collection_and_vault.md

Morning Warmup!

Gotta catch 'em all! Check out the Pokemon API which returns tons of JSON data on your favorite Pokemon characters!

GOALS:

• For once, our warmup is NOT broken! The files below are totally syntax-error free, but still, they won't work!
• Diagnose what is needed to get the playbook running.
• You MUST use Ansible-Vault to encrypt the name of your Pokemon
• You MUST continue using the collection in the playbook!

Not a Pokemon fan? Here are the names of some Pokemon that will work:

• Pikachu
• Charizard
• Mewtwo
• Magnemite

1. Create the following files:

   student@bchd:~$ vim ~/mycode/pokemon_name.yml

   pokemon_name:  !vault |
             $ANSIBLE_VAULT;1.1;AES256
             OHNOIDONTHAVETHEPASSWORDTOUNLOCKTHISVAULTSTRINGDAGNABBIT366236633138393234346537
             6135353834346337613838323566333765303663396166340a653634393364353732393338363066
             62383962393564323533623535613364333062363036333664333932313863356338666563653564
             3634356264386238340a366636353162636563666435376430346463373532376236376335323633
             3866

2. And now the playbook:

   student@bchd:~$ vim ~/mycode/gotta-catchem-all.yml

   ---
   - name: Fetch Pokémon data using the pokeapi module
     hosts: localhost
     gather_facts: no
   
     vars_files:
       - pokemon_name.yml
   
     collections:
       - rzfeeser.pokeapi
   
     tasks:
       - name: Using the name of a Pokémon, collect API data
         rzfeeser.pokeapi.pokeapi_info:
           resource: pokemon
           name: "{{ pokemon_name | lower }}"  # | lower is a jinja2 filter; it will force our variable to lowercase
         register: pokemon_data
   
       - name: Save Pokémon data to a file
         ansible.builtin.copy:
           content: "{{ pokemon_data.pokeapi_json }}"
           dest: "/home/student/static/{{ pokemon_name }}_data.json"

SOLUTION

We need to install the collection used in this playbook!

ansible-galaxy collection install rzfeeser.pokeapi

We need to fix the file contained our Vault-encrypted Pokemon name.

ansible-vault encrypt_string 'pikachu' --name 'pokemon_name' > ~/mycode/pokemon_name.yml

Last but not least, when running the playbook you need to add the --ask-vault-pass option, otherwise you can't access your Vault secret.

ansible-playbook gotta-catchem-all.yml --ask-vault-pass