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ansible-pull pulls playbooks from a VCS repo(git) and executes them for the local host.
The ansible-pull command is a special feature of Ansible that allows you to, all in one go, pull a playbook from a Git repository (for example, GitHub) and then execute it, hence saving the usual steps such as cloning (or updating the working copy of) the repository, then executing the playbook. The great thing about ansible-pull is that it allows you to centrally store and version control your playbooks and then execute them with a single command, hence enabling them to be executed using the cron scheduler without the need to even install the Ansible playbooks on a given box.
ansible-pull is used to up a remote copy of ansible on each managed node, each set to run via cron and update playbook source via a source repository. This inverts the default push architecture of ansible into a pull architecture, which has near-limitless scaling potential.
The setup playbook can be tuned to change the cron frequency, logging locations, and parameters to ansible-pull. This is useful both for extreme scale-out as well as periodic remediation. Usage of the ‘fetch’ module to retrieve logs from ansible-pull runs would be an excellent way to gather and analyze remote logs from ansible-pull.
The Cronjob
This is the easy part, all you will be doing is adding the following as a cronjob to your system.
0 3 * * * /usr/local/bin/ansible-pull -U https://github.com/scmgalaxy/ansible-pull-example -i hosts- If you’re new to cronjobs, all you need to know is this job is being run every day at 3am.
- The next part of the command is simply the full path to the ansible-pull command, in this instance, we are using the -U option to make sure our code is updated, if it is already installed.
- Then finally, the command also includes a hosts file that our playbook will run against.
Manual Use of ansible-pull
To run the ansible-pull manually use a command like the following:
url='https://github.com/jschulthess/ansible-pull-update.git' # URL of the playbook repository
checkout='develop' # branch/tag/commit to checkout
directory='/var/projects/ansible-pull-update' # directory to checkout repository to
logfile='/var/log/ansible-pull-update.log' # where to put the logs
sudo ansible-pull -o -C ${checkout} -d ${directory} -i ${directory}/inventory -U ${url} \
2>&1 | sudo tee -a ${logfile}
Example Code
| # ansible-pull setup | |
| # | |
| # on remote hosts, set up ansible to run periodically using the latest code | |
| # from a particular checkout, in pull based fashion, inverting Ansible's | |
| # usual push-based operating mode. | |
| # | |
| # This particular pull based mode is ideal for: | |
| # | |
| # (A) massive scale out | |
| # (B) continual system remediation | |
| # | |
| # DO NOT RUN THIS AGAINST YOUR HOSTS WITHOUT CHANGING THE repo_url | |
| # TO SOMETHING YOU HAVE PERSONALLY VERIFIED | |
| # | |
| # | |
| --- | |
| - hosts: pull_mode_hosts | |
| remote_user: root | |
| vars: | |
| # schedule is fed directly to cron | |
| schedule: '*/15 * * * *' | |
| # User to run ansible-pull as from cron | |
| cron_user: root | |
| # File that ansible will use for logs | |
| logfile: /var/log/ansible-pull.log | |
| # Directory to where repository will be cloned | |
| workdir: /var/lib/ansible/local | |
| # Repository to check out -- YOU MUST CHANGE THIS | |
| # repo must contain a local.yml file at top level | |
| #repo_url: git://github.com/sfromm/ansible-playbooks.git | |
| repo_url: SUPPLY_YOUR_OWN_GIT_URL_HERE | |
| tasks: | |
| - name: Install ansible | |
| yum: pkg=ansible state=installed | |
| - name: Create local directory to work from | |
| file: path={{workdir}} state=directory owner=root group=root mode=0751 | |
| - name: Copy ansible inventory file to client | |
| copy: src=/etc/ansible/hosts dest=/etc/ansible/hosts | |
| owner=root group=root mode=0644 | |
| - name: Create crontab entry to clone/pull git repository | |
| template: src=templates/etc_cron.d_ansible-pull.j2 dest=/etc/cron.d/ansible-pull owner=root group=root mode=0644 | |
| - name: Create logrotate entry for ansible-pull.log | |
| template: src=templates/etc_logrotate.d_ansible-pull.j2 dest=/etc/logrotate.d/ansible-pull owner=root group=root mode=0644 |
by | # Cron job to git clone/pull a repo and then run locally | |
| {{ schedule }} {{ cron_user }} ansible-pull -d {{ workdir }} -U {{ repo_url }} >>{{ logfile }} 2>&1 |
| {{ logfile }} { | |
| rotate 7 | |
| daily | |
| compress | |
| missingok | |
| notifempty | |
| } |
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