Managing Enterprise Automation with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

Procedure 6.3. Instructions

Create a workflow job template that deploys your web servers to the test environment, and after approval, to production. As part of this process, rename the existing TEST webservers setup job template to Webservers setup and configure the job template to prompt for an inventory. This allows you to use a single job template for both the test and production environments. The Webservers setup job template needs to use facts cached from earlier in the workflow. The workflow job template also needs to prompt the user with a survey to set some variable values when the workflow job template is launched.

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

2. Make sure that the per-host Ansible fact cache time-out for automation controller is set for exactly one day (86400 seconds). This ensures that facts are cached for hosts but also expire if those facts have not been refreshed recently.

   1. Click Settings in the left navigation bar.

   2. In the Settings window, on the Jobs tile, click Jobs settings.

   3. Confirm that Per-Host Ansible Fact Cache Timeout is set to 86400 seconds. If the setting is different, click Edit, edit that field to contain the value 86400, and click Save.

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3. Update the TEST webservers setup job template with the following information, leaving the other fields untouched. Make sure to clear the existing inventory entry for the job template.

   Field	Value
   Name	Webservers setup
   Description	Setup apache webservers
   Inventory	Prompt on launch
   Options	Enable Fact Storage

   1. Navigate to Resources → Templates and click the Edit Template icon for the TEST webservers setup job template.

   2. Rename to Webservers setup and change the description to Setup apache webservers.

   3. Clear the inventory selection and select Prompt on launch for the inventory.

   4. Scroll to the bottom of the page, select Enable Fact Storage in the Options section, and then click Save. Do not change any of the other fields.

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4. Create a workflow job template called From Test to Prod with the following information. In the following steps, you create nodes for the workflow job template.

   Table 6.1. Workflow Template

   Field	Value
   Name	From Test to Prod
   Description	Deploy to Test and on success deploy to Prod
   Organization	Default

   
   

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

   2. Create a workflow template using information from the Workflow Template table. When finished, click Save.

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5. Start the workflow for the From Test to Prod workflow job template by synchronizing the My Webservers project. Create the first node using the following information:

   Table 6.2. Workflow Node #1

   Field	Value
   Node Type	Project Sync
   Name	My Webservers

   
   

   1. Using the workflow visualizer for the From Test to Prod workflow job template, click Start. Create the first node using information from the Workflow Node #1 table and then click Save.

      Synchronizing a project as the first step in the workflow

      Note

      The P symbol under the My Webservers node in the workflow visualizer indicates it is a project sync node.

      The blue line connecting Start and the My Webservers node indicates that this step is always performed.

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6. If the My Webservers node succeeds, then launch the Refresh Fact Cache job template. Create the second node using the following information:

   Table 6.3. Workflow Node #2

   Field	Value
   Node Type	Job Template
   Name	Refresh Fact Cache
   Node Alias	Refresh Fact Cache (Test)
   Inventory	Test

   
   

   1. Using the workflow visualizer for the From Test to Prod workflow job template, hover over the My Webservers node and then click Add a new node.

   2. Select On Success and click Next.

   3. Create the second node using information from the Workflow Node #2 table and then click Next.

   4. Select the Test inventory and click Next. Click Save.

      Adding a job template node to the workflow

      Note

      The JT symbol under the Refresh Fact Cache (Test) node in the workflow visualizer indicates it is a job template node.

      The green line connecting the My Webservers node and the Refresh Fact Cache (Test) node indicates that this step is performed only on success.

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7. If the Refresh Fact Cache (Test) node succeeds, then launch the Webservers setup job template. Create the third node using the following information:

   Table 6.4. Workflow Node #3

   Field	Value
   Node Type	Job Template
   Name	Webservers setup
   Node Alias	Webservers setup (Test)
   Inventory	Test

   
   

   1. Using the workflow visualizer for the From Test to Prod workflow job template, hover over the Refresh Fact Cache (Test) node and then click Add a new node.

   2. Select On Success and click Next.

   3. Create the third node using information from the Workflow Node #3 table and then click Next.

   4. Select the Test inventory and click Next. Click Save.

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8. If the Webservers setup (Test) node succeeds, then create an approval node using the following information:

   Table 6.5. Workflow Node #4

   Field	Value
   Node Type	Approval
   Name	Prod Approval
   Description	Pushing to Prod requires approval
   Timeout (min)	60

   
   

   1. Using the workflow visualizer for the From Test to Prod workflow job template, hover over the Webservers setup (Test) node and then click Add a new node.

   2. Select On Success and click Next.

   3. Create the fourth node using information from the Workflow Node #4 table and then click Save.

      Requesting an approval in the workflow

      Note

      The pause symbol (||) under the Prod Approval node in the workflow visualizer indicates it is an approval node.

      After a successful launch of job templates in the test environment, the workflow indicates requesting an approval to launch them in production.

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9. If the Prod Approval node succeeds, then launch the Refresh Fact Cache job template. Create the fifth node using the following information:

   Table 6.6. Workflow Node #5

   Field	Value
   Node Type	Job Template
   Name	Refresh Fact Cache
   Node Alias	Refresh Fact Cache (Prod)
   Inventory	Prod

   
   

   1. Using the workflow visualizer for the From Test to Prod workflow job template, hover over the Prod Approval node and then click Add a new node.

   2. Select On Success and click Next.

   3. Create the fifth node using information from the Workflow Node #5 table and then click Next.

   4. Select the Prod inventory and click Next. Click Save.

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10. If the Refresh Fact Cache (Prod) node succeeds, then launch the Webservers setup job template. Create the sixth node using the following information. This is the final node in the From Test to Prod workflow job template.

    Table 6.7. Workflow Node #6

    Field	Value
    Node Type	Job Template
    Name	Webservers setup
    Node Alias	Webservers setup (Prod)
    Inventory	Prod

    
    

    1. Using the workflow visualizer for the From Test to Prod workflow job template, hover over the Refresh Fact Cache (Prod) node and then click Add a new node.

    2. Select On Success and click Next.

    3. Create the sixth node using information from the Workflow Node #6 table and then click Next.

    4. Select the Prod inventory and click Next. Click Save.

    5. Click Save to save the workflow and exit the workflow visualizer.

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11. Add a survey to the From Test to Prod workflow job template containing the following information. Make sure you enable the survey.

    Table 6.8. Workflow Job Template Survey

    Field	Value
    Question	What version are you deploying?
    Description	This version number is displayed at the bottom of the index page.
    Answer variable name	deployment_version
    Answer type	Text
    Required	(selected)
    Minimum length	1
    Maximum length	40
    Default answer	v1.0

    
    

    1. Navigate to Resources → Templates and click the From Test to Prod link.

    2. Click the Survey tab and then click Add.

    3. Add a single question to the survey, using the information in the Workflow Job Template Survey table. When finished, click Save.

    4. Enable the survey by setting the Survey Disabled|Survey Enabled switch to on.

       Important

       The survey is disabled by default. Make sure that you enable it.

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12. Activate the Approval, Success, and Failure notifications for the From Test to Prod workflow job template using the existing Email AAP Admins notification template.

    1. Navigate to Resources → Templates and click the From Test to Prod link.

    2. Click the Notifications tab and then select the Approval, Success, and Failure options for the Email AAP Admins notification template.

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13. Launch the From Test to Prod workflow job template. When prompted by the survey, enter v1.3 for the deployment version.

    1. Navigate to Resources → Templates and then click the Launch Template icon for the From Test to Prod workflow job template.

    2. Enter v1.3 in the text field for the survey that you just created, and then click Next.

    3. Click Launch to launch the workflow. Observe the running jobs of the workflow.

    4. The workflow stops on the approval node. Notice the notification icon at the top of the page, indicating one pending workflow approval.

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14. Approve the execution of the remaining workflow job template nodes and verify that the workflow triggers an email notification for the approval, when approved, and after completion.

    The Email AAP Admins notification template sends emails to the aap-admins@lab.example.com email alias. The student user can access these emails on the utility server.

    1. Open a terminal and connect to the utility server.

       [student@workstation ~]$ ssh student@utility

    2. Use the tail command to view incoming messages to the local mailbox file of the student user. You should see the email that was sent for the approval. Your message looks similar to the following:

       [student@utility ~]$ tail -f /var/mail/student
           "id": 10,
           "name": "Prod Approval",
           "url": "https://controller.lab.example.com/#/jobs/workflow/6",
           "created_by": "admin",
           "started": "2022-05-13T21:53:29.886316+00:00",
           "finished": null,
           "status": "pending",
           "traceback": ""
       }

    3. Click the notification icon in the automation controller web UI, select the checkbox for the Prod Approval workflow approval, and then click Approve.

    4. Go to the terminal window running the tail command and wait a few seconds. You should see an approval notification email arrive that looks similar to the following example:

       From system@controller.lab.example.com  Fri May 13 17:57:15 2022
       Return-Path: <system@controller.lab.example.com>
       X-Original-To: aap-admins@lab.example.com
       Delivered-To: aap-admins@lab.example.com
       Received: from controller.lab.example.com (controller.lab.example.com [172.25.250.7])
       	by utility.lab.example.com (Postfix) with ESMTPS id E81EA938CEC
       	for <aap-admins@lab.example.com>; Fri, 13 May 2022 17:57:13 -0400 (EDT)
       Received: from controller.lab.example.com (localhost [IPv6:::1])
       	by controller.lab.example.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id CF7DC25D127
       	for <aap-admins@lab.example.com>; Fri, 13 May 2022 17:57:13 -0400 (EDT)
       Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
       MIME-Version: 1.0
       Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
       Subject: The approval node "Prod Approval" was approved.
        https://controller.lab.example.com/#/jobs/workflow/6
       From: system@controller.lab.example.com
       To: aap-admins@lab.example.com
       Date: Fri, 13 May 2022 21:57:13 -0000
       Message-ID:
        <165247903382.5344.15434941766628918585@controller.lab.example.com>
       
       The approval node "Prod Approval" was approved. https://controller.lab.example.com/#/jobs/workflow/6
       
       {
           "id": 10,
           "name": "Prod Approval",
           "url": "https://controller.lab.example.com/#/jobs/workflow/6",
           "created_by": "admin",
           "started": "2022-05-13T21:53:29.886316+00:00",
           "finished": "2022-05-13T21:57:13.356070+00:00",
           "status": "successful",
           "traceback": ""
       }

    5. Navigate to Views → Jobs in the automation controller web UI and wait for the 6 — From Test to Prod workflow job to finish.

       The completed workflow job template

    6. Go to the terminal window running the tail command. You should see a new notification email indicating the successful execution of the workflow. The notification looks similar to the following example:

       From system@controller.lab.example.com  Fri May 13 17:57:47 2022
       Return-Path: <system@controller.lab.example.com>
       X-Original-To: aap-admins@lab.example.com
       Delivered-To: aap-admins@lab.example.com
       Received: from controller.lab.example.com (controller.lab.example.com [172.25.250.7])
       	by utility.lab.example.com (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 53C0C938CEC
       	for <aap-admins@lab.example.com>; Fri, 13 May 2022 17:57:47 -0400 (EDT)
       Received: from controller.lab.example.com (localhost [IPv6:::1])
       	by controller.lab.example.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4D82325D127
       	for <aap-admins@lab.example.com>; Fri, 13 May 2022 17:57:47 -0400 (EDT)
       Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
       MIME-Version: 1.0
       Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
       Subject: Workflow Job #6 'From Test to Prod' successful:
        https://controller.lab.example.com/#/jobs/workflow/6
       From: system@controller.lab.example.com
       To: aap-admins@lab.example.com
       Date: Fri, 13 May 2022 21:57:47 -0000
       Message-ID:
        <165247906731.5344.18226747658229373298@controller.lab.example.com>
       
       Workflow Job #6 had status successful, view details at https://controller.lab.example.com/#/jobs/workflow/6
       
       {
           "id": 6,
           "name": "From Test to Prod",
           "url": "https://controller.lab.example.com/#/jobs/workflow/6",
           "created_by": "admin",
           "started": "2022-05-13T21:52:53.307159+00:00",
           "finished": "2022-05-13T21:57:46.714992+00:00",
           "status": "successful",
           "traceback": "",
           "body": "Workflow job summary:\n\n- node #1 spawns job #7, \"My Webservers\", which finished with status successful.\n- node #2 spawns job #8, \"Refresh Fact Cache\", which finished with status successful.\n- node #3 spawns job #9, \"Webservers setup\", which finished with status successful.\n- node #6 spawns job #10, \"Prod Approval\", which finished with status successful.\n- node #5 spawns job #11, \"Refresh Fact Cache\", which finished with status successful.\n- node #4 spawns job #12, \"Webservers setup\", which finished with status successful."
       }

       When finished, press Ctrl+C to exit the tail command.

       Note

       If you prefer, you can use the mailx or mutt commands to display mail messages on the utility server. The subject of the emails received includes the following text:

       • The approval node "Prod Approval" needs review.

       • The approval node "Prod Approval" was approved.

       • Workflow Job #6 'From Test to Prod' successful.

    7. Exit the terminal session on the utility system.

       [student@utility ~]$ exit

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15. Verify that the web servers in the Test and Prod inventories (serverc.lab.example.com, serverd.lab.example.com, servere.lab.example.com, and serverf.lab.example.com) display the Deployment Version: v1.3 line.

    1. Open a web browser and navigate to http://serverc.lab.example.com, http://serverd.lab.example.com, http://servere.lab.example.com, and http://serverf.lab.example.com in separate tabs. You should see this line at the bottom of each page:

       Deployment Version: v1.3

    2. When ready, log out from the automation controller web UI.

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