Stockpile

Tool to gather information from systems using Ansible.

How to add to the Stockpile?

Stockpile uses Red Hat Ansible to collect system information. To add to the Stockpile, the user must create a new Anbile role that defines what they are looking to capture.

How do I add to the existing Ansible roles?

Let's say for example you wanted to capture all the interface drivers on the SUT -- not an useful since this fact already exists. However, for the sake of the example, bare with me.

In order to create a new set of information to stockpile, create the Ansible role directory, stockpile/roles/example

For this work, we just need to create the tasks, so in stockpile/roles/example/tasks/main.yaml

Norms to follow while adding roles

Please make sure that you follow the below mentioned norms:

Never use set_fact more than once in your role(per playbook)
Use register to set your vars and not set_fact
Use set_fact at the end to build the dictionary according to hierarchy required
Prefix the dictionary with stockpile_
Don't try to build the dictionary using the vars directly, lets say if you run a shell command to set var1, while building dictionary use var1.stdout

Please look at the example below:

- name: run the shell command
  shell: whoami
  register: var1
## Rest of the role where you collect info and use register to set vars

- name: set the collected info as facts
  set_fact:
    stockpile_role_hierarchy:
      var_1: "{{ var1.stdout }}"
  when: ( role_installed.rc == 0 )

For the role hierarchy, best example would be to look at openshift roles:

Following is how the role openshift-cluster-topology collects facts:

- name: set the collected info as facts
  set_fact:
    stockpile_openshift_cluster_topology:
      running_pods_count: "{{ ocp_running_pods.stdout | from_json | json_query('items[].status.phase') | length }}"
      compute_count: "{{ ocp_compute_count.stdout }}"
      master_count: "{{ ocp_master_count.stdout }}"
      etcd_count: "{{ ocp_master_count.stdout }}"
      cluster_network_plugin: "{{ ocp_network_plugin.stdout | from_json | json_query('items[].pluginName') }}"
      client_version: "{{ oc_client_version.stdout }}"
      server_version: "{{ oc_server_version.stdout }}"
      user: "{{ ocp_user.stdout }}"
    when: ( oc_installed.rc == 0 and kubeconfig.stat.exists == True )

By naming the var stockpile_openshift_cluster_topology, the variable is self explanatory about what it's collecting. Also if there's a new role that i added later for cluster performance, it's var can be named stockpile_openshift_cluster_perf

A bad example would be naming var as stockpile_openshift_cluster.

Scenario 1: You want to capture all the interface details. So, you might consider the below.

---

# Capture the data you are interested in
- name: "my example name"
  shell: "ethtool -i {{item}} | grep driver | awk -F: '{print $2}'"
  with_items: "{{ ansible_interfaces }}"
  register: interface_drivers

# Easy way to create a YAML that we will translate into a dict

- set_fact:
    __dict: |
        {% for item in  interface_drivers.results %}
        {{item.item}}: "{{item.stdout}}"
        {% endfor %}

# Store the data using the role_name as the key.

- name: "Store example data"
  set_fact:
    stockpile_example: "{{__dict|from_yaml}}"

Once Stockpile completes, it will create * metadata/machine_facts.json *

Example output of the above Example role:

    "stockpile_example": {
        "docker0": " bridge",
        "enp6s0": " sky2",
        "enp7s0": " sky2",
        "lo": "",
        "tun0": " tun",
        "veth2d88dbd": " veth",
        "virbr0": " bridge",
        "virbr0-nic": " tun"
    }

Scenario 2: You want to capture details about a configuration file:

For this work, we just need to create the tasks, so in stockpile/roles/example2/tasks/main.yaml

---

# Capture the data you are interested in
- name: "crontab shell"
  shell: "cat /etc/crontab | grep SHELL | awk -F = '{print $2}'"
  register: crontab_shell

- name: "crontab mailto"
  shell: "cat /etc/crontab | grep MAILTO | awk -F = '{print $2}'"
  register: crontab_mailto

- name: "Store the crontab config"
  set_fact:
    stockpile_example2:
      - crontab_shell : "{{ crontab_shell.stdout }}"
      - crontab_mailto: "{{ crontab_mailto.stdout }}"

Example output

    "stockpile_example2": [
        {
            "crontab_shell": "/bin/bash"
        },
        {
            "crontab_mailto": "root"
        }
    ]