path: root/docs/docsite/rst/tips_tricks/sample_setup.rst

.. _sample_setup:

********************
Sample Ansible setup
********************

You have learned about playbooks, inventory, roles, and variables. This section combines all those elements, and outlines a sample setup for automating a web service. You can find more example playbooks that illustrate these patterns in our `ansible-examples repository <https://github.com/ansible/ansible-examples>`_. (NOTE: These examples do not use all of the latest features, but are still an excellent reference.).

The sample setup organizes playbooks, roles, inventory, and files with variables by function. Tags at the play and task level provide greater granularity and control. This is a powerful and flexible approach, but there are other ways to organize Ansible content. Your usage of Ansible should fit your needs, so feel free to modify this approach and organize your content accordingly.

.. contents::
   :local:

Sample directory layout
-----------------------

This layout organizes most tasks in roles, with a single inventory file for each environment and a few playbooks in the top-level directory:

.. code-block:: console

    production                # inventory file for production servers
    staging                   # inventory file for staging environment

    group_vars/
       group1.yml             # here we assign variables to particular groups
       group2.yml
    host_vars/
       hostname1.yml          # here we assign variables to particular systems
       hostname2.yml

    library/                  # if any custom modules, put them here (optional)
    module_utils/             # if any custom module_utils to support modules, put them here (optional)
    filter_plugins/           # if any custom filter plugins, put them here (optional)

    site.yml                  # main playbook
    webservers.yml            # playbook for webserver tier
    dbservers.yml             # playbook for dbserver tier
    tasks/                    # task files included from playbooks
        webservers-extra.yml  # <-- avoids confusing playbook with task files
.. include:: shared_snippets/role_directory.txt

.. note:: By default, Ansible assumes your playbooks are stored in one directory with roles stored in a sub-directory called ``roles/``. With more tasks to automate, you can consider moving your playbooks into a sub-directory called ``playbooks/``. If you do this, you must configure the path to your ``roles/`` directory using the ``roles_path`` setting in the ``ansible.cfg`` file.

Alternative directory layout
----------------------------

You can also put each inventory file with its ``group_vars``/``host_vars`` in a separate directory. This is particularly useful if your ``group_vars``/``host_vars`` do not have that much in common in different environments. The layout could look like this example:

  .. code-block:: console

    inventories/
       production/
          hosts               # inventory file for production servers
          group_vars/
             group1.yml       # here we assign variables to particular groups
             group2.yml
          host_vars/
             hostname1.yml    # here we assign variables to particular systems
             hostname2.yml

       staging/
          hosts               # inventory file for staging environment
          group_vars/
             group1.yml       # here we assign variables to particular groups
             group2.yml
          host_vars/
             stagehost1.yml   # here we assign variables to particular systems
             stagehost2.yml

    library/
    module_utils/
    filter_plugins/

    site.yml
    webservers.yml
    dbservers.yml

    roles/
        common/
        webtier/
        monitoring/
        fooapp/

This layout gives you more flexibility for larger environments, as well as a total separation of inventory variables between different environments. However, this approach is harder to maintain, because there are more files. For more information on organizing group and host variables, see :ref:`splitting_out_vars`.

.. _groups_and_hosts:

Sample group and host variables
-------------------------------

These sample group and host files with variables contain the values that apply to each machine or a group of machines. For instance, the data center in Atlanta has its own NTP servers. As a result, when setting up the ``ntp.conf`` file, you could use similar code as in this example:

  .. code-block:: yaml

    ---
    # file: group_vars/atlanta
    ntp: ntp-atlanta.example.com
    backup: backup-atlanta.example.com

Similarly, hosts in the webservers group have some configuration that does not apply to the database servers:

  .. code-block:: yaml

    ---
    # file: group_vars/webservers
    apacheMaxRequestsPerChild: 3000
    apacheMaxClients: 900

Default values, or values that are universally true, belong in a file called ``group_vars/all``:

  .. code-block:: yaml

    ---
    # file: group_vars/all
    ntp: ntp-boston.example.com
    backup: backup-boston.example.com

If necessary, you can define specific hardware variance in systems in the ``host_vars`` directory:

  .. code-block:: yaml

    ---
    # file: host_vars/db-bos-1.example.com
    foo_agent_port: 86
    bar_agent_port: 99

If you use :ref:`dynamic inventory <dynamic_inventory>`, Ansible creates many dynamic groups automatically. As a result, a tag like ``class:webserver`` will load in variables from the file ``group_vars/ec2_tag_class_webserver`` automatically.

.. note:: You can access host variables with a special variable called ``hostvars``. See :ref:`special_variables` for a list of these variables. The ``hostvars`` variable can access only host-specific variables, not group variables.


.. _split_by_role:

Sample playbooks organized by function
--------------------------------------

With this setup, a single playbook can define the entire infrastructure. The ``site.yml`` playbook imports two other playbooks. One for the webservers and one for the database servers:

  .. code-block:: yaml

    ---
    # file: site.yml
    - import_playbook: webservers.yml
    - import_playbook: dbservers.yml

The ``webservers.yml`` playbook, also at the top level, maps the configuration of the webservers group to the roles related to the webservers group:

  .. code-block:: yaml

    ---
    # file: webservers.yml
    - hosts: webservers
      roles:
        - common
        - webtier

With this setup, you can configure your entire infrastructure by running ``site.yml``. Alternatively, to configure just a portion of your infrastructure, run ``webservers.yml``. This is similar to the Ansible ``--limit`` parameter but a little more explicit:

  .. code-block:: shell

   ansible-playbook site.yml --limit webservers
   ansible-playbook webservers.yml

.. _role_organization:

Sample task and handler files in a function-based role
------------------------------------------------------

Ansible loads any file called ``main.yml`` in a role sub-directory. This sample ``tasks/main.yml`` file configures NTP:

  .. code-block:: yaml

    ---
    # file: roles/common/tasks/main.yml

    - name: be sure ntp is installed
      yum:
        name: ntp
        state: present
      tags: ntp

    - name: be sure ntp is configured
      template:
        src: ntp.conf.j2
        dest: /etc/ntp.conf
      notify:
        - restart ntpd
      tags: ntp

    - name: be sure ntpd is running and enabled
      ansible.builtin.service:
        name: ntpd
        state: started
        enabled: true
      tags: ntp

Here is an example handlers file. Handlers are only triggered when certain tasks report changes. Handlers run at the end of each play:

  .. code-block:: yaml

    ---
    # file: roles/common/handlers/main.yml
    - name: restart ntpd
      ansible.builtin.service:
        name: ntpd
        state: restarted

See :ref:`playbooks_reuse_roles` for more information.


.. _organization_examples:

What the sample setup enables
-----------------------------

The basic organizational structure described above enables a lot of different automation options. To reconfigure your entire infrastructure:

  .. code-block:: shell

    ansible-playbook -i production site.yml

To reconfigure NTP on everything:

  .. code-block:: shell

    ansible-playbook -i production site.yml --tags ntp

To reconfigure only the webservers:

  .. code-block:: shell

    ansible-playbook -i production webservers.yml

To reconfigure only the webservers in Boston:

  .. code-block:: shell

    ansible-playbook -i production webservers.yml --limit boston

To reconfigure only the first 10 webservers in Boston, and then the next 10:

  .. code-block:: shell

    ansible-playbook -i production webservers.yml --limit boston[0:9]
    ansible-playbook -i production webservers.yml --limit boston[10:19]

The sample setup also supports basic ad hoc commands:

  .. code-block:: shell

    ansible boston -i production -m ping
    ansible boston -i production -m command -a '/sbin/reboot'

To discover what tasks would run or what hostnames would be affected by a particular Ansible command:

  .. code-block:: shell

    # confirm what task names would be run if I ran this command and said "just ntp tasks"
    ansible-playbook -i production webservers.yml --tags ntp --list-tasks

    # confirm what hostnames might be communicated with if I said "limit to boston"
    ansible-playbook -i production webservers.yml --limit boston --list-hosts

.. _dep_vs_config:

Organizing for deployment or configuration
------------------------------------------

The sample setup illustrates a typical configuration topology. When you do multi-tier deployments, you will likely need some additional playbooks that hop between tiers to roll out an application. In this case, you can augment ``site.yml`` with playbooks like ``deploy_exampledotcom.yml``. However, the general concepts still apply. With Ansible you can deploy and configure using the same utility. Therefore, you will probably reuse groups and keep the OS configuration in separate playbooks or roles from the application deployment.

Consider "playbooks" as a sports metaphor -- you can have one set of plays to use against all your infrastructure. Then you have situational plays that you use at different times and for different purposes.

.. _ship_modules_with_playbooks:

Using local Ansible modules
---------------------------

If a playbook has a :file:`./library` directory relative to its YAML file, you can use this directory to add Ansible modules automatically to the module path. This organizes modules with playbooks. For example, see the directory structure at the start of this section.

.. seealso::

   :ref:`yaml_syntax`
       Learn about YAML syntax
   :ref:`working_with_playbooks`
       Review the basic playbook features
   :ref:`list_of_collections`
       Browse existing collections, modules, and plugins
   :ref:`developing_modules`
       Learn how to extend Ansible by writing your own modules
   :ref:`intro_patterns`
       Learn about how to select hosts
   `GitHub examples directory <https://github.com/ansible/ansible-examples>`_
       Complete playbook files from the github project source
   `Mailing List <https://groups.google.com/group/ansible-project>`_
       Questions? Help? Ideas?  Stop by the list on Google Groups