Developing Advanced Automation with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

On the workstation machine, in the /home/student/review-cr3/ directory, create an Ansible Content Collection named review.system. Create the meta/runtime.yml file and set the requires_ansible parameter to >=2.9.10.

1. Change to the /home/student/review-cr3/ directory and then run the ansible-galaxy collection init command to create the collection:

   [student@workstation ~]$ cd ~/review-cr3/
   [student@workstation review-cr3]$ ansible-galaxy collection init review.system
   - Collection review.system was created successfully

2. Create the ~/review-cr3/review/system/meta/ directory.

   [student@workstation review-cr3]$ mkdir review/system/meta

3. Create the ~/review-cr3/review/system/meta/runtime.yml file with the following content:

   ---
   requires_ansible: '>=2.9.10'

Copy the iscsi_target_create role to the collection's roles/ directory. Declare the ansible.posix collection as a dependency. Build the collection and then copy the resulting .tar.gz file to the /home/student/review-cr3/ directory.

1. Copy the role that is provided to you in the ~/review-cr3/roles/ directory to the ~/review-cr3/review/system/roles/ directory:

   [student@workstation review-cr3]$ ls roles/
   iscsi_target_create
   [student@workstation review-cr3]$ cp -r roles/iscsi_target_create \
   > review/system/roles/

2. Edit the review/system/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...

3. In the ~/review-cr3/review/system/ directory, build the collection.

   [student@workstation review-cr3]$ cd review/system/
   [student@workstation system]$ ansible-galaxy collection build
   Created collection for review.system at /home/student/review-cr3/review/system/review-system-1.0.0.tar.gz

4. Copy the resulting review-system-1.0.0.tar.gz file from the ~/review-cr3/review/system/ directory to the ~/review-cr3/ directory.

   [student@workstation system]$ cp review-system-1.0.0.tar.gz ~/review-cr3/

Publish the review.system collection. Use the private automation hub web UI to create the review namespace. Upload the review.system collection to that namespace, and approve the collection after you upload it.

1. Open a web browser and navigate to https://hub.lab.example.com. Log in with student as the username and redhat123 as the password.

2. To create the namespace, navigate to Collections → Namespaces and then click Create.

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

   Field	Value
   Name	review
   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.

3. Upload the collection from the /home/student/review-cr3/review-system-1.0.0.tar.gz file to the review namespace.

   To do so, click Upload collection, select the /home/student/review-cr3/review-system-1.0.0.tar.gz file, and then click Upload. Wait for the upload to complete.

4. To approve the collection, navigate to Collections → Approval and then click Approve.

5. To confirm that the collection is published, navigate to Collections → Collections, and then select Published in Filter by repository. The system collection is displayed.

Prepare the configuration files to build a custom automation execution environment.

1. Change to the ~/review-cr3 directory and create the ee-build/ directory.

   [student@workstation system]$ cd ~/review-cr3/
   [student@workstation review-cr3]$ mkdir ee-build

2. Copy the ~/review-cr3/examples/execution-environment.yml example file to the ee-build/ directory.

   [student@workstation review-cr3]$ cp examples/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 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

Create the ee-build/requirements.yml file and configure it to install the review.system and community.general collections into the automation execution environment. You do not need to declare the ansible.posix collection because the review.system collection already specifies it as a dependency.

1. In the ~/review-cr3/ee-build/ directory, create the requirements.yml file to list the collections that you want in the new automation execution environment. The completed ee-build/requirements.yml file should consist of the following content:

   ---
   collections:
     - name: review.system
     - name: community.general

Create an ee-build/ansible.cfg file to configure access to the private automation hub at https://hub.lab.example.com so that the build process can retrieve the collections. An example file is available in the ~/review-cr3/examples/ directory. Get a token from the private automation hub web UI and then edit the ansible.cfg file to update the token parameters.

1. Copy the ~/review-cr3/examples/ansible.cfg file to the ee-build/ directory.

   [student@workstation review-cr3]$ cd ee-build
   [student@workstation ee-build]$ cp ~/review-cr3/examples/ansible.cfg .

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

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

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

   Edit the ~/review-cr3/ee-build/ansible.cfg file and then paste the token from the clipboard as the value for the token parameters. Your token is probably different from the one shown in the following example.

   [galaxy]
   server_list = published_repo, rh-certified_repo, community_repo
   
   [galaxy_server.published_repo]
   url=https://hub.lab.example.com/api/galaxy/content/published/
   token=c6aec560d9d0a8006dc6d8f258092e09a53fd7bd
   
   [galaxy_server.rh-certified_repo]
   url=https://hub.lab.example.com/api/galaxy/content/rh-certified/
   token=c6aec560d9d0a8006dc6d8f258092e09a53fd7bd
   
   [galaxy_server.community_repo]
   url=https://hub.lab.example.com/api/galaxy/content/community/
   token=c6aec560d9d0a8006dc6d8f258092e09a53fd7bd

Install the ansible-builder package on workstation. In the ~/review-cr3/ee-build/ directory, use the ansible-builder command to create the ee-build/context/ directory by performing the first stage of the build process. Configure the container image to include your private automation hub's TLS CA certificate. This build process can then retrieve collections from the lab environment's private automation hub. Use the two provided files as follows:

1. Use the yum command to install the ansible-builder package.

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

2. 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/review-cr3/ee-build/context

3. Copy the /home/student/review-cr3/Containerfile and /etc/pki/tls/certs/classroom-ca.pem files into the context/ directory.

   [student@workstation ee-build]$ cp ~/review-cr3/Containerfile context/
   [student@workstation ee-build]$ cp /etc/pki/tls/certs/classroom-ca.pem context/

Build the automation execution environment container image. Set hub.lab.example.com/system/ee-review-rhel8:v1.0 as a tag for the container image. After you build the container image for your automation execution environment, push the container image to the private automation hub.

1. Use the podman login command to log in to the private automation hub at hub.lab.example.com:

   [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/system/ee-review-rhel8:v1.0 tag.

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

3. Confirm that the new container image is available locally:

   [student@workstation ee-build]$ podman images
   REPOSITORY                                  TAG  IMAGE ID    CREATED       SIZE
   hub.lab.example.com/system/ee-review-rhel8  v1.0 65d5f183c35 2 minutes ago 435 MB
   ...output omitted...

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

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

Clone the https://git.lab.example.com/student/iscsi.git Git repository into the /home/student/git-repos directory and then create the review3 branch.

1. From a terminal, create the /home/student/git-repos directory if it does not exist, and then change into it.

   [student@workstation ee-build]$ mkdir -p ~/git-repos/
   [student@workstation ee-build]$ cd ~/git-repos/

2. Clone the https://git.lab.example.com/student/iscsi.git repository and then change into the cloned repository:

   [student@workstation git-repos]$ git clone \
   > https://git.lab.example.com/student/iscsi.git
   Cloning into 'iscsi'...
   ...output omitted...
   [student@workstation git-repos]$ cd iscsi/

3. Create the review3 branch and switch to it.

   [student@workstation iscsi]$ git checkout -b review3
   Switched to a new branch 'review3'

In the branch, update the demo.yml playbook. The playbook must call the review.system.iscsi_target_create role. Set the iscsi_target_create_disk role variable to vdb. When done, commit and push your changes.

1. Edit the demo.yml playbook. The completed file should consist of the following content:

   ---
   - name: Testing the iscsi_target_create role in the review.system collection
     hosts: all
     become: true
   
     tasks:
       - name: Ensure the iSCSI target is configured
         ansible.builtin.include_role:
           name: review.system.iscsi_target_create
         vars:
           iscsi_target_create_disk: vdb

2. Commit and then push your changes. If prompted, use Student@123 as the Git password.

   [student@workstation iscsi]$ git add demo.yml
   [student@workstation iscsi]$ git commit -m "Updating the demo playbook"
   [review3 6657707] Updating the demo playbook
    1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
   [student@workstation iscsi]$ git push -u origin review3
   Password for 'https://student@git.lab.example.com': Student@123
   ...output omitted...
   To git.lab.example.com:student/iscsi.git
    * [new branch]      review3 -> review3
   Branch 'review3' set up to track remote branch 'review3' from 'origin'.

Access the automation controller web UI at https://controller.lab.example.com to create the resources. Use admin as the username and redhat as the password.

1. To create the machine credential resource, navigate to Resources → Credentials, click Add, complete the form with the following information, and then click Save.

   Field	Value
   Name	DevOps
   Organization	Default
   Credential Type	Machine
   Username	devops
   Password	redhat
   Privilege Escalation Method	sudo
   Privilege Escalation Username	root

2. To create the source control credential resource, navigate to Resources → Credentials, click Add, complete the form with the following information, and then click Save.

   Field	Value
   Name	GitLab
   Organization	Default
   Credential Type	Source Control
   Username	student
   SCM Private Key	Content of the /home/student/.ssh/gitlab_rsa file.

   Note

   If you choose to browse for the file, then right-click anywhere in the directory navigation and select Show Hidden Files. With this option enabled you can see the .ssh directory in the /home/student directory.

3. To create the Review 3 inventory resource, navigate to Resources → Inventories, click Add → Add Inventory, specify the name of the inventory, and then click Save.

   Field	Value
   Name	Review 3
   Organization	Default

4. Within the Review 3 inventory, click the Hosts tab and click Add. Create the host with the serverc.lab.example.com name and then click Save.

   Field	Value
   Name	serverc.lab.example.com

5. To create the iSCSI project resource, navigate to Resources → Projects, click Add, complete the form with the following information, and then click Save.

   Field	Value
   Name	iSCSI
   Organization	Default
   Source Control Type	Git
   Source Control URL	git@git.lab.example.com:student/iscsi.git
   Source Control Credential	GitLab
   Options	Allow Branch Override (selected)

6. To create the Review 3 automation execution environment resource, navigate to Administration → Execution Environments, click Add, complete the form with the following information, and then click Save.

   Field	Value
   Name	Review 3
   Image	hub.lab.example.com/system/ee-review-rhel8:v1.0
   Pull	Always pull the container before running.
   Organization	Default
   Registry credential	Automation Hub Container Registry

7. To create the Configure iSCSI job template resource, navigate to Resources → Templates, click Add → Add job template, complete the form with the following information, and then click Save.

   Field	Value
   Name	Configure iSCSI
   Inventory	Review 3
   Project	iSCSI
   Execution environment	Review 3
   Source Control Branch	review3
   Playbook	demo.yml
   Credentials	DevOps

In the automation controller web UI, start a job from the Configure iSCSI job template. Verify that the demo.yml playbook correctly configures the serverc.lab.example.com managed node.

1. Navigate to Resources → Templates and then click the Launch Template icon for the Configure iSCSI job template. Wait for the job to complete.

2. Confirm the successful execution of the job by verifying that the role created the /etc/target/saveconfig.json file on the managed node.

   [student@workstation iscsi]$ ssh serverc ls /etc/target/saveconfig.json
   /etc/target/saveconfig.json