/ansible-system-install

Ansible role that installs a Linux system on a remote host.

Primary LanguageShell

System install

This Ansible role installs a Linux system on a remote host. It can install Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, OpenSUSE, Alpine, and Archlinux distributions.

Warning - Danger zone

Using this role is dangerous. It destroy any existing data from all drives found on the remote system without any confirmation. Do not use if you have any data on the remote machine. There is absolutely no way to recover deleted data. This role has no brain, use your own.

Prerequisite

You will need to boot your server using a live CD or use a PXE boot that let your hard drive unused. This role has been designed to against run against a recent Debian (Buster) system (understand a machine booted with a Debian live CD). It may also work from older Debian live CD or with Ubuntu live CD.

You can find live images on following sites:

With Debian live images ssh is not installed by default. You have to log in and run following commands:

sudo -s
apt-get update
apt-get install openssh-server
/etc/init.d/ssh restart

If you are using VirtualBox you can run a script like:

VBoxManage controlvm TARGET_VM keyboardputstring \
	   "sudo bash -c 'apt-get update; apt-get install -y openssh-server; /etc/init.d/ssh restart;ip a l'"
VBoxManage controlvm TARGET_VM keyboardputscancode 1c 9c

If you are using Private Server hosting you should reboot the server in rescue mode. This might also work with some Virtual Private Server provider. Please check your provider support.

Role Description

The install process runs in several parts:

  • Remove all partitions and create a new partition scheme (see system_install_partitions variable).
  • Install deployment tools (such as debootstrap, yum, apk...) depending on the target system.
  • Bootstrap the system and install additional packages (see system_install_additional_packages).
  • Fix ssh configuration to allow root login (PermitRootLogin is set to yes).
  • Update grub configuration to be more verbose and install it on the hard drive.

See tasks/README.md for further details on how system install works.

Security warning

Setting up a root password and allowing ssh access using this method is not secure. Please consider using ssh keys and do not forget to secure the system after the reboot from hard drive.

Configuration

Link roles/playbook-system-install.yml to your Ansible playbooks directory.

See specific documentation in defaults files in defaults/main.

Invocation

Run:

./playbook-system-install.yml [ -u user ] -l hostname [ -e VAR="value" ]

All variables from the defaults/main files can be set on the command line as well. For convenience some other variables can be set from the command line using the -e option (can be specified multiple times):

  • password: SSH password on remote live system (not on the chrooted environment). Use this if you cannot use a ssh key. Unset by default.
  • host_key_checking: Set to true if ssh host key should be verified. Default value is false.
  • system_install_base: URL to download a base system archive. If set OS bootstraping is disabled. Default is unset.
  • ssh_port: SSH port within the chroot. Default is 2222.
  • chroot_python_interpreter: python interpreter within the chroot. By default this value is auto-computed for each vendor and version however it can be overridden from the command line.

Extra

If you want to create an image of you newly installed system for future usage, you can run /usr/local/bin/generate-base-image as root. The archive is not minimalistic but is a good start.

Tested versions

Version Status EOL Restrictions
Debian
Debian 8 (jessie) OK 2020-06 1 2
Debian 9 (stretch) OK 2022-06 2
Debian 10 (buster) OK 2024
Debian 11 (bullseye) OK TBA
Debian 12 (bookworm) N/A TBA Not yet available
Ubuntu
Ubuntu 14.04 (trusty) OK LTS: 2019-04-30 / EMS: 2022-04 1 2
Ubuntu 14.10 (utopic) 2015-07-23 Do not use
Ubuntu 15.04 (vivid) 2016-02-04 Do not use
Ubuntu 15.10 (wily) 2016-07-28 Do not use
Ubuntu 16.04 (xenial) OK LTS: 2021-04 / EMS: 2024-04 1 2
Ubuntu 16.10 (yakkety) 2017-07-20 Do not use
Ubuntu 17.04 (zesty) 2018-01-13 Do not use
Ubuntu 17.10 (artful) 2018-07-19 Do not use
Ubuntu 18.04 (bionic) OK LTS: 2023-04 / EMS: 2028-04 2
Ubuntu 18.10 (cosmic) 2018-10-18 Do not use
Ubuntu 19.04 (disco) 2020-01-23 Do not use
Ubuntu 19.10 (eoan) 2020-07-17 Do not use
Ubuntu 20.04 (focal) OK LTS: 2025-04 / EMS: 2030-04
Ubuntu 20.10 (groovy) 2021-07
CentOS
CentOS 7 OK 2024-06-30
CentOS 8 OK 2029-05-31
Fedora
Fedora 31 OK N/A
Fedora 32 OK N/A
Fedora 33 N/A N/A
OpenSUSE
OpenSUSE 15.1 OK 2020-11-22
OpenSUSE 15.2 OK 2021-12-31
Alpine
Alpine 3.9 OK 2020-11-01
Alpine 3.10 OK 2021-05-01
Alpine 3.11 OK 2021-11-01
Alpine 3.12 OK 2022-05-01
Archlinux
Archlinux 2020.07.01 OK N/A
Archlinux 2020.08.01 OK N/A
Archlinux 2020.09.01 OK N/A

Versions history references:

Todo / roadmap

In no specific priority:

  • Detect mdadm / lvm2 / cryptsetup module requirements.
  • Allow to configure static IP address.
  • Add more vendors (stay focus on server oriented distros).

Copyright

Author: Sébastien Gross

License: WTFPL, grab your copy here: http://www.wtfpl.net

Footnotes

  1. See vars/main.yml for python support in chroot. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. See vars/main.yml for xfs options support. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5