Using ansible on flex cloud

docs/blog/.authors.yml

@@ -48,3 +48,9 @@ authors:
     github: sulochan
     twitter: sulo
     linkedin: sulochan
+  puni4220:
+    name: Punit Shankar Kundal
+    description: Cloud Engineer IV @ Rackspace Technology
+    avatar: https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/puni4220
+    github: puni4220
+    linkedin: Punit Kundal

docs/blog/posts/2024-11-13-using-ansible-on-flex-cloud.md

@@ -0,0 +1,230 @@
+---
+date: 2024-11-13
+title: Using ansible to manage instances on flex cloud
+authors:
+  - puni4220
+description: >
+  Using ansible to manage instances on flex cloud
+categories:
+  - ansible
+  - openstack
+---
+# Using ansible to manage instances on flex cloud
+
+In this blog post we will discuss how we can use ansible to manage instances running on a flex cloud. It is important to note that
+while it is possible to create resources on an openstack cloud using ansible itself but the main aim of this blog post is to discuss
+how we can manage existing instances running within a project with ansible. The examples provided in this blog post are for instances 
+running ubuntu 20.04 LTS as the base OS; these instructions can be adapted to accomodate any other OS as well
+
+The blog post assumes that the the node from where we are running the openstack and ansible commands has network access to the flex cloud
+and the credentions for a valid user in the flex cloud are sourced and ansible is installed on the node from where the ansible playbooks and adhoc
+commands will run. The [bootstrap script](https://docs.rackspacecloud.com/genestack-getting-started/) in the install guide creates the venv with the
+necessary components installed inside the venv
+
+The first step in this process is to gather the required details for generating the ansible inventory for our instances; For the 
+example presented in this blog post there are 2 instances which have floating ip(s) assigned to them and the floating ip(s) are reachable
+from the bastion host from where the ansible adhoc commands and ansible playbooks will run
+
++ To generate the inventory for the existing instances within a project capture the list of running instances:
+```shell
+(genestack) root@bastn:~# openstack server list
+
++--------------------------------------+--------------+--------+---------------------------------+----------+-----------+
+
+| ID                                   | Name         | Status | Networks                        | Image    | Flavor    |
+
++--------------------------------------+--------------+--------+---------------------------------+----------+-----------+
+
+| 94e7b2eb-a3b1-4f48-9e86-70f463e7e8bd | test-epsilon | ACTIVE | net1=10.10.10.151, 172.16.8.94  | ubuntu20 | m1.medium |
+
+| 9f8b7596-c332-4000-8154-650d5a2e95fd | test-alpha   | ACTIVE | net1=10.10.10.139, 172.16.8.170 | ubuntu20 | m1.medium |
+
++--------------------------------------+--------------+--------+---------------------------------+----------+-----------+
+```
+
++ Then we will need the fixed ip(s) assigned to the running instances:
+```shell
+(genestack) root@bastn:~# for i in $(openstack server list -c ID -f value); do openstack port list --server $i -c "Fixed IP Addresses" -f value; done
+[{'subnet_id': 'd31a8c8b-e8f5-47fa-9d2e-0d30df2fd37c', 'ip_address': '172.16.8.94'}]
+[{'subnet_id': 'd31a8c8b-e8f5-47fa-9d2e-0d30df2fd37c', 'ip_address': '172.16.8.170'}]
+```
+
++ With the fixed ip(s) for the ports associated with the instances we can capture the floating ip(s) associated with these instances:
+```shell
+(genestack) root@bastn:~# for i in 172.16.8.94 172.16.8.170; do openstack floating ip list --fixed-ip-address $i -f yaml; done
+- Fixed IP Address: 172.16.8.94
+  Floating IP Address: 10.10.10.151
+  Floating Network: c03d6556-d7cb-44c6-a0cd-2985c47ddcfd
+  ID: 2f1163f2-46c7-4092-8755-db0542ec2383
+  Port: f6051f7f-c2b4-4803-9453-3ac67da27c55
+  Project: 7d9c7a46b38d40b891dd0c40644773ee
+
+- Fixed IP Address: 172.16.8.170
+  Floating IP Address: 10.10.10.139
+  Floating Network: c03d6556-d7cb-44c6-a0cd-2985c47ddcfd
+  ID: 58ff2b9e-1ebb-475a-b60a-f645aa72b75f
+  Port: 7fe428be-4fe0-4e09-ae0d-3aea09c1ccf4
+  Project: 7d9c7a46b38d40b891dd0c40644773ee
+```
+
++ With the floating ip(s) listed we can create a simple **inventory.ini** inventory file for ansible:
+```ini 
+[all]
+
+test-alpha ansible_ssh_host=10.10.10.139 ansible_ssh_user=ubuntu
+
+test-epsilon ansible_ssh_host=10.10.10.151 ansible_ssh_user=ubuntu
+
+
+[alpha]
+
+test-alpha
+
+
+[epsilon]
+
+test-epsilon
+```
+It should be noted that in this case the **ansible_ssh_user** is set to **ubuntu** this is because it is the default in the cloud images for Ubuntu OS and the **ubuntu** user has
+sudo privileges which are required by ansible to execute the tasks on the instances
+
++ With the inventory created we can try to run the **ping** module to test whether ansible can reach the instances on the flex cloud:
+```shell
+(genestack) root@bastn:~# ansible -i inventory.ini epsilon -m ping --private-key ansible-key
+
+test-epsilon | SUCCESS => {
+
+    "ansible_facts": {
+
+        "discovered_interpreter_python": "/usr/bin/python3"
+
+    },
+
+    "changed": false,
+
+    "ping": "pong"
+
+}
+```
+
++ We can see that the ping succeeded and now to install **apache2** package on test-epsilon instance with ansible using an adhoc command:
+```shell
+(genestack) root@bastn:~# ansible -i inventory epsilon -m apt -a "name=apache2" --private-key ansible-key --become
+test-epsilon | SUCCESS => {
+    "ansible_facts": {
+        "discovered_interpreter_python": "/usr/bin/python3"
+    },
+    "cache_update_time": 1731470200,
+    "cache_updated": false,
+    "changed": false
+}
+```
+In this example we can see that we can easily install **apache2** package on the instance named **test-epsilon** by referring to it's group name in the inventory
+
++ Let's say that we would like to run a full playbook against the instance named **test-alpha** running on the flex cloud; the example playbook in this case installs **apache2** package
+on the instance and configures a custom homepage for the guest; for this purpose we will first need to create the playbook and the jinja file:
+```yaml title="main.yml"
+(genestack) root@bastn:~# cat main.yml
+---
+- name: Playbook to install apache on Ubuntu instances on flex cloud
+  hosts: alpha
+  gather_facts: true
+  tasks:
+    - name: update apt cache on the ubuntu guest
+      ansible.builtin.apt:
+        update_cache: yes
+
+    - name: install the apache package on the guest
+      ansible.builtin.apt:
+        name: apache2
+        state: present
+
+    - name: enable and start apache2 service on the guest
+      ansible.builtin.service:
+        name: apache2
+        enabled: yes
+        state: started
+
+    - name: copy the custom index.html file to the document root on the guest
+      template:
+        src: index.html.j2
+        dest: /var/www/html/index.html
+      notify:
+        - restart apache2 service
+
+  handlers:
+    - name: restart apache2 service
+      ansible.builtin.service:
+        name: apache2
+        state: restarted  
+```
+```jinja title="index.html.j2"
+(genestack) root@bastn:~# cat index.html.j2
+<html>
+
+<head>
+
+  <title> ansible on flex cloud </title>
+
+</head>
+
+<body>
+
+  <p> this website is running on {{ ansible_hostname }} ubuntu guest </p>
+
+</body>
+
+</html>
+```
+
++ We can then run the playbook which installs **apache2** package on the test-alpha instances and configures a custom homepage for the webserver running inside the guest:
+```shell
+(genestack) root@bastn:~# ansible-playbook --inventory inventory.ini main.yml --private-key ansible-key --become
+
+
+
+PLAY [Playbook to install apache on Ubuntu instances on flex cloud] *******************************************************************************************************************************************
+
+
+
+TASK [Gathering Facts] ****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
+
+ok: [test-alpha]
+
+
+
+TASK [update apt cache on the ubuntu guest] *******************************************************************************************************************************************************************
+
+changed: [test-alpha]
+
+
+
+TASK [install the apache package on the guest] ****************************************************************************************************************************************************************
+
+changed: [test-alpha]
+
+
+
+TASK [enable and start apache2 service on the guest] **********************************************************************************************************************************************************
+
+ok: [test-alpha]
+
+
+
+TASK [copy the custom index.html file to the document root on the guest] **************************************************************************************************************************************
+
+changed: [test-alpha]
+
+
+
+RUNNING HANDLER [restart apache2 service] *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************
+
+changed: [test-alpha]
+
+
+
+PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
+
+test-alpha                 : ok=6    changed=4    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0   
+```
+It should be noted that in this case the **ansible-key** is the key with which the instances were created and the same key is provided to ansible