Automated Deployment

Cut down on the number of loosely organized shell scripts and web GUI commands that need to be executed. Automatically generate VMs, and embed required files and credentials.

Software Stack

• Ansible (Red Hat)
• cloud-init (Canonical)
• Proxmox

Ansible is the most widely used component.

Proxmox has good integration with cloud-init. I don't need to use the detailed coud-init configuration files. I instead provide base configuration through qe command parameters. This sets up networking and SSH access. Then Ansible is used for the rest.

Quick Start

Ensure that the computer running Ansible has key-based SSH access to the hosts in the virtsrv group.

:~/src/autodeploy$
ansible-playbook dotvalup.yaml --tags ssh #copy private key
ansible-playbook dotvalup.yaml --tags dl #download disk image (large)
ansible-playbook dotvalup.yaml --tags up #create and configure VM
ansible-playbook dotvalup.yaml --tags go #start VM
ansible-playbook dotvalup.yaml --tags down #stop and destroy VM

These can be combined. For example, from nothing to fully running VM:

ansible-playbook dotvalup.yaml --tags ssh,dl,up,go

Idempotence

Key topic. Add some examples.

References

Check the Arch Ansible page before doing too much more!! https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Ansible https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Arch_Linux_on_a_VPS
https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/arch-boxes#qcow2-images
https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Cloud-Init_Support (includes documentation on creating the VMs)