Demystifying Ansible Automation Platform: A definitive way to manage Ansible Automation Platform and Ansible Tower

Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Contributors
Table of Contents
Preface
Part 1: Getting Ansible Automation Platform Up and Running
Chapter 1: Introduction to Ansible Automation Platform
	Technical requirements
	AAP overview
		Automation controller (Red Hat Ansible Tower)
		Automation execution environments
		Automation hub
		Automation services catalog
		Red Hat Insights for Red Hat AAP
		Ansible content tools
	Key differences between upstream and official Red Hat products
	Overview of the methods that will be used in this book
		Introduction to the roles and modules that will be used in this book
		The manual approach
		Using Ansible to manage the configuration
		Execution environments and Ansible Navigator
	Summary
Chapter 2: Installing Ansible Automation Platform
	Technical requirements
		Getting a trial version of Ansible Automation Platform
	Planning an installation on a machine
		The distinct types of nodes
		High availability
		Installation methods
		Setting variables for the automation mesh and node types
	Installing Galaxy NG on a machine
	Backing up and restoring the installation
		Backing up
		Secret key redistribution
		Restore
	Issues that can arise when using the installer
	Summary
Chapter 3: Installing Ansible Automation Platform on OpenShift
	Technical requirements
	Installing AWX on minikube
	Installing CodeReady Containers
	Installing the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform operator on an OpenShift cluster
		Exploring the Automation controller and Automation hub on OpenShift
		Learning about Automation controller specifics on OpenShift
		Secret fields
		Learning Automation hub specifics
		Backing up and restoring a backup for Automation hub and the Automation controller on OpenShift
	Summary
Chapter 4: Configuring Settings and Authentication
	Technical requirements
		Getting a trial version of Ansible Automation Platform
	Configuring Automation controller settings
		Registering the Automation controller with a subscription manifest
		Updating Automation controller settings
	Configuring the RH-SSO server SAML
		Getting values from a Windows AD server
		Configuring the RH-SSO server
		Setting Automation hub administrators with RH-SSO
		Integrating the Automation controller with RH-SSO
		Troubleshooting the SAML configuration
	Integrating LDAP with Microsoft AD
		Automation controller LDAP bind and user variables
		Automation controller LDAP group variables
		Automation controller LDAP miscellaneous variables
		Troubleshooting
		Setting up other authentication methods
	Adding users and teams to the Automation controller without an IdP
	Adding users and groups to the Automation hub without an IdP
	Summary
Part 2: Configuring AAP
Chapter 5: Configuring the Basics after Installation
	Technical requirements
	Dashboard introduction
	Creating organizations – the root of all objects in the controller
		Creating an organization using the GUI
		Creating an organization using modules
		Creating an organization using roles
	Using credential types and credentials
		Credential types
		Credentials
		The creation of credential types and credentials using various methods
	Importing and exporting objects into the controller
	Summary
Chapter 6: Configuring Role-Based Access Control
	Technical requirements
	Assigning RBAC to the Automation controller
		Approval permissions for workflows
		Practically using the RBACs
	Assigning RBAC to the Automation hub
		Setting roles in the GUI
		Practically using the RBACs
	Summary
Chapter 7: Creating Inventory, and Other Inventory Pieces
	Technical requirements
	Creating an inventory
		Creating and populating an inventory using the GUI
		Creating and populating an inventory with modules
		Creating and populating an inventory with roles
	Using inventory sources
		Creating and synchronizing an inventory source with the GUI
		Creating and populating an inventory source with modules
		Creating and populating an inventory source with roles
	Using base Ansible inventory plugins
		Pre-installed Ansible plugins
	Using built-in Automation controller inventory plugins
		AWS EC2
		GCE
		Microsoft ARM
		VMware vCenter
		Red Hat Satellite 6
		Red Hat Insights
		OpenStack
		RHV
		Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
	Using other popular inventory plugins
		Overview of using custom inventory plugins
		NetBox
		ServiceNow
	Writing your own inventory plugin
		Ansible configuration changes
		Custom inventory plugin script
	Summary
	Further reading
Chapter 8: Creating Execution Environments
	Technical requirements
	What are execution environments?
		What is inside the execution environment?
		Seeing what is in a specific execution environment
	How to use execution environments
		Running a simple job in an execution environment
	Creating and modifying your execution environments
		Creating a definition file
		Creating the execution environment
	Using roles to create execution environments
		Creating an execution environment using the builder role
		Converting Python virtual environments from older Tower installations
	Summary
Chapter 9: Automation Hub Management
	Technical requirements
	Overview of Automation hub and its content sources
	Synchronizing certified and community collections
	Publishing custom collections
	Managing execution environments and registries
		How to add a remote EE registry
		How to synchronize an EE registry
		How to add a remote or local EE to Automation hub
		Best practices for maintaining execution environments
	Connecting Automation hub to the Automation controller
		Using credentials to pull collections
		Adding execution environments to the Automation controller with the GUI
		Adding execution environments to the Automation controller with modules
		Adding execution environments to the Automation controller with roles
	Summary
Chapter 10: Creating Job Templates and Workflows
	Technical requirements
	Creating projects
		The structure and files of a playbook directory
		Project options on the Automation controller and creating projects in the GUI
		Creating projects on the Automation controller using modules
		Creating projects on the Automation controller using roles
	Creating job templates
		Job template options for the GUI, modules, and roles
		Creating job templates using the GUI
		Creating job templates using modules
		Creating job templates using roles
	Surveys for job templates and workflows, and how to use them
		Survey definitions
		Using surveys
	Creating workflows
		Workflow basics
		Workflow job template options for the GUI, modules, and roles
		Workflow node list options and creation in the GUI
		Creating workflows using roles
	Using job slicing to slice a job template into multiple jobs
	Summary
Part 3: Extending Ansible Tower
Chapter 11: Creating Advanced Workflows and Jobs
	Technical requirements
	Creating advanced workflows
		Using workflow artifacts and variables
		Creating nodes for user review
		Using workflow approval nodes
		Marking a workflow as failed or successful
	Using and configuring notifications
		Understanding the basics of notifications
		Notification options for the GUI, modules, and roles
		Creating a notification template using modules
		Creating a notification template using roles
		Adding notifications to activities
	Summary
Chapter 12: Using CI/CD to Interact with Automation Controller
	Technical requirements
	A brief introduction to CI/CD pipelines and webhooks
	Maintaining an Automation controller and hub through infrastructure as code paired with CI/CD
	Launching jobs, monitoring, and interacting with workflows using CI/CD playbooks
	Ad hoc commands
	Backup and restore options using CI/CD playbook
	Summary
	Further reading
Chapter 13: Integration with Other Services
	Technical requirements
	Logging services
		Creating an event collector on Splunk
		Connecting the Automation controller to Splunk
		Troubleshooting with the log aggregator
		Splunk search queries
		Splunk dashboards
	Automation Analytics for Red Hat AAP
		Automation Analytics configuration
		Configuring the insights settings with roles/modules
		Charts and other information accessible from the dashboard
		Automation calculator
	Prometheus metrics logging
		Installation and configuration
		Prometheus Graphs
	Summary
Chapter 14: Automating at Scale with Automation Mesh
	Technical requirements
	Overview of Automation mesh
		The distinct types of nodes
	Using instance groups with Automation mesh
		Creating instance groups
	Examples of various use cases and how to use Automation mesh
		Global Automation mesh example
	Summary
Chapter 15: Using Automation Services Catalog
	Technical requirements
	What is Automation services catalog?
	Configuring the ASC
		Configuring the SSO for access to the ASC
	Approvals inside ASC
	Summary
	Afterword
Index
About Packt
Other Books You May Enjoy
Copyright
Title Page
Dedication
Contents
Chapter 1: ‘I’m thinking’ – Oh, but are you?
Chapter 2: Renegade perception
Chapter 3: The Pushbacker sting
Chapter 4: ‘Covid’: The calculated catastrophe
Chapter 5: There is no ‘virus’
Chapter 6: Sequence of deceit
Chapter 7: War on your mind
Chapter 8: ‘Reframing’ insanity
Chapter 9: We must have it? So what is it?
Chapter 10: Human 2.0
Chapter 11: Who controls the Cult?
Chapter 12: Escaping Wetiko
Postscript
Appendix: Cowan-Kaufman-Morell Statement on Virus Isolation
Bibliography
Index