User Guide#

Exasol Ansible Runner Wrapper wraps Python library ansible_runner and adds the following features:

  • Enables using Importlib resources as Ansible input directory.

  • Creates a temporary working directory on the fly.

  • Creates Ansible inventory.

  • Enables convenient access to Ansible’s fact cache.

Basic Classes#

Python package exasol.ansible contains the basic classes as shown in the following figure.

_images/classes.svg

  • Initialize the Context with an Access object and a tuple of the Repositories.

  • Enter the context to obtain an instance of Runner.

  • Call method runner.run() with the Playbook and a tuple of the Hosts.

Additional Details#

  • For convenience, class ImportlibRepository extends abstract class Repository to enable instantiating a Repository using importlib resources.

  • Class Context

    • Copies the resources to a temporary directory for executing Ansible in this directory.

    • Creates the Ansible inventory file.

    • Enables passing extra variables to Ansible.

    • Removes the directory after Ansible has terminated.

  • Calling runner.run() with argument retrieve_facts_from - set to the name of one of the hosts managed by Ansible - will retrieve the Ansible fact cache from this host.

  • You can use class Facts to conveniently access the facts hierarchically.

Directory Structure#

For running Ansible, you will usually provide importlib resources as Ansible input directory. That means you will have a directory within your source code containing the playbook, roles, and tasks for Ansible.

Here is an example:

package/
+- name/
   +- resources/
      +- ansible/
          +- playbook.yml
          +- roles/
             +- tasks/
                +- main.yml

The directories and filenames follow the requirements as defined in Ansible input directory.

Example Code#

from pathlib import Path
import exasol.ansible as ansible

repo = ansible.ImportlibRepository("package.name.resources.ansible")
playbook = ansible.Playbook("playbook.yml", vars={"key": "value"})
host = ansible.Host("myhost", Path("/tmp/private_key.pem"))

runner = ansible.Runner(repositories=(repo,))
raw_facts = runner.run(playbook, hosts=(host,) retrieve_facts_from=host.name)
facts = ansible.Facts(raw_facts, prefixes=["pfx"])
value = facts.get("parent", "child")