Developing Advanced Automation with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

Procedure 9.5. Instructions

You can access the private automation hub web UI at https://hub.lab.example.com using student as the username and redhat123 as the password. You can access the automation controller web UI at https://controller.lab.example.com using admin as the username and redhat as the password.

1. On the workstation machine, in the /home/student/create-review directory, create an Ansible Content Collection named training.web that includes two roles and a lookup plug-in.

   The two roles are available in the /home/student/create-review/roles/ directory. You have to copy them to the correct location in the collection after you create the skeleton directories for the collection.

   The firewall role depends on the ansible.posix collection (version >=1.0.0). Configure your collection to specify this dependency.

   The lookup plug-in creates a QR (Quick Response) code in PNG (Portable Network Graphics) format. It is available in the /home/student/create-review/lookup.tgz file. Extract that archive into the correct location in your collection. It also requires the Pillow and qrcode Python packages. Configure your collection to specify those two Python dependencies.

   The collection requires Ansible version 2.9.10 or later.

   Build the collection and then copy the resulting .tar.gz file to the /home/student/create-review/ directory.

   1. Change to the /home/student/create-review/ directory and then run the ansible-galaxy collection init command to create the collection:

      [student@workstation ~]$ cd ~/create-review/
      [student@workstation create-review]$ ansible-galaxy collection init training.web
      - Collection training.web was created successfully

   2. Copy the two roles in the ~/create-review/roles/ directory to the ~/create-review/training/web/roles/ directory:

      [student@workstation create-review]$ ls roles/
      apache  firewall
      [student@workstation create-review]$ cp -r roles/* training/web/roles/

   3. Edit the training/web/galaxy.yml file to declare the ansible.posix collection as a required dependency of your new collection:

      ...output omitted...
      # Collections that this collection requires to be installed for it to be usable. The key of the dict is the
      # collection label 'namespace.name'. The value is a version range
      # L(specifiers,https://python-semanticversion.readthedocs.io/en/latest/#requirement-specification). Multiple version
      # range specifiers can be set and are separated by ','
      dependencies:
        ansible.posix: '>=1.0.0'
      ...output omitted...

   4. In the ~/create-review directory, extract the lookup.tgz file containing the lookup plug-in into the training/web/plugins/ directory:

      [student@workstation create-review]$ tar xf lookup.tgz -C training/web/plugins/

   5. To declare the Python package dependencies, create the training/web/requirements.txt file with the following content:

      Pillow
      qrcode

   6. Create the ~/create-review/training/web/meta/ directory.

      [student@workstation create-review]$ mkdir training/web/meta

   7. Create the ~/create-review/training/web/meta/runtime.yml file with the following content:

      ---
      requires_ansible: '>=2.9.10'

   8. In the ~/create-review/training/web directory, build the collection.

      [student@workstation create-review]$ cd training/web/
      [student@workstation web]$ ansible-galaxy collection build
      Created collection for training.web at /home/student/create-review/training/web/training-web-1.0.0.tar.gz

   9. Copy the resulting training-web-1.0.0.tar.gz file from the ~/create-review/training/web directory to the /home/student/create-review/ directory.

      [student@workstation web]$ cp training-web-1.0.0.tar.gz ~/create-review/

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2. Publish the training.web collection to your private automation hub.

   Use the private automation hub web UI to create a collection namespace named training and configure the Content Developers group to be namespace owners of the collection.

   Upload the training.web collection to that namespace, and approve the collection after you upload it.

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

   2. Navigate to Collections → Namespaces and click Create.

      Create the namespace using the following information and then click Create.

      Field	Value
      Name	training
      Namespace owners	Content Developers

   3. Upload the collection. Click Upload collection, select the /home/student/create-review/training-web-1.0.0.tar.gz file, and then click Upload. Wait for the upload to complete.

   4. Approve the collection. Navigate to Collections → Approval and then click Approve.

   5. Confirm that the collection is published. Navigate to Collections → Collections and then select Published in Filter by repository. The web UI displays the web collection.

      Click web and then click the Contents tab. Confirm that the page lists the two roles, apache and firewall, and the qrcode lookup plug-in.

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3. Install the ansible-builder package on the workstation machine. The student user can run commands with escalated privileges. Use student as the sudo password.

   [student@workstation web]$ sudo yum install ansible-builder
   [sudo] password for student: student
   ...output omitted...

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4. Prepare the configuration files to build a custom automation execution environment so that the training.web collection is included in it.

   • On workstation, create the ~/create-review/ee-build directory to store the configuration files.

   • Create an ee-build/execution-environment.yml file to control the build process. An example file is available in the /home/student/create-review/ directory. If you use that example file, then you must remove the parameters that you do not need.

     • Set the hub.lab.example.com/ee-minimal-rhel8:latest container image as the base image.

     • Set the hub.lab.example.com/ansible-builder-rhel8:latest container image as the builder image.

   • Copy the ~/create-review/ansible.cfg file to the ~/create-review/ee-build/ directory. That file configures access to the private automation hub at https://hub.lab.example.com so that the build process can retrieve the training.web and the ansible.posix collections.

   • Get a token from the private automation hub web UI, and edit that ansible.cfg file to update both token parameters. Use the same token from private automation hub for both parameters.

   • Create the ee-build/requirements.yml file and configure it to install the training.web collection into the automation execution environment.

   1. Change to the ~/create-review directory and create the ee-build/ directory.

      [student@workstation web]$ cd ~/create-review/
      [student@workstation create-review]$ mkdir ee-build

   2. Copy the execution-environment.yml example file into the ee-build/ directory.

      [student@workstation create-review]$ cp execution-environment.yml ee-build/

   3. Edit the ee-build/execution-environment.yml file.

      Set the EE_BASE_IMAGE parameter to hub.lab.example.com/ee-minimal-rhel8:latest and the EE_BUILDER_IMAGE parameter to hub.lab.example.com/ansible-builder-rhel8:latest.

      Remove the python and system parameters from the dependencies section. The training.web collection already provides the list of required Python packages and it does not depend on any RPM packages.

      The completed ee-build/execution-environment.yml file should consist of the following content:

      ---
      version: 1
      
      build_arg_defaults:
        EE_BASE_IMAGE: hub.lab.example.com/ee-minimal-rhel8:latest
        EE_BUILDER_IMAGE: hub.lab.example.com/ansible-builder-rhel8:latest
      
      ansible_config: ansible.cfg
      
      dependencies:
        galaxy: requirements.yml

   4. Copy the ~/create-review/ansible.cfg file into the ee-build/ directory.

      [student@workstation create-review]$ cd ee-build
      [student@workstation ee-build]$ cp ~/create-review/ansible.cfg .

      You update the token parameters in that file in the next step.

   5. Retrieve the API token from the private automation hub web UI at https://hub.lab.example.com.

      Navigate to Collections → API token management, click Load token, and then click the Copy to clipboard icon.

      Edit the ~/create-review/ee-build/ansible.cfg file to update the two token parameter lines by replacing each #FIXME# string with the copied token. Your token is probably different from the one that is displayed in the following example.

      [galaxy]
      server_list = published_repo, rh-certified_repo
      
      # Published collections (for training.web)
      [galaxy_server.published_repo]
      url=https://hub.lab.example.com/api/galaxy/content/published/
      token=c6aec560d9d0a8006dc6d8f258092e09a53fd7bd
      
      # Certified collections (for ansible.posix)
      [galaxy_server.rh-certified_repo]
      url=https://hub.lab.example.com/api/galaxy/content/rh-certified/
      token=c6aec560d9d0a8006dc6d8f258092e09a53fd7bd

   6. In the ~/create-review/ee-build/ directory, create the requirements.yml file to list the training.web collection that you want in the new automation execution environment. The completed ee-build/requirements.yml file should consist of the following content:

      ---
      collections:
        - name: training.web

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5. Configure the container image to include your private automation hub's TLS CA certificate.

   In the ~/create-review/ee-build/ directory, use the ansible-builder command to create the ee-build/context/ directory by performing the first stage of the build process.

   Add the lab environment's TLS CA certificate to the container image. This enables the build process to retrieve collections from the lab environment's private automation hub. You have been provided with two files to help you do this, which should be used as follows:

   • Copy ~/create-review/Containerfile to ~/create-review/ee-build/context/Containerfile.

   • Copy /etc/pki/tls/certs/classroom-ca.pem to ~/create-review/ee-build/context/classroom-ca.pem.

   1. Run the ansible-builder create command from the ee-build/ directory:

      [student@workstation ee-build]$ ansible-builder create
      Complete! The build context can be found at: /home/student/create-review/ee-build/context

   2. Copy the /home/student/create-review/Containerfile and /etc/pki/tls/certs/classroom-ca.pem files into the context/ directory.

      [student@workstation ee-build]$ cp ~/create-review/Containerfile context/
      [student@workstation ee-build]$ cp /etc/pki/tls/certs/classroom-ca.pem context/

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6. Build the automation execution environment container image and use hub.lab.example.com/review/ee-training-rhel8:v1.0 as the tag. Push the container image to the hub.lab.example.com container registry.

   Important

   You must log in to the hub.lab.example.com container registry to download and push container images. Log in as student using redhat123 as the password.

   1. Log in to the hub.lab.example.com container registry:

      [student@workstation ee-build]$ podman login hub.lab.example.com
      Username: student
      Password: redhat123
      Login Succeeded!

   2. Run the podman build command from the ee-build/ directory. Add the -t option to specify the hub.lab.example.com/review/ee-training-rhel8:v1.0 tag.

      [student@workstation ee-build]$ podman build -f context/Containerfile \
      > -t hub.lab.example.com/review/ee-training-rhel8:v1.0 context

   3. Confirm that the new container image is available locally. Your container image ID is different from the one displayed in the following output.

      [student@workstation ee-build]$ podman images
      REPOSITORY                                    TAG   IMAGE ID      ...
      hub.lab.example.com/review/ee-training-rhel8  v1.0  c418503ae3ac  ...
      ...output omitted...

   4. Push the container image to your private automation hub:

      [student@workstation ee-build]$ podman push \
      > hub.lab.example.com/review/ee-training-rhel8:v1.0
      ...output omitted...

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7. Use the automation controller web UI to create an execution environment resource that uses the following settings:

   Field	Value
   Name	Training Review
   Image	hub.lab.example.com/review/ee-training-rhel8:v1.0
   Pull	Always pull the container before running.
   Organization	Default
   Registry credential	Automation Hub Container Registry

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

   2. Navigate to Administration → Execution Environments and click Add.

   3. Create the automation execution environment with the settings in the preceding table. When finished, click Save.

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8. Create an automation controller job template that uses the following settings:

   Field	Value
   Name	Deploy QR Codes
   Inventory	Development
   Project	QR Codes
   Execution environment	Training Review
   Playbook	test.yml
   Credentials	Developers

   Note

   The lab command created the Development inventory, the QR Codes project, and the Developers machine credential.

   1. Navigate to Resources → Templates and click Add → Add job template.

   2. Create the job template with the settings in the preceding table. When finished, click Save.

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9. Start a job that uses the Deploy QR Codes job template and verify that the job completes successfully. If successful, then navigating to http://serverf.lab.example.com displays a QR code image.

   1. Navigate to Resources → Templates and click the Launch Template icon for the Deploy QR Codes job template. Wait for the job to complete.

   2. Click the Details tab for the job. The job displays the Successful status.

   3. Confirm the successful execution of the job by opening a web browser and navigating to http://serverf.lab.example.com. If the job completed correctly, then the web page displays a QR code image.

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