Ansible new project

This is my checklist of what to include when starting a new project.

This is a rought outline, and it should be put in a .tar.gz for quick startup.

1. Create the inventory file

   e.g. echo newserver >> inventory

2. Create the ansible.cfg file.

   Content is something like this

    [defaults]
    inventory = inventory
    roles_path = ./roles-ext:./roles
    pipelining = True
   

3. Create a role_req.yml for dependencies

   Content is comething like

    #- src: git+https://gitlab.com/<somerepo>
    #  name: server-someserver
   

   See galaxy docs for syntax

   I intentionaly do not call it requirements.yml to avoid any python confusion.

4. Create the roles directory for external roles mkdir roles_ext

5. Fetch roles using ansible-galaxy install -r role_req.yml -p roles-ext (if you added any)

6. Add an initial generic playbook.yml

   Content is comething like

   - hosts: all
     become: true
   
     task:
     - name: say hi
       debug: msg="hi"
   

7. Spin up server, reset passwords and such

8. Add group vars and host_vars passwords file

   I follow [my own suggestion]/ansible-user/.

9. Ensure you have ssh access to the server ssh user@newserver

10. Run the playbook ansible-playbook playbook.yml

    check that it works

11. Add the gitlab-ci part

    See [the post about that]/Ansible/.

12. Do git init

13. create .gitignore with the following entries

    vault-password
    roles_ext
    

14. Create a vault password file and put it in vault-password

15. Encrypt the password files ansible-vault encrypt --vault-password-file vault-password host_vars/*/passwords.yml

16. Add the lot to git git add . and git commit -m "first commit"