managing-rhel-lifecycle-demo

This repo includes ansible playbooks for a demo project of automating content management in Red Hat Satellite with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform on AWS EC2.

Automating Content Management in Red Hat Satellite with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

The goal behind the code is to demonstrate a simple example for automating the periodic publishing of Content Views in Red Hat Satellite and testing those contents before applying to production.

Assumed demo environment

The assumed environment can be set up on AWS EC2 easily by using playbooks and roles in the managing-rhel-lifecycle-seup paired repo.

Included contents

Playbooks

Name	Description
publish_cv.yml	Publish a new version of the configured content view.
promote_cv.yml	Promote the content view to a life cycle environment.
snapshot_vm.yml	Snapshot the disk of runnning managed VMs.
update_vm.yml	Update all packages following the configured content view.
restart_vm.yml	Restart the running managed VMs.
test_vm.yml	Test the infrastructure of the restarted VMs.
test_app.yml	Test the application of the restarted VMs.

Group variables

These variables have already been set as follows, corresponding to the setup by managing-rhel-lifecycle-setup. You can adjust them based on your environment.

purpose: demo

foreman_organization: My_Organization
foreman_location: Tokyo
foreman_admin_username: admin
foreman_content_view: "RHEL9_SOE"
foreman_activation_key_name: "Demo_Key"

managed_vms_name_prefix: "managed"
aws_region: ap-northeast-1 # adjust with your preference
wp_weblog_title: "DemoSite"

Installation and usage

Assuming the demo environement has been already created by the way of before mentioned and you've also performed git clone this repo.

Automatedly

You can create the demo environment automatedly by running the playbook create_aac_demo.yml included in the managing-rhel-lifecycle-seup paired repo.

Manually

Ensure that you are logged in to your Ansible Automation Controller before proceeding with following steps.

Create credentials

At leaset the following two credentails need to be defined.

Credential for AWS

1. Click Credentials in the left menu.
2. Click Add button.
3. Enter the following fields:
   • Name: aws_cred
   • Credential Type: Amazon Web Services
   • Access Key: your AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
   • Secret Key: your AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
4. Click Save button.

Please refer to Ansible Doc for more details.

Credential for ssh to AWS instances

1. Click Credentials in the left menu.
2. Click Add button.
3. Enter the following fields:
   • Name: aws_key
   • Credential Type: Machine
   • SSH Private Key: your AWS private key
4. Click Save button.

Please refer to Ansible Doc for more details.

Create inventories

1. Click Inventories in the left menu.
2. Click Add button and select Add inventory.
3. Enter the following fields:
   • Name: RHEL_Demo
4. Click Save button and then select Sources tab.
5. Click Add button.
6. Enter the following fields:
   • Name: AWS
   • Source: Amazon EC2
   • Credential: aws_cred
   • Update options: Overwrite, Overwrite variables, Update on launch
   • Source variables:

   ---
   # Minimal example using environment variables
   # Fetch all hosts taged with "purpose" tag as "demo" in ap-northeast-1
   
   plugin: amazon.aws.aws_ec2
   keyed_groups:
     - prefix: tag
       key: tags
   
   # Change regions corresponding to your environment
   regions:
     - ap-northeast-1 # adjust with your preference
   
   # Filter only objects taged with "purpose" tag as "demo"
   filters:
     tag:purpose: demo
   
   # Ignores 403 errors rather than failing
   strict_permissions: false
   

7. Click Save button.

Create a project

1. Click Projects in the left menu.
2. Click Add button.
3. Enter the following fields:
   • Name: RHEL_Lifecycle_Demo
   • Organization: Default (or your prefered organization)
   • Execution Environment: Default execution environment
   • Source Control Type: Git
   • Source Control URL: your git repositoriy
4. Click Save button

Please refer to Ansible Doc for more details.

NOTE: You need to configure Red Hat automation hub as your primary source of content. To configure automation hub, you must create a credential and add it to the Organization’s Galaxy Credentials field (in this case "Default"). With automation hub, you have access to certified, supported collection i.e., "redhat.satellite".

Create job templates

Each job template is equivalent to a playbook in this repository. Repeat these steps for each template/playbook that you want to use and change the variables specific to the individual playbook. Please refer to Ansible Doc for more details.

1. Click Templates in the left menu.
2. Click Add button and select Add job template.
3. Follow the next steps respectively.
4. Click Save button

Content View Publish

• Name: Content View Publish
• Job Type: Run
• Inventory: RHEL_Demo
• Project: RHEL_Lifecycle_Demo
• Playbook: publish_cv.yml

Promote To Dev

• Name: Promote To Dev
• Job Type: Run
• Inventory: RHEL_Demo
• Project: RHEL_Lifecycle_Demo
• Playbook: promote_cv.yml
• Variables:

---
current_lce: Library
target_lce: Development

Backup Dev VM

• Name: Backup Dev VM
• Job Type: Run
• Inventory: RHEL_Demo
• Project: RHEL_Lifecycle_Demo
• Playbook: snapshot_vm.yml
• Credentials: aws_cred
• Variables:

---
managed_vms_environment: dev

Update Dev VM

• Name: Update Dev VM
• Job Type: Run
• Inventory: RHEL_Demo
• Project: RHEL_Lifecycle_Demo
• Playbook: update_vm.yml
• Credentials: aws_key
• Variables:

---
target_hosts: tag_environment_dev

Restart Dev VM

• Name: Restart Dev VM
• Job Type: Run
• Inventory: RHEL_Demo
• Project: RHEL_Lifecycle_Demo
• Playbook: restart_vm.yml
• Credentials: aws_cred
• Variables:

---
managed_vms_environment: dev

Test Dev VM

• Name: Test Dev VM
• Job Type: Run
• Inventory: RHEL_Demo
• Project: RHEL_Lifecycle_Demo
• Playbook: test_vm.yml
• Credentials: aws_key
• Variables:

---
target_hosts: tag_environment_dev

Test Dev App

• Name: Test Dev App
• Job Type: Run
• Inventory: RHEL_Demo
• Project: RHEL_Lifecycle_Demo
• Playbook: test_app.yml
• Credentials: aws_cred
• Variables:

---
managed_vms_environment: dev

Promote To Prod

• Name: Promote To Prod
• Job Type: Run
• Inventory: RHEL_Demo
• Project: RHEL_Lifecycle_Demo
• Playbook: promote_cv.yml
• Variables:

---
current_lce: Development
target_lce: Production

Backup Prod VM

• Name: Backup Prod VM
• Job Type: Run
• Inventory: RHEL_Demo
• Project: RHEL_Lifecycle_Demo
• Playbook: snapshot_vm.yml
• Credentials: aws_cred
• Variables:

---
managed_vms_environment: prod

Update Prod VM

• Name: Update Prod VM
• Job Type: Run
• Inventory: RHEL_Demo
• Project: RHEL_Lifecycle_Demo
• Playbook: update_vm.yml
• Credentials: aws_key
• Variables:

---
target_hosts: tag_environment_prod

Restart Prod VM

• Name: Restart Prod VM
• Job Type: Run
• Inventory: RHEL_Demo
• Project: RHEL_Lifecycle_Demo
• Playbook: restart_vm.yml
• Credentials: aws_cred
• Variables:

---
managed_vms_environment: prod

Test Prod VM

• Name: Test Prod VM
• Job Type: Run
• Inventory: RHEL_Demo
• Project: RHEL_Lifecycle_Demo
• Playbook: test_vm.yml
• Credentials: aws_key
• Variables:

---
target_hosts: tag_environment_prod

Test Prod App

• Name: Test Prod App
• Job Type: Run
• Inventory: RHEL_Demo
• Project: RHEL_Lifecycle_Demo
• Playbook: test_app.yml
• Credentials: aws_cred
• Variables:

---
managed_vms_environment: prod

Create workflow templates

Above job templates are acutually configured as separate workflow templates for Development and for Production respectively. Follow the next steps for each environment. Please refer to Ansible Doc for more details.

Update Dev Environment

1. Click Templates in the left menu.
2. Click Add button and select Add workflow template.
3. Click Save button.
4. Click Start and launch Visualizer.
5. Configure the workflow template as follows:

6. Click Save button.
7. Click Survery tab and click Add button.
8. Add the following two surveys and enable them:
   • ErrataByDate
     • Question: Enter ErrataByDate
     • Answer variable name: foreman_cv_end_date
   • Satellite Password
     • Questoin: Enter Satellite Password
     • Answer variable name: foreman_admin_passwd

NOTE: Although foreman_admin_passwd should be encrypted in production, using vault for example, I just use easier way for demo purpose.

Update Prod Environment

1. Click Templates in the left menu.
2. Click Add button and select Add workflow template.
3. Click Save button.
4. Click Start and launch Visualizer.
5. Configure the workflow template as follows:

6. Click Save button.
7. Click Survery tab and click Add button.
8. Add the following two surveys and enable them:
   • ErrataByDate
     • Question: Enter ErrataByDate
     • Answer variable name: foreman_cv_end_date
   • Satellite Password
     • Questoin: Enter Satellite Password
     • Answer variable name: foreman_admin_passwd

NOTE: When running the workflow for Production , foreman_cv_end_date needs to be set identical to the input for Development.