.. _tips_and_tricks: ************************ Ascender Tips and Tricks ************************ .. index:: single: tips single: best practices single: help .. contents:: :local: Using the Ascender CLI Tool ============================== .. index:: pair: Ascender CLI; command line interface pair: tips; Ascender CLI pair: tips; command line interface Ascender has a full-featured command line interface. Refer to `Ascender Command Line Interface`_ documentation for configuration and usage instructions. .. _`Ascender Command Line Interface`: https://docs.ansible.com/automation-controller/latest/html/controllercli/usage.html .. _tips_change_password: Changing the Ascender Admin Password ======================================= .. index:: pair: admin password; changing password pair: tips; admin password change pair: awx-manage; change password During the installation process, you are prompted to enter an administrator password which is used for the ``admin`` superuser/first user created in Ascender. If you log into the instance via SSH, it will tell you the default admin password in the prompt. If you need to change this password at any point, run the following command as root on the Ascender server: :: awx-manage changepassword admin Next, enter a new password. After that, the password you have entered will work as the admin password in the web UI. To set policies at creation time for password validation using Django, see :ref:`ag_security_django_password` for detail. Creating an Ascender Admin from the commandline ================================================== .. index:: pair: admin creation; commandline pair: super user creation; awx-manage pair: tips; admin creation Once in a while you may find it helpful to create an admin (superuser) account from the commandline. To create an admin, run the following command as root on the Ascender server and enter in the admin information as prompted: :: awx-manage createsuperuser Setting up a jump host to use with Ascender ============================================= .. index:: pair: jump host; ProxyCommand pair: tips; jump host pair: tips; ProxyCommand Credentials supplied by Ascender will not flow to the jump host via ProxyCommand. They are only used for the end-node once the tunneled connection is set up. To make this work, configure a fixed user/keyfile in the Ascender user's SSH config in the ProxyCommand definition that sets up the connection through the jump host. For example: :: Host tampa Hostname 10.100.100.11 IdentityFile [privatekeyfile] Host 10.100.. Proxycommand ssh -W [jumphostuser]@%h:%p tampa You can also add a jump host to your Ascender instance through Inventory variables. These variables can be set at either the inventory, group, or host level. To add this, navigate to your inventory and in the ``variables`` field of whichever level you choose, add the following variables: :: ansible_user: ansible_connection: ssh ansible_ssh_common_args: '-o ProxyCommand="ssh -W %h:%p -q @"' View Ansible outputs for JSON commands when using Ascender ============================================================ .. index:: single: Ansible output for JSON commands single: JSON commands, Ansible output When working with Ascender, you can use the API to obtain the Ansible outputs for commands in JSON format. To view the Ansible outputs, browse to: :: https:///api/v2/jobs//job_events/ Locate and configure the Ansible configuration file ===================================================== .. index:: pair: tips; configuration file location pair: tips; configuration file configuration single: Ansible configuration file single: ansible.cfg pair: tips; ansible.cfg While Ansible does not require a configuration file, OS packages often include a default one in ``/etc/ansible/ansible.cfg`` for possible customization. In order to use a custom ``ansible.cfg`` file, place it at the root of your project. Ascender runs ``ansible-playbook`` from the root of the project directory, where it will then find the custom ``ansible.cfg`` file. An ``ansible.cfg`` anywhere else in the project will be ignored. To learn which values you can use in this file, refer to the `configuration file on github`_. .. _`configuration file on github`: https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/devel/examples/ansible.cfg Using the defaults are acceptable for starting out, but know that you can configure the default module path or connection type here, as well as other things. Ascender overrides some ansible.cfg options. For example, Ascender stores the SSH ControlMaster sockets, the SSH agent socket, and any other per-job run items in a per-job temporary directory that is passed to the container used for job execution. View a listing of all ansible\_ variables =========================================== .. index:: pair: tips; ansible_variables, viewing all Ansible by default gathers “facts” about the machines under its management, accessible in Playbooks and in templates. To view all facts available about a machine, run the ``setup`` module as an ad hoc action: :: ansible -m setup hostname This prints out a dictionary of all facts available for that particular host. For more information, refer to: https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/playbooks_variables.html#information-discovered-from-systems-facts .. _ag_tips_jinja_extravars: The ALLOW_JINJA_IN_EXTRA_VARS variable ======================================== Setting ``ALLOW_JINJA_IN_EXTRA_VARS = template`` only works for saved job template extra variables. Prompted variables and survey variables are excluded from the 'template'. This parameter has three values: ``template`` to allow usage of Jinja saved directly on a job template definition (the default), ``never`` to disable all Jinja usage (recommended), and ``always`` to always allow Jinja (strongly discouraged, but an option for prior compatibility). This parameter is configurable in the Jobs Settings screen of the Ascender UI: .. image:: ../common/images/settings-jobs-jinja.png Using execution environments ============================ .. index:: single: execution environment pair: add; execution environment pair: jobs; add execution environment See :ref:`ug_execution_environments` in the |atu|. Configuring the ``awxhost`` hostname for notifications =============================================================== .. index:: pair: notifications; hostname configuration In the :ref:`System Settings `, you can replace ``https://awxhost`` in the **Base URL of the service** field with your preferred hostname to change the notification hostname. .. image:: ../common/images/configure-awx-system-misc-baseurl.png New installations of Ascender should not have to set the hostname for notifications. .. _launch_jobs_curl: Launching Jobs with curl ======================== .. index:: pair: tips; curl Launching jobs with Ascender API is simple. Here are some easy to follow examples using the ``curl`` tool. Assuming that your Job Template ID is '1', your Ascender IP is 192.168.42.100, and that ``admin`` and ``awxsecret`` are valid login credentials, you can create a new job this way: :: curl -f -k -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -XPOST \ --user admin:awxsecret \ http://192.168.42.100/api/v2/job_templates/1/launch/ This returns a JSON object that you can parse and use to extract the 'id' field, which is the ID of the newly created job. You can also pass extra variables to the Job Template call, such as is shown in the following example: .. code-block:: text curl -f -k -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -XPOST \ -d '{"extra_vars": "{\"foo\": \"bar\"}"}' \ --user admin:awxsecret http://192.168.42.100/api/v2/job_templates/1/launch/ You can view the live API documentation by logging into http://192.168.42.100/api/ and browsing around to the various objects available. .. note:: The ``extra_vars`` parameter needs to be a string which contains JSON, not just a JSON dictionary, as you might expect. Use caution when escaping the quotes, etc. Dynamic Inventory and private IP addresses =========================================== .. index:: pair: tips; EC2 VPC instances pair: tips; private IPs with dynamic inventory pair: tips; dynamic inventory and private IPs By default, Ascender only shows instances in a VPC that have an Elastic IP (EIP) address associated with them. To view all of your VPC instances, perform the following steps: - In the Ascender interface, select your inventory. - Click on the group that has the Source set to AWS, and click on the Source tab. - In the "Source Variables" box, enter: ``vpc_destination_variable: private_ip_address`` Save and trigger an update of the group. You should now be able to see all of your VPC instances. .. note:: Ascender must be running inside the VPC with access to those instances in order to usefully configure them. Filtering instances returned by the dynamic inventory sources in Ascender ========================================================================= .. index:: pair: tips; filtering instances pair: tips; dynamic inventory and instance filtering pair: tips; instance filtering By default, the dynamic inventory sources in Ascender (AWS, Google, etc) return all instances available to the cloud credentials being used. They are automatically joined into groups based on various attributes. For example, AWS instances are grouped by region, by tag name and value, by security groups, etc. To target specific instances in your environment, write your playbooks so that they target the generated group names. For example: :: --- - hosts: tag_Name_webserver tasks: ... You can also use the ``Limit`` field in the Job Template settings to limit a playbook run to a certain group, groups, hosts, or a combination thereof. The syntax is the same as the ``--limit parameter`` on the ansible-playbook command line. You may also create your own groups by copying the auto-generated groups into your custom groups. Make sure that the ``Overwrite`` option is disabled on your dynamic inventory source, otherwise subsequent synchronization operations will delete and replace your custom groups. Using an unreleased module from Ansible source with Ascender ============================================================ .. index:: pair: tips; Ansible modules, unreleased pair: tips; unreleased modules pair: tips; modules, using unreleased If there is a feature that is available in the latest Ansible core branch that you would like to leverage with your Ascender system, making use of it in Ascender is fairly simple. First, determine which is the updated module you want to use from the available Ansible Core Modules or Ansible Extra Modules GitHub repositories. Next, create a new directory, at the same directory level of your Ansible source playbooks, named ``/library``. Once this is created, copy the module you want to use and drop it into the ``/library`` directory--it will be consumed first over your system modules and can be removed once you have updated the stable version via your normal package manager. Using callback plugins with Ascender ==================================== .. index:: pair: tips; callback plugins pair: tips; plugins, callback Ansible has a flexible method of handling actions during playbook runs, called callback plugins. You can use these plugins with Ascender to do things like notify services upon playbook runs or failures, send emails after every playbook run, etc. For official documentation on the callback plugin architecture, refer to: http://docs.ansible.com/developing_plugins.html#callbacks .. note:: Ascender does not support the ``stdout`` callback plugin because Ansible only allows one, and it is already being used by Ascender for streaming event data. You may also want to review some example plugins, which should be modified for site-specific purposes, such as those available at: https://github.com/ansible/ansible/tree/devel/lib/ansible/plugins/callback To use these plugins, put the callback plugin ``.py`` file into a directory called ``/callback_plugins`` alongside your playbook in your Ascender Project. Then, specify their paths (one path per line) in the **Ansible Callback Plugins** field of the Job settings, located towards the bottom of the screen: .. image:: ../common/images/configure-awx-jobs-callback.png .. note:: To have most callbacks shipped with Ansible applied globally, you must add them to the ``callback_whitelist`` section of your ``ansible.cfg``. If you have a custom callbacks, refer to the Ansible documentation for `Enabling callback plugins `_. Connecting to Windows with winrm ==================================== .. index:: pair: tips; Windows connection pair: tips; winrm By default Ascender attempts to ``ssh`` to hosts. You must add the ``winrm`` connection info to the group variables to which the Windows hosts belong. To get started, edit the Windows group in which the hosts reside and place the variables in the source/edit screen for the group. To add ``winrm`` connection info: Edit the properties for the selected group by clicking on the |edit| button to the right of the group name that contains the Windows servers. In the "variables" section, add your connection information as such: ``ansible_connection: winrm`` Once done, save your edits. If Ansible was previously attempting an SSH connection and failed, you should re-run the job template. .. |edit| image:: ../common/images/edit-button.png Importing existing inventory files and host/group vars into Ascender ==================================================================== .. index:: pair: tips; inventory import pair: importing inventory; importing host/group vars pair: tips; host/group vars import To import an existing static inventory and the accompanying host and group vars into Ascender, your inventory should be in a structure that looks similar to the following: :: inventory/ |-- group_vars | `-- mygroup |-- host_vars | `-- myhost `-- hosts To import these hosts and vars, run the ``awx-manage`` command: :: awx-manage inventory_import --source=inventory/ \ --inventory-name="My Ascender Inventory" If you only have a single flat file of inventory, a file called ansible-hosts, for example, import it like the following: :: awx-manage inventory_import --source=./ansible-hosts \ --inventory-name="My Ascender Inventory" In case of conflicts or to overwrite an inventory named "My Ascender Inventory", run: :: awx-manage inventory_import --source=inventory/ \ --inventory-name="My Ascender Inventory" \ --overwrite --overwrite-vars If you receive an error, such as: :: ValueError: need more than 1 value to unpack Create a directory to hold the hosts file, as well as the group_vars: :: mkdir -p inventory-directory/group_vars Then, for each of the groups that have :vars listed, create a file called ``inventory-directory/group_vars/`` and format the variables in YAML format. Once broken out, the importer will handle the conversion correctly.