Run ansible from a stable environment anywhere

Posted in DevOps on Ansible
Run ansible from a stable environment anywhere

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Configure Ansible in a Docker container

This article shows you how to install Ansible running in a Docker container. Using a container for Ansible development solves the problem of “It works on my machine.” by providing a consistent experience across all your environments, locally or in production.

In this article, you learn to:

  • Create an Azure service principal
  • Create a Dockerfile
  • Build a Docker image
  • Install Ansible in a Docker container
  • Use a Service Principal to authenticate Ansible to Azure from a Docker container
  • Run Ansible commands from a Docker container

Prerequisites

Azure subscription: If you don’t have an Azure subscription, create a free account before you begin. Docker Desktop: Installation options are available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Create an Azure Service Principal

Run the following commands to create an Azure Service Principal:

Azure CLI

az ad sp create-for-rbac --name <service-principal-name> \
        --role Contributor \
        --scopes /subscriptions/<subscription_id>

Replace with your service principal name.

Important

  • Make note of the password value in the output, you won’t be able to retrieve it afterwards.
  • Create a Dockerfile that will install Ansible
  • Create a directory in which to test and run the sample code and make it the current directory.
  • Create a new file named Dockerfile.

Insert the following Docker commands into the new file.

Dockerfile

FROM centos:7

ENV LANG en_US.UTF-8
ENV LC_ALL en_US.UTF-8

RUN yum check-update; \
    yum install -y gcc libffi-devel python3 epel-release; \
    yum install -y python3-pip; \
    yum install -y wget; \
    yum clean all

RUN pip3 install --upgrade pip; \
    pip3 install --upgrade virtualenv; \
    pip3 install pywinrm[kerberos]; \
    pip3 install pywinrm; \
    pip3 install jmspath; \
    pip3 install requests; \
    python3 -m pip install ansible; \
    ansible-galaxy collection install azure.azcollection; \
    pip3 install -r ~/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections/azure/azcollection/requirements-azure.txt

Build the Ansible Docker image

</br> Run docker build to build the Docker image used to run Ansible.

docker build . -t ansible

</br> Start the Ansible container Run the docker run to start the Ansible container.

docker run -it ansible

Key points:

By default, Docker containers start detached from the terminal, running in the background. The -it option stands for interactive terminal allowing you to run commands inside the Docker container. To confirm Ansible was installed in the container, run the Ansible command to print its version.

ansible --version

Connect to Azure from the Ansible container Assign the following environment variables to connect to Azure:

Bash

export AZURE_TENANT="<azure_tenant_id>"
export AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID="<azure_subscription_id>"
export AZURE_CLIENT_ID="<service_principal_app_id>"
export AZURE_SECRET="<service_principal_password>"

Create an Azure resource group

Run the following Ansible command to create a resource group:

Bash

ansible localhost -m azure_rm_resourcegroup -a 'name=myResourceGroup location=eastus'

Key points:

Upon completion, the command displays whether it was successful in creating the resource group. Clean up resources Run the following Ansible command to delete the resource group.

Bash

ansible localhost -m azure_rm_resourcegroup -a 'name=myResourceGroup location=eastus state=absent'

Key points:

Upon completion, the command displays whether it was successful in creating the resource group.