GitHub via comments and issues, or provided via the various methods listed on our website. There is also a great talk on AnsibleFest.com, titled “Creating and Using Ansible Execution Environments,” available on-demand, which Continue reading
Introducing: The AWX Collection
Ansible Content Collections are a new way of distributing content, including modules, for Ansible. For detailed information on how to use collections in general, please read Colin McNaughton’s blog post about the topic.
The AWX Collection allows Ansible Playbooks to interact with AWX and Ansible Tower. Much like interacting with AWX or Red Hat Ansible Tower via the web-based UI or the API, the modules provided by the AWX Collection are another way to create, update or delete objects as well as perform tasks such as run jobs, configure Ansible Tower and more. This article will discuss new updates regarding this collection, as well as an example playbook and details on how to run it successfully.
The AWX Collection awx.awx is the upstream community distribution available on Ansible Galaxy. The downstream supported Ansible Collection ansible.tower is being targeted for mid-May on Automation Hub alongside the release of Ansible Tower 3.7. For more details on the difference between Ansible Galaxy and Automation Hub please refer to Ajay Chenampara’s blog post.
This collection is a replacement for the Ansible Tower web modules which were previously housed and maintained directly in the Ansible repo. The modules were Continue reading
How to Add Approval Steps to Ansible Tower Workflows
Suppose you have a workflow set up in Red Hat Ansible Tower with several steps and needed another user to view and approve some or all of the nodes in the workflow. Or maybe a job is running inside of a workflow but it should be viewed and approved within a specific time limit, or else get canceled automatically? Perhaps it would be useful to be able to see how a job failed before something like a cleanup task gets set off? It is now possible to insert a step in between any job template or workflow within that workflow in order to achieve these objectives.
Table of Contents
A New Feature for Better Oversight and More User Input
How to Add Approval Nodes to Workflows
What Happens When Something Needs Approval?
Approval-Specific Role-Based Access Controls
A New Feature for Better Oversight and More User Input
The Workflow Approval Node feature has been available in Ansible Tower since the release of version 3.6.0 on November 13, 2019. In order to visually compare the additional functionality, examine the before and after examples of a workflow Continue reading
Getting Started: Visit Us at AnsibleFest!
Hello, and welcome to another Getting Started blog post… though this one is a bit different. I’d like to tell you about AnsibleFest 2018 in Austin, TX, where for the first time there will be a dedicated Getting Started section at this annual event!
Participants who visit our area will be able to meet some members of the Getting Started team as well as attend presentations. The scheduled talks include Ansible Essentials (similar to the monthly webinars) and Writing Your First Playbook, based on our most popular blog post.
In addition to the two scheduled talks each day, there will also be a lounge area where attendees can ask questions and get answers from Ansible experts in person! Come stop by to learn about what makes Ansible different, how it works, and get a quick overview of Ansible Tower. No experience is required, which means this is going to be a great chance for you or perhaps a teammate who is new to Ansible to learn about it from the ground up.
Make sure to register soon so that we can see you in Austin this October!
Using the win_dsc Module in Ansible
Hello, and welcome to another Getting Started with Ansible + Windows post! In this article we’ll be exploring what Desired State Configuration is, why it’s useful, and how to utilize it with Ansible to manage your Windows nodes.
What is DSC?
So what exactly is Desired State Configuration? It’s basically a system configuration management platform that uses the declarative model; in other words, you tell DSC the “what”, and it will figure out the “how”. Much like Ansible, DSC uses push-mode execution to send configurations to the target hosts. This is very important to consider when delivering resources to multiple targets.
This time-saving tool is built into PowerShell, defining Windows node setup through code. It uses the Local Configuration Manager (which is the DSC execution engine that runs on each node).
Microsoft fosters a community effort to build and maintain DSC resources for a variety of technologies. The results of these efforts are curated and published each month to the Powershell Gallery as the DSC Resource Kit. If there isn't a native Ansible module available for the technology you need to manage, there may be a DSC resource.
How Do You Use DSC with Ansible?
DSC Resources are distributed as Continue reading
Getting Started: Workflow Job Templates
Welcome to another post in the Getting Started series! Today we’re going to get into the topic of Workflow Job Templates. If you don’t know what regular Job Templates are in Red Hat Ansible Tower, please read the previously published article that describes them. It’ll provide you with some technical details that’ll be a useful jumping-off point for the topic of workflows.
Once you’re familiar with the basics, read on! We’ll be covering what exactly Workflow Job Templates are, what makes them useful, how to generate/edit one, and a few extra pointers as well as best practices to make the most out of this great tool.
What is a Workflow Job Template?
The word “workflow” says it all. This particular feature in Ansible Tower (available as of version 3.1) enables users to create sequences consisting of any combination of job templates, project syncs, and inventory syncs that are linked together in order to execute them as a single unit. Because of this, workflows can help you organize playbooks and job templates into separate groups.
Why are Workflows Useful?
By utilizing this feature, you can set up ordered structures for different teams to use. For example, two different environments (i. Continue reading
Easy Integration Using Ansible Tower and Red Hat Insights
Welcome to another entry in the Getting Started Series! In our previous post, we covered how to get started with Ansible and Windows.
In this post we’re going to discuss how you can launch automatically generated playbooks to correct compliance, security and patching issues found in your inventory by Red Hat Insights. To start off, let’s do a brief overview of the magic sauce that is Insights.
What is Insights?
Red Hat Insights is a predictive IT risk analytics tool that helps enable users to proactively identify, prioritize, and resolve vulnerabilities in their environments before business operations are affected. It does this by evaluating select files on a system, getting smarter and better at predicting outcomes with each piece of information it takes in.
Insights conducts an in-depth analysis of customers’ IT infrastructure and compares this information against Red Hat’s constantly expanding knowledge base to identify key risks and vulnerabilities. If a susceptibility or risk is found, Insights has the ability to generate a playbook for most critical problems detected, which can then be used in Ansible Tower to resolve any issues.
Ansible and Insights?
So if Insights makes Ansible Playbooks...how do you use them in Ansible Tower? Continue reading
Connecting to a Windows Host
Welcome to the first installment of our Windows-specific Getting Started series!
Would you like to automate some of your Windows hosts with Red Hat Ansible Tower, but don’t know how to set everything up? Are you worried that Red Hat Ansible Engine won’t be able to communicate with your Windows servers without installing a bunch of extra software? Do you want to easily automate everyone’s best friend, Clippy? 
Image source: aguyiknow.com.au
We can’t help with the last thing, but if you said yes to the other two questions, you've come to the right place. In this post, we’ll walk you through all the steps you need to take in order to set up and connect to your Windows hosts with Ansible Engine.
Why Automate Windows Hosts?
A few of the many things you can do for your Windows hosts with Ansible Engine include:
- Starting, stopping and managing services
- Pushing and executing custom PowerShell scripts
- Managing packages with the Chocolatey package manager
In addition to connecting to and automating Windows hosts using local or domain users, you’ll also be able to use runas to execute actions as the Administrator (the Windows alternative to Linux’s sudo or su), so Continue reading