Kubernetes Ansible Playbooks

Ansible playbooks for deploying ansible applications in kubernetes.

Getting Started

Behaviour:

Feature: Deploy ansible Apps in Kubernetes clusters

These playbooks automated deployments to kubernetes.

Scenario: Deploys an App to kubernetes
Given: at least a kubeconfig is set up in local machine
Given: at least a ssh public key exists in github repository
Given: at least a circleCi token is linked to your account
Given: a correctly configured vars file
When: the playbook is executed
Then: the k8s github is cloned or pulled
Then: the build process for your app is checked on circleCi
Then: the image tag is returned and replaced in your yaml file automatically. No need to add any regexp to do that.
Then: the yaml file is applied to current context in kubernetes cluster.
Then: the changes are pushed to github k8s repository.

Contexts and Extra Variables

Contexts can be seen as a logical entity used to represent cluster resources for usage of a particular set of users.

By default, the ansible playbooks have support to the following four contexts:

Default - The default namespace used for testing purposes only.
Review - The review context used for objects in the review environment.
Staging - The staging context for objects in the staging environment.
Production - The production context for objects in the production environment.

To use extra variables you can set by command line using -e flag or add new vars to vars/<context>/vars.yml. You can check defaults extra variables in vars/required_var. In ansible playbooks, they are called required variables. You may add one or more required vars: add a slash + variable name before the latest one (i.e. - github_pass).

Prerequisites

Before starting the automation with the Ansible Playbooks, you must install the ansible package:

MacOS

$ brew install ansible

Ubuntu

$ sudo apt install ansible

Configuration

A list of the external variables used by the playbook.

Variable	Description	Example	Where set
k8s_kubeconfig	A file path to kubernetes configuration hosted in your machine	~/.kube/config	vars/<context>/vars.yml
k8s_context	The current kubernetes context that you are working on	review, production, staging, develop	vars/<context>/vars.yml
github_repo	A github link (ssh) to kubernetes repository	git@github.com:ansible/k8s.git	vars/<context>/vars.yml
github_dest	A destination path for cloning a k8s repository	~/Documents/k8s	vars/<context>/vars.yml
github_ssh_keys	A file path to your ssh private key	~/.ssh/id_rsa	vars/<context>/vars.yml
github_message	A commit message to your k8s yaml file	"feat: added yaml file"	vars/<context>/vars.yml
github_version	A github branch that you are working on k8s repository	review, production, staging, develop	vars/<context>/vars.yml
ansible_app	The app name in github given for your application	ansible, nginx, rabbitmq, postgres, so on...	vars/<context>/vars.yml
ansible_branch	The branch name in github given that you have pushed	develop-1313, review, master, hotfix-2168	vars/<context>/vars.yml
files	A file or list of files to k8s yaml file corresponding to your application that you are currently working on	app.yaml, ansible.yaml	vars/<context>/vars.yml
keys	A list of keywords to replace in k8s yaml file: Regexp (word in your yaml file to be replaced) and line (value to replace)	Regexp: YOUR_PORT -> line: 5462	vars/<context>/vars.yml

Configurating CircleCi

The ansible playbooks use the CircleCi API to access the build process and GitHub TAGS to fill up the yaml files dynamically. Follow the steps below to create your CircleCi token.

Creating a Personal API Token:

In the CircleCI application, go to your User settings.
Click Personal API Tokens.
Click the Create New Token button.
In the Token name field, type a memorable name for the token.
Click the Add API Token button. After the token appears, copy and paste it to CIRCLE_TOKEN env variable. You will not be able to view the token again. To delete a personal API token, click the X in the Remove column.
Set up the token_key as your env variable as following:

$ export CIRCLE_TOKEN=your_key

Running playbooks

Before running the Ansible playbooks, filled up the variables in vars/<context>/vars.yml.

The flag to --ask-become-pass is required to change the image tag and keywords in k8s yaml file.

Execute the automation:

$ ansible-playbook -i inventory/local -e "vars_file=../../vars/<context>/vars.yml" main.yml --ask-become-pass

To see the outputs, set the verbose flag -vvvvv

$ ansible-playbook -i inventory/local -e "vars_file=../../vars/<context>/vars.yml" main.yml -vvvvv --ask-become-pass

Set extra variables up with the verbose flag -e EXTRA_VARIABLE=value:

$ ansible-playbook -i inventory/local -e "vars_file=../../vars/<context>/vars.yml" main.yml -e github_repo=YOUR_GIT_REPO -e github_version=YOUR_GIT_VERSION --ask-become-pass

TODO:

1. Install required packages using ansible-galaxy
2. Improvements in ansible playbooks