Ansible ARA Quick Start

ansible-ara.md

Ansible ARA Quick Start

Start an instance of ARA via Docker

Below are several options for firing up an instance of Ansible ARA

• Run the docker container with the sqlite db backend

docker run \
-d --rm \
--name ara \
-it \
-v $PWD:/opt/ara:z \
-p 8000:8000 \
-e ARA_ALLOWED_HOSTS="['*']" \
docker.io/recordsansible/ara-api:latest

• Run the docker container with the postgres db backend

  docker run \
  --rm \
  --name ara \
  -it \
  -v $PWD:/opt/ara:z \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  -e ARA_DATABASE_ENGINE="django.db.backends.postgresql" \
  -e ARA_DATABASE_CONN_MAX_AGE=300 \
  -e ARA_DATABASE_USER=svcpostgres \
  -e ARA_DATABASE_NAME=ara \
  -e ARA_DATABASE_PASSWORD=D5e82071 \
  -e ARA_DATABASE_HOST=psdb.example.net \
  -e ARA_DATABASE_PORT=16009 \
  -e ARA_ALLOWED_HOSTS="['*']" \
  docker.io/recordsansible/ara-api:latest

• Run the docker-compose project

  ---
  version: "3.1"
  services:
    ansible-ara:
      image: "recordsansible/ara-api:latest"
      container_name: 'ansible-ara'
      restart: always
      ports:
        - "8000:8000"
      environment:
        ARA_ALLOWED_HOSTS: "['*']"

Install prerequisites

To be able to utilize ARA, you'll need to install some prerequisites:

pip install ara 'ara[server]'
ansible-galaxy collection install recordsansible.ara

Create your ansible ARA-enabled playbook

playbook.yaml

- name: ARA-enabled Playbook
  hosts: localhost
  connection: local
  gather_facts: true
  become: true
  max_fail_percentage: 0
  tasks:

    - name: Prep for Ansible ARA playbook report
      block:

        - name: Get the currently running playbook
          ara_playbook:
          register: query
          run_once: true

        - name: Retrieve playbook id
          set_fact:
            playbook_id: "{{ query.playbook.id | string }}"
      
        # With the playbook id we can create a link to the playbook report
        - name: Retrieve base url from ara
          set_fact:
            api_base_url: "{{ lookup('ara_api', '/api/') }}"
          run_once: true

      rescue:

        - name: Display warning
          debug:
            msg: |-
              Warning: Could not record playbook statistics via ARA!

    - name: Say Hello
      debug:
        msg: |-
          Hello from Ansible!

    - name: ARA Post Execution
      block:
   
      - name: Record Execution Context
        ara_record:
          key: execution_context
          value: 
            playbook_id: '{{ playbook_id }}'
            user: "{{ lookup('env', 'USER') }}"
          type: dict
        run_once: true
        tags:
          - app
          - machine          

      - name: Display link to playbook ARA report
        debug:
          msg: "{{ ui_base_url }}/playbooks/{{ playbook_id }}.html"
        vars:
          ui_base_url: "{{ api_base_url.api[0] | regex_replace('/api/v1/', '') }}"
        run_once: true
        tags:
          - app
          - machine          
   
      when: playbook_id is defined 

Run your ansible playbook with ARA enabled

Given: Your ARA server is accessible at https://localhost:8000

echo -n "Setting up Ansible ARA ... "
eval $(python -m ara.setup.env)
export ARA_API_CLIENT="http"
export ARA_API_SERVER="http://localhost:8000"
export ARA_API_TIMEOUT=15
export ARA_CALLBACK_THREADS=4
export ARA_IGNORED_FACTS=ansible_env,ansible_all_ipv4_addresses
export ARA_IGNORED_FILES=.ansible/tmp,vault.yaml,vault.yml
export ARA_IGNORED_ARGUMENTS=extra_vars,vault_password_files
export ARA_LOCALHOST_AS_HOSTNAME=true
export ARA_LOCALHOST_AS_HOSTNAME_FORMAT=fqdn
export ANSIBLE_CALLBACK_PLUGINS=$(python -m ara.setup.callback_plugins)
echo 'Done!'

ansible-playbook -i localhost, playbook.yaml

References

https://ara.recordsansible.org/ https://ara.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ansible-plugins-and-use-cases.html