Ansible Automation Platform Daily Demo for Linux

A demo designed to showcase many of the use cases that people are looking for. We are using the workflow visualizer to show how the various building blocks are put together and enable the delivery on demand of a custom website. The playbooks call roles, the roles allow for ease of sharing the code and also allow for documentation of the various things needed in each role. The demo is designed to be integrated with an IT Service Management (ITSM) system. Everything will be documented in ITSM system via the skillfull use of automation. Check out the video below to see that "the art of the possible."

The workflow

The playbooks

1. Create our network container
2. Create our virtual machine
3. Update our inventory

Ansible Controller Credential
Input configuration

fields:
  - id: url
    type: string
    label: Controller URL
  - id: user
    type: string
    label: Controller Username
  - id: password
    type: string
    label: Controller Password
    secret: true
required:
  - url
  - user
  - password

Injector configuration

extra_vars:
  controller_url: '{{url}}'
  controller_user: '{{user}}'
  controller_passwd: '{{password}}'

4. Gather instance information
5. Red Hat Registration

Red Hat Customer Portal Credential
Input configuration

fields:
  - id: user
    type: string
    label: Red Hat Customer Portal Username (access.redhat.com)
  - id: password
    type: string
    label: Red Hat Customer Portal Password
    secret: true
required:
  - user
  - password

Injector configuration

extra_vars:
  customer_portal_password: '{{user}}'
  customer_portal_username: '{{password}}'

6. Configuration Management
7. User access
8. Application install
9. Website deployment
10. Reporting
11. Send notification that the website is ready

Custom Mail Server credential
Input configuration

fields:
  - id: smtp_server
    type: string
    label: Mail Server
  - id: smtp_port
    type: string
    label: Mail Server Port
  - id: smtp_username
    type: string
    label: Mail Server Username
  - id: smtp_password
    type: string
    label: Mail Server Password
    secret: true
required:
  - smtp_server
  - smtp_port
  - smtp_username
  - smtp_password

Injector configuration

extra_vars:
  MAILHOST: '{{smtp_server}}'
  MAILHOST_PORT: '{{smtp_port}}'
  MAILHOST_PASSWORD: '{{smtp_password}}'
  MAILHOST_USERNAME: '{{smtp_username}}'

Site Delete will clean everything up

ServiceNow

The playbooks

Create a CMDB record
Create a CMDB relationship

Create incident ticket

Update requested item ticket

ServiceNow credential
Input configuration

fields:
  - id: instance
    type: string
    label: Instance
  - id: username
    type: string
    label: username
  - id: password
    type: string
    label: password
    secret: true
required:
  - instance
  - username
  - password

Injector configuration

env:
  SN_HOST: '{{instance}}'
  SN_PASSWORD: '{{password}}'
  SN_USERNAME: '{{username}}'

• ServiceNow Ansible spoke setup

Ansible spoke setup - Alex Dworjan
Ansible spoke youtube - Alex Dworjan

• ServiceNow Ansible spoke setup additional Ansible controllers

Flow Designer -> Connections -> Add Connection

Connection Name: ericamesAAPalias
Connection URL: https://ericames.ddns.net
Credential Name: Eric Ames AAP Spoke Credentials
Application Registry Name: Eric Ames Spoke Registry
OAuth Client ID: %SECRETID%
OAuth Client Secret: %SECRETGOESHERE%
Oauth Entity Profile Name: Eric Ames Spoke Registry default_profile
OAuth Entity Scope: write
Authorization URL: https://ericames.ddns.net/api/o/authorize/
Token URL: https://ericames.ddns.net/api/o/token/
OAuth Redirect URL: https://ven05433.service-now.com/api/sn_ansible_spoke/ansible_oauth_redirect

• Automated incident management example

Example Error Handling in support of incident enrichment

- name: Adding incident management error handling
  block:

    PUT YOUR TASKS HERE

  rescue:

    - name: Capture the error message
      register: my_error
      ansible.builtin.set_stats:
        data:
          my_error: "{{ ansible_failed_result.msg }}"

    - name: Capture the Job ID
      register: my_job_id
      ansible.builtin.set_stats:
        data:
          my_job_id: "{{ tower_job_id }}"

    - name: Capture the Job Template name
      register: my_job_template_name
      ansible.builtin.set_stats:
        data:
          my_job_template_name: "{{ tower_job_template_name }}"

    - name: Fail the job even though the rescue worked
      ansible.builtin.fail:
        msg: failing so we create the incident ticket

The website

• Patching Report

A youtube video of the demo

• AAP Daily Demo Linux

Looking for the Windows Daily Demo?

• AAP Daily Demo Windows

Cockpit the Administrators GUI

The command line; there's no place like home :-)