cybette/Q_and_A_Log_Ansible+Contributor+Summit+-+Current+Contributor+Workshops+%2F+Unconference_15Oct2020.txt

## Q_and_A_Log_Ansible+Contributor+Summit+-+Current+Contributor+Workshops+%2F+Unconference_15Oct2020.txt
EVENT NAME: Ansible Contributor Summit - Current Contributor Workshops / Unconference

EVENT DATE: THURSDAY, 15 OCTOBER, 2020 - 10:00 AM to 05:00 PM


Posted Questions
[10:21 AM]
Alfredo José Pedrón Morales asked : Ansible could be used for monitoring ? Check log file ? Or support monitoring tools (ej nagios or navíg) ?
3 upvotes | 2 answers | 1 reply

Dylan Silva answered -
It is definitely not a monitoring tool.  In some cases, it can be used in combination with monitoring tools like nagios, etc.

James Cammarata answered -
While ansible can be used for this purpose, it is not an ideal tool for it due to the fact that there's no history saved per-run - you would have to manually keep track of what changed over time. Tower/AWX do have the capability to track file drift in your environment for something like active monitoring we'd recommend sticking with nagios or similar tools.

Alfredo José Pedrón Morales replied -
Thanks


[10:29 AM]
Lonnie Holcomb asked : will we have to use containers?
2 upvotes | 2 answers | 2 replies

@webknjaz (Sviatoslav Sydorenko) answered -
no, unless you want to

Lonnie Holcomb replied -
cool thanks

Carol Chen answered -
via David Blackwell: No, but it makes testing different releases trivial, as well as moving your whole ansible config from system to system.

Lonnie Holcomb replied -
well I just use it to patch and while I recognize that as a value for others, I don't need it


[01:02 PM]
James Cassell asked : Anyone working on getting dw's mitogen ansible speedup techniques integrated into ansible-base?
2 upvotes | 4 answers | 0 reply

sivel  answered -
Short answer, no.

sivel  answered -
Long answer, we are looking at many architectual changes that are likely to see performance gains.

Matt Davis answered -
Some of the architectural changes we're working on will also allow mitogen to work much better and faster than it does today; I don't know if we'll ever see it as a supported component in base, but my hope is that we can get to a point where it can do its thing from a collection as a connection/platform/target plugin rather than a fork of core.


Jeff Geerling answered -
One other quick note: for some modules (especially some of these cloud modules that load a remote API and use a large Python library), you can get a HUGE speedup using a new project from Goneri that is part of cloud.common: https://github.com/ansible-collections/cloud.common/blob/main/README_ansible_turbo.module.rst


[10:54 AM]
Hideki Saito asked : Quick question about the community meetup. Ansible user community in Japan haven't used Meetup.com yet. Is it better moving it to Meetup.com according to the following link?(https://www.ansible.com/community/events/ansible-meetups)?
1 upvote | 1 answer | 1 reply

Carol Chen answered -
It's not mandatory, but it would help us to coordinate and organize with you! Also easier for us to get info about your activities. Feel free to contact me.

Hideki Saito replied -
Thank you for the answer, We will consider it! :)


[11:03 AM]
Pierre-Louis Bonicoli asked : Any plan to use Zuul in order to automate releases ?

1 upvote | 3 answers | 0 reply

Matt Davis answered -
Some collections are using it now for CI, and they'd be free to do so. Unlikely for Core at this point.

Sorin Sbarnea answered -
zuul is already in place, also github actions. better to have two options as each of them has its own dowsides.

Paul Belanger answered -
As above said, we use it on network collections. It is opt in at this point, so if you want to use it come talk to us!


[11:59 AM]
V K asked : Is it possible to distribute collections as python packages? Mainly thinking about internal (to an enterprise) content. Same applies to roles, so not new to collections per se.
1 upvote | 4 answers | 2 replies

Felix Fontein answered -
It is possible. Similarly as the ansible package, you have to put things into the ansible_collections module.

sivel  answered -
This is technically not supported outside of the ansible package.

Tadej tadeboro Borovšak answered -
Considering that collections can be installed from the tarball, I see no real reason to put them into python packages.

V K replied -
Main reason is ease of use w/ existing infrastructure in a python shop. For example, our standard internal ansible virtualenv could be setup with a single `pip install`, using an internal devpi instance to host + cache, if our internal roles + collections are listed as dependencies. Using two separate packaging/dist technologies implies some additional process + infra + admin training compared to just one. I realize this will unavoidable for external collections, but maybe when we have an internal galaxy_ng setup, that becomes more feasible.

Matt Davis answered -
It does work, but the way it works could silently collide with the Ansible distribution and cause all sorts of problems, so I wouldn't personally recommend it.


V K replied -
Understood. Thanks. Not sure yet if we'll do this ... just thinking out aloud about options.


[10:52 AM]
René Moser asked : View from a collection maintainer, could we stick with this fixed every 3 weeks patch release cycle?

0 upvote | 1 answer | 0 reply

Carol Chen answered -
answered live


[11:04 AM]
Anjankumar Gundaboina asked :  Is there any changes in 2.10 version for ansible in terms of Custom modules creation. What we can expect in 2.11 for making more feasbile and easy to create custom modules?

0 upvote | 4 answers | 1 reply

James Cammarata answered -
This is the main goal of collections - making it easier to add and share custom modules and other plugin types. Was there anything more specific about the creation of modules you were having difficulty with?

@webknjaz (Sviatoslav Sydorenko) answered -
There's no changes API-wise but there may be a need to use custom imports if your module is going to depend on things shipped in other collections and not the core engine.

Toshio Kuratomi answered -
The framework for creating custom modules hasn't changed too much in 2.10.  We wanted to make sure that the experience was as similar as possible.  There are small changes now and in the future to make the API for modules better.  (sdoran has worked on splitting up

Toshio Kuratomi answered -
AnsibleModule into smaller units, for instance)

Anjankumar Gundaboina replied -
okay noted.
Also with new updates of ansible how flexible the new version will minimize the version compatibility issues. I have tons of playbooks are written tested with older versions. Is there any collections type where it can do a sanity check and replace the obselete syntax's and warnings?


[11:41 AM]
James Gill asked : If you allow forcing fqcn could a local file be used to map from none fqcn to fqcn's?

0 upvote | 1 answer | 1 reply

Toshio Kuratomi answered -
nitzmahone has been against that because it makes playbooks nonportable.  You can put a `collections:` keyword into the playbook itself, though.

James Gill replied -
Thanks I'll play with that.


[12:10 PM]
xavier  renaut asked : Sorry,  out of context question :
We have a large and diverse infra. When we code a new task, we have to run it against the whole infra, very tedious.
I'd like an already made report (eg --check) that allow review and apply.
What are my solutions/possibilities ?
0 upvote | 0 answer | 0 reply


[12:40 PM]
James Glynn asked : Can anyone suggest updates to documentation? Such as, adding more specific examples for certain modules? And if so, what is the best way?
0 upvote | 4 answers | 1 reply

Carol Chen answered -
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/community/documentation_contributions.html

Felix Fontein answered -
Create a PR in the repository that contains the module/plugin that adds the examples you are hoping for. If you're not sure how the examples should look like, you can also create an issue to try to interact with the maintainers of that module/plugin.

Sandra McCann answered -
Yes! we welcome documentation contributions. See https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/community/how_can_I_help.html#review-fix-and-maintain-the-documentation for details or drop into #ansible-docs IRC for more help


Carol Chen answered -
https://github.com/ansible/community/wiki/Docs

James Glynn replied -
Awesome, thank you!


[12:42 PM]
V K asked : RE: Diversity and Inclusion - I find colleges + high schools in the US generally don't prepare students for a DevOps type of role in general, even before we talk about diversity/economic factors. Any efforts under way from RedHat to help with the path to the workforce with the added D&I factor?
0 upvote | 1 answer | 1 reply

Carol Chen answered -
There are some info about Red Hat efforts with schools and students: https://www.redhat.com/en/about/our-culture/diversity-and-inclusion


V K replied -
Thanks


[01:00 PM]
Kim Covil asked : Are resource modules just aimed at networking modules? It looks like it could also be used as a framework against general APIs...

0 upvote | 1 answer | 0 reply

Carol Chen answered -
answered live


[01:09 PM]
James Glynn asked : Am I understanding correctly? AWS is supported by Red Hat and Community, but not by Amazon themselves?
0 upvote | 4 answers | 2 replies

Tim A answered -
Correct.

Tim A answered -
And in case you are wondering, we tried to get Amazon involved. ;)

James Glynn replied -
Okay, thanks. Guess I know where I will start my "contributor" journey :-)  ... Any suggestions on how I should begin?

Jill Rouleau answered -
We just published a blog for that! https://www.ansible.com/blog/getting-started-with-aws-ansible-module-development

James Glynn replied -
awesome, thank you! Expect to see me around, I really want to start getting involved :-)

Jill Rouleau answered -
Excellent! We hang out in #ansible-aws on Freenode irc as well


[03:09 PM]
baptiste mille-mathias asked : Q: so in a event something is broken using python 3.6 on a controller, the bug won't be solved ?
0 upvote | 1 answer | 0 reply

Matt Davis answered -
Case-by-case for 2.11, definitely not post 2.11


[03:17 PM]
Alfredo José Pedrón Morales asked : Ansible can be integrated with dynatrace ?

0 upvote | 1 answer | 1 reply

Iftikhar Khan answered -
https://www.dynatrace.com/support/help/setup-and-configuration/integrations/third-party-integrations/deployment-automation-frameworks/dynatrace-and-ansible-tower-integration/

Alfredo José Pedrón Morales replied -
Thanks


[03:33 PM]
Herve Quatremain asked : Is ansible-test included in the image? How module/plugin developers can use it?

0 upvote | 1 answer | 1 reply

Paul Belanger answered -
This is what I plan to work on in the next few weeks for content collections testing :)


Herve Quatremain replied -
Cool. Thanks!


[03:49 PM]
V K asked : Can on-prem galaxy_ng act as a on-demand caching proxy for upstream collections? Demo showed an explicit sync of remote repo. Would be nice to cache only what users locally within an enterprise actually pull.
0 upvote | 1 answer | 0 reply

Jeff Geerling answered -
I think that's the idea with how it works. It only caches a copy if it's used internally.
	EVENT NAME: Ansible Contributor Summit - Current Contributor Workshops / Unconference

	EVENT DATE: THURSDAY, 15 OCTOBER, 2020 - 10:00 AM to 05:00 PM



	Posted Questions
	[10:21 AM]
	Alfredo José Pedrón Morales asked : Ansible could be used for monitoring ? Check log file ? Or support monitoring tools (ej nagios or navíg) ?
	3 upvotes \| 2 answers \| 1 reply

	Dylan Silva answered -
	It is definitely not a monitoring tool. In some cases, it can be used in combination with monitoring tools like nagios, etc.

	James Cammarata answered -
	While ansible can be used for this purpose, it is not an ideal tool for it due to the fact that there's no history saved per-run - you would have to manually keep track of what changed over time. Tower/AWX do have the capability to track file drift in your environment for something like active monitoring we'd recommend sticking with nagios or similar tools.

	Alfredo José Pedrón Morales replied -
	Thanks


	[10:29 AM]
	Lonnie Holcomb asked : will we have to use containers?
	2 upvotes \| 2 answers \| 2 replies

	@webknjaz (Sviatoslav Sydorenko) answered -
	no, unless you want to

	Lonnie Holcomb replied -
	cool thanks

	Carol Chen answered -
	via David Blackwell: No, but it makes testing different releases trivial, as well as moving your whole ansible config from system to system.

	Lonnie Holcomb replied -
	well I just use it to patch and while I recognize that as a value for others, I don't need it


	[01:02 PM]
	James Cassell asked : Anyone working on getting dw's mitogen ansible speedup techniques integrated into ansible-base?
	2 upvotes \| 4 answers \| 0 reply

	sivel answered -
	Short answer, no.

	sivel answered -
	Long answer, we are looking at many architectual changes that are likely to see performance gains.

	Matt Davis answered -
	Some of the architectural changes we're working on will also allow mitogen to work much better and faster than it does today; I don't know if we'll ever see it as a supported component in base, but my hope is that we can get to a point where it can do its thing from a collection as a connection/platform/target plugin rather than a fork of core.


	Jeff Geerling answered -
	One other quick note: for some modules (especially some of these cloud modules that load a remote API and use a large Python library), you can get a HUGE speedup using a new project from Goneri that is part of cloud.common: https://github.com/ansible-collections/cloud.common/blob/main/README_ansible_turbo.module.rst


	[10:54 AM]
	Hideki Saito asked : Quick question about the community meetup. Ansible user community in Japan haven't used Meetup.com yet. Is it better moving it to Meetup.com according to the following link?(https://www.ansible.com/community/events/ansible-meetups)?
	1 upvote \| 1 answer \| 1 reply

	Carol Chen answered -
	It's not mandatory, but it would help us to coordinate and organize with you! Also easier for us to get info about your activities. Feel free to contact me.

	Hideki Saito replied -
	Thank you for the answer, We will consider it! :)


	[11:03 AM]
	Pierre-Louis Bonicoli asked : Any plan to use Zuul in order to automate releases ?

	1 upvote \| 3 answers \| 0 reply

	Matt Davis answered -
	Some collections are using it now for CI, and they'd be free to do so. Unlikely for Core at this point.

	Sorin Sbarnea answered -
	zuul is already in place, also github actions. better to have two options as each of them has its own dowsides.

	Paul Belanger answered -
	As above said, we use it on network collections. It is opt in at this point, so if you want to use it come talk to us!


	[11:59 AM]
	V K asked : Is it possible to distribute collections as python packages? Mainly thinking about internal (to an enterprise) content. Same applies to roles, so not new to collections per se.
	1 upvote \| 4 answers \| 2 replies

	Felix Fontein answered -
	It is possible. Similarly as the ansible package, you have to put things into the ansible_collections module.

	sivel answered -
	This is technically not supported outside of the ansible package.

	Tadej tadeboro Borovšak answered -
	Considering that collections can be installed from the tarball, I see no real reason to put them into python packages.

	V K replied -
	Main reason is ease of use w/ existing infrastructure in a python shop. For example, our standard internal ansible virtualenv could be setup with a single `pip install`, using an internal devpi instance to host + cache, if our internal roles + collections are listed as dependencies. Using two separate packaging/dist technologies implies some additional process + infra + admin training compared to just one. I realize this will unavoidable for external collections, but maybe when we have an internal galaxy_ng setup, that becomes more feasible.

	Matt Davis answered -
	It does work, but the way it works could silently collide with the Ansible distribution and cause all sorts of problems, so I wouldn't personally recommend it.


	V K replied -
	Understood. Thanks. Not sure yet if we'll do this ... just thinking out aloud about options.


	[10:52 AM]
	René Moser asked : View from a collection maintainer, could we stick with this fixed every 3 weeks patch release cycle?

	0 upvote \| 1 answer \| 0 reply

	Carol Chen answered -
	answered live


	[11:04 AM]
	Anjankumar Gundaboina asked : Is there any changes in 2.10 version for ansible in terms of Custom modules creation. What we can expect in 2.11 for making more feasbile and easy to create custom modules?

	0 upvote \| 4 answers \| 1 reply

	James Cammarata answered -
	This is the main goal of collections - making it easier to add and share custom modules and other plugin types. Was there anything more specific about the creation of modules you were having difficulty with?

	@webknjaz (Sviatoslav Sydorenko) answered -
	There's no changes API-wise but there may be a need to use custom imports if your module is going to depend on things shipped in other collections and not the core engine.

	Toshio Kuratomi answered -
	The framework for creating custom modules hasn't changed too much in 2.10. We wanted to make sure that the experience was as similar as possible. There are small changes now and in the future to make the API for modules better. (sdoran has worked on splitting up

	Toshio Kuratomi answered -
	AnsibleModule into smaller units, for instance)

	Anjankumar Gundaboina replied -
	okay noted.
	Also with new updates of ansible how flexible the new version will minimize the version compatibility issues. I have tons of playbooks are written tested with older versions. Is there any collections type where it can do a sanity check and replace the obselete syntax's and warnings?


	[11:41 AM]
	James Gill asked : If you allow forcing fqcn could a local file be used to map from none fqcn to fqcn's?

	0 upvote \| 1 answer \| 1 reply

	Toshio Kuratomi answered -
	nitzmahone has been against that because it makes playbooks nonportable. You can put a `collections:` keyword into the playbook itself, though.

	James Gill replied -
	Thanks I'll play with that.


	[12:10 PM]
	xavier renaut asked : Sorry, out of context question :
	We have a large and diverse infra. When we code a new task, we have to run it against the whole infra, very tedious.
	I'd like an already made report (eg --check) that allow review and apply.
	What are my solutions/possibilities ?
	0 upvote \| 0 answer \| 0 reply


	[12:40 PM]
	James Glynn asked : Can anyone suggest updates to documentation? Such as, adding more specific examples for certain modules? And if so, what is the best way?
	0 upvote \| 4 answers \| 1 reply

	Carol Chen answered -
	https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/community/documentation_contributions.html

	Felix Fontein answered -
	Create a PR in the repository that contains the module/plugin that adds the examples you are hoping for. If you're not sure how the examples should look like, you can also create an issue to try to interact with the maintainers of that module/plugin.

	Sandra McCann answered -
	Yes! we welcome documentation contributions. See https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/community/how_can_I_help.html#review-fix-and-maintain-the-documentation for details or drop into #ansible-docs IRC for more help


	Carol Chen answered -
	https://github.com/ansible/community/wiki/Docs

	James Glynn replied -
	Awesome, thank you!


	[12:42 PM]
	V K asked : RE: Diversity and Inclusion - I find colleges + high schools in the US generally don't prepare students for a DevOps type of role in general, even before we talk about diversity/economic factors. Any efforts under way from RedHat to help with the path to the workforce with the added D&I factor?
	0 upvote \| 1 answer \| 1 reply

	Carol Chen answered -
	There are some info about Red Hat efforts with schools and students: https://www.redhat.com/en/about/our-culture/diversity-and-inclusion


	V K replied -
	Thanks


	[01:00 PM]
	Kim Covil asked : Are resource modules just aimed at networking modules? It looks like it could also be used as a framework against general APIs...

	0 upvote \| 1 answer \| 0 reply

	Carol Chen answered -
	answered live


	[01:09 PM]
	James Glynn asked : Am I understanding correctly? AWS is supported by Red Hat and Community, but not by Amazon themselves?
	0 upvote \| 4 answers \| 2 replies

	Tim A answered -
	Correct.

	Tim A answered -
	And in case you are wondering, we tried to get Amazon involved. ;)

	James Glynn replied -
	Okay, thanks. Guess I know where I will start my "contributor" journey :-) ... Any suggestions on how I should begin?

	Jill Rouleau answered -
	We just published a blog for that! https://www.ansible.com/blog/getting-started-with-aws-ansible-module-development

	James Glynn replied -
	awesome, thank you! Expect to see me around, I really want to start getting involved :-)

	Jill Rouleau answered -
	Excellent! We hang out in #ansible-aws on Freenode irc as well


	[03:09 PM]
	baptiste mille-mathias asked : Q: so in a event something is broken using python 3.6 on a controller, the bug won't be solved ?
	0 upvote \| 1 answer \| 0 reply

	Matt Davis answered -
	Case-by-case for 2.11, definitely not post 2.11


	[03:17 PM]
	Alfredo José Pedrón Morales asked : Ansible can be integrated with dynatrace ?

	0 upvote \| 1 answer \| 1 reply

	Iftikhar Khan answered -
	https://www.dynatrace.com/support/help/setup-and-configuration/integrations/third-party-integrations/deployment-automation-frameworks/dynatrace-and-ansible-tower-integration/

	Alfredo José Pedrón Morales replied -
	Thanks



	[03:33 PM]
	Herve Quatremain asked : Is ansible-test included in the image? How module/plugin developers can use it?

	0 upvote \| 1 answer \| 1 reply

	Paul Belanger answered -
	This is what I plan to work on in the next few weeks for content collections testing :)


	Herve Quatremain replied -
	Cool. Thanks!


	[03:49 PM]
	V K asked : Can on-prem galaxy_ng act as a on-demand caching proxy for upstream collections? Demo showed an explicit sync of remote repo. Would be nice to cache only what users locally within an enterprise actually pull.
	0 upvote \| 1 answer \| 0 reply

	Jeff Geerling answered -
	I think that's the idea with how it works. It only caches a copy if it's used internally.