Developing Advanced Automation with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

Procedure 9.4. Instructions

1. Publish the provided Ansible Content Collection on private automation hub.

   1. Navigate to https://hub.lab.example.com and log in as the student user with redhat123 as the password.

   2. From the private automation hub web UI, navigate to Collections → Namespaces and then click Create.

   3. On the Create new namespace page, complete the details as follows and click Create to create the namespace.

      Field	Value
      Name	exercise
      Namespace owners	Content Developers

      Important

      The Content Developers group must be a namespace owner for group members, such as the student user, to upload to the namespace.

   4. Click Upload collection and then Select file.

   5. In the UI, browse to the /home/student/builder-use directory, select the exercise-motd-1.0.0.tar.gz file, and click Upload.

      The upload produces the following messages:

      Importing with galaxy-importer 0.4.4
      Getting doc strings via ansible-doc
      Finding content inside collection
      Loading role banner
      Linting role banner via ansible-lint...
      CHANGELOG.rst file not found at top level of collection.
      Collection loading complete
      
      Done

      Note

      A collection can include an optional CHANGELOG.rst file. It is safe to ignore the message about not being able to find the CHANGELOG.rst file.

   6. After the upload completes, navigate to Collections → Approval and then click Approve.

2. Create a project from the automation controller web UI.

   1. Navigate to https://controller.lab.example.com and log in as the admin user with redhat as the password.

   2. Navigate to Resources → Projects and then click Add.

   3. Add a new project that installs the exercise.motd collection using a requirements file located in the project. Use the following information for the project and then click Save.

      Field	Value
      Name	Install Collection
      Organization	Default
      Source Control Type	Git
      Source Control URL	git@git.lab.example.com:student/use-collection.git
      Source Control Credential	Git Project Credential

   4. Wait for the synchronization to complete.

      Note

      If the synchronization fails, then ensure that you entered the correct source control URL and that the uploaded motd collection has been approved from the private automation hub web UI. Attempt the project synchronization again.

   5. From the Details page, click Successful to display details about the project synchronization. Notice that the job installed collections found in the collections/requirements.yml file.

      ...output omitted...
      TASK [fetch galaxy collections from collections/requirements.(yml/yaml)] *******
      changed: [localhost] => (item=/var/lib/awx/projects/_8__install_collection/collections/requirements.yml)
      PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************
      localhost                  : ok=4    changed=2  ...  failed=0    skipped=2   ...

   6. (Optional) Locate the installed exercise.motd collection on the automation controller server. Open a terminal and use the ssh command to connect to the controller machine as the awx user. Display the contents of the /var/lib/awx/projects/.__awx_cache directory.

      [student@workstation ~]$ ssh awx@controller \
      > 'tree /var/lib/awx/projects/.__awx_cache'
      /var/lib/awx/projects/.__awx_cache
      └── _8__install_collection 
          └── 3 
              ├── requirements_collections
              │   └── ansible_collections 
              │       ├── exercise 
              │       │   └── motd 
              │       │       ├── FILES.json
              │       │       ├── MANIFEST.json
      ...output omitted...

      	Each automation controller project has a unique identification number associated with it. In this example, the Install Collection project has project ID 8. Your project ID might be different.
      	This numbered directory represents the job ID of the automation controller job that performed the project synchronization. Your job ID might be different.
      	The ansible_collections directory contains any collections installed during the project synchronization.
      	The exercise director contains installed collections from the exercise namespace.
      	The motd directory contains files and directories from the exercise.motd collection.

      Note

      This step is for information purposes only. Most developers do not have access to view the /var/lib/awx/projects/.__awx_cache directory on the automation controller server.

3. Display the existing messages of the day for the servera and serverb machines. The machines do not display custom messages of the day.

   1. Use the ssh command to connect to the servera machine as the student user.

      [student@workstation ~]$ ssh student@servera
      Activate the web console with: systemctl enable --now cockpit.socket
      
      This system is not registered to Red Hat Insights. See https://cloud.redhat.com/
      To register this system, run: insights-client --register

   2. Use the logout command to return to the workstation machine.

      [student@servera ~]$ logout
      Connection to servera closed.
      [student@workstation ~]$

   3. Use the ssh command to connect to the serverb machine as the student user.

      [student@workstation ~]$ ssh student@serverb
      Activate the web console with: systemctl enable --now cockpit.socket
      
      This system is not registered to Red Hat Insights. See https://cloud.redhat.com/
      To register this system, run: insights-client --register

   4. Use the logout command to return to the workstation machine.

      [student@serverb ~]$ logout
      Connection to serverb closed.
      [student@workstation ~]$

4. Create a job template to run the motd-test.yml playbook from the Install Collection project.

   1. From the automation controller web UI, navigate to Resources → Templates.

   2. On the Templates page, click Add → Add job template. Create a job template using the following information and then click Save.

      Field	Value
      Name	MOTD Test 1
      Description	Test using installed collection
      Inventory	Exercise Inventory
      Project	Install Collection
      Execution Environment	Automation Hub Minimal execution environment
      Playbook	motd-test.yml
      Credentials	Exercise Credential
      Limit	servera.lab.example.com

   3. Click Launch to launch the MOTD Test 1 job template. The job succeeds and the output indicates that servera.lab.example.com was changed.

      ...output omitted...
      TASK [exercise.motd.banner : Create custom motd banner] ************************
      changed: [servera.lab.example.com]
      ...output omitted...

5. Verify that the servera machine contains an additional message of the day.

   1. Use the ssh command to connect to the servera machine as the student user. The system displays a message indicating that it is managed by Ansible.

      [student@workstation ~]$ ssh student@servera
      ...output omitted...
      ================================================================================
      ================================================================================
      ==                                                                            ==
      ==                     This system is managed by Ansible.                     ==
      ==                                                                            ==
      ================================================================================
      ================================================================================
      ...output omitted...

   2. Use the logout command to return to the workstation machine.

      [student@servera ~]$ logout
      Connection to servera closed.
      [student@workstation ~]$

6. Add a new execution environment resource using the automation controller web UI.

   1. Navigate to Administration → Execution Environments and then click Add.

   2. Create an execution environment resource using the following information, and then click Save:

      Field	Value
      Name	MOTD execution environment
      Image	hub.lab.example.com/ee-motd-minimal
      Pull	Only pull the image if not present before running.
      Organization	Default
      Registry credential	Automation Hub Container Registry

7. Add a new automation controller project that uses the exercise.motd collection installed within a custom automation execution environment.

   1. Navigate to Resources → Projects and then click Add. Create a project resource using the following information, and then click Save:

      Field	Value
      Name	Use Custom EE
      Organization	Default
      Source Control Type	Git
      Source Control URL	git@git.lab.example.com:student/use-ee.git
      Source Control Credential	Git Project Credential

   2. Wait for the synchronization to complete.

      Note

      If the synchronization fails, then ensure that you entered the correct source control URL and attempt the project synchronization again.

8. Create a job template to run the motd-test.yml playbook from the Use Custom EE project.

   1. Navigate to Resources → Templates and then click Add → Add job template. Create the job template using the following information:

      Field	Value
      Name	MOTD Test 2
      Description	Test using custom EE
      Inventory	Exercise Inventory
      Project	Use Custom EE
      Execution Environment	MOTD execution environment
      Playbook	motd-test.yml
      Credentials	Exercise Credential
      Variables	message: "My test message"
      Limit	serverb.lab.example.com

      Note

      The job template selects a specific automation execution environment and only uses one host from the Exercise Inventory resource. The job template overrides the value of the message variable set in the exercise.motd.banner role.

   2. Click Save.

   3. Click Launch to launch the MOTD Test 2 job template. The job succeeds and the output indicates that serverb.lab.example.com was changed.

      ...output omitted...
      TASK [exercise.motd.banner : Create custom motd banner] ************************
      changed: [serverb.lab.example.com]
      ...output omitted...

9. Verify that the serverb machine contains an additional message of the day.

   1. Use the ssh command to connect to the serverb machine as the student user. The system displays a message using the value of the message variable configured in the MOTD Test 2 job template.

      [student@workstation ~]$ ssh student@serverb
      ...output omitted...
      ================================================================================
      ================================================================================
      ==                                                                            ==
      ==                              My test message                               ==
      ==                                                                            ==
      ================================================================================
      ================================================================================
      ...output omitted...

   2. Use the logout command to return to the workstation machine.

      [student@serverb ~]$ logout
      Connection to serverb closed.
      [student@workstation ~]$