Exercise 4.1: Creating an Automation Controller Job Template

Objective

Demonstrate a BIG-IP Virtual Server configuration job template for Red Hat Ansible Automation Controller. This job template will create a virtual server, a pool, and add two web servers to the pool.

To run an Ansible Playbook in Ansible Automation Conrtoller, we need to create a Job Template. A Job Template requires:

• A Credential to login to devices.

• An Inventory to run the job against

• A Project which contains Ansible Playbooks

Guide

Step 1: Create a Project

1. In the Ansible web UI, click on the Projects link under the RESOURCES section using the left navigation bar.

2. Click on the button to create a new project

3. Fill out the project parameters as follows, and click Save

   Parameter	Value
   NAME	Workshop Project
   ORGANIZATION	Default
   Default Execution Environment	f5 workshop execution environment
   SCM TYPE	Git
   SCM URL	https://github.com/f5devcentral/ansible-tower-workshop-examples.git

Note

There may be additional projects setup in your environment. Each project represents a repository of Ansible Playbooks. It is completly normal to have multiple projects.

All the playbooks are availabe at https://github.com/f5devcentral/ansible-tower-workshop-examples, and you may take a look at what’s behind each playbook.

msg: “The VIP (Virtual IP) is https://{{ansible_host}}”

Step 2: Create BIGIP Credentials

Before we can create a job we must create the credentials to authenticate to BIGIP.

1. Open the web UI and click on the Credentials link under the RESOURCES section using the left navigation bar.

   

2. Click on the button to create a new credentials template.

3. Fill out the fields with the following credentials template parameters as follows:

   Parameter	Value
   NAME	BIGIP
   CREDENTIAL TYPE	Network
   USERNAME	admin
   PASSWORD

   Note

   The password can be found in the inventory hosts file

4. Click SAVE

Step 3: Create a Job Template

1. Open the web UI and click on the Templates link under the RESOURCES section using the left navigation bar.

   

2. Click on the button to create a new job template

   Make sure to select ``Job Template`` and not ``Workflow Template``

3. Fill out the job template parameters as follows:

   Parameter	Value
   NAME	create_vs
   JOB TYPE	Run
   INVENTORY	Workshop Inventory
   PROJECT	Workshop Project
   PLAYBOOK	create_vs.yml
   CREDENTIALS	BIGIP

   From the CREDENTIAL TYPE select Network, then select BIGIP:

   

   Here is a screenshot of the job template with parameters filled out:

   

4. Scroll down and click the green SAVE button.

Step 4: Launch the Job Template

1. Navigate back to the Templates window, where all Job Templates are listed.

2. Launch the create_vs Job Template by clicking the Launch Button.

   

   When the launch button is clicked this will launch the job. The job will open in a new window called the Job Details View. More info about Controller Jobs can be found in the documentation.

Step 5: Examine the Job Details View

1. What you will see is the Standard Out pane.

   

2. Examine the Standard Out pane

   The Standard Out pane will display the output from the Ansible Playbook. Every task output will match exactly what would be seen on the command line.

3. Examine the Details tab

   The Details tab will provide information such as the timestamp for when the job started and finished, the job type (Check or Run), the user that launched the job, which Project and Ansible Playbook were used and more.

   If the Job has not finished yet, the Details tab will have a cancel button that can be used to stop the Job.

4. Click on a task in the Standard Out pane to open up structured output from that particular task.

   Click on any line where there is a changed or ok

   

Step 6: Examine the Jobs window

Any Job Template that has been run or is currently running will show up under the VIEWS –> Jobs window.

1. Click the Jobs button the left menu.

   

   The Jobs link displays a list of jobs and their status–shown as completed successfully or failed, or as an active (running) job. Actions you can take from this screen include viewing the details and standard output of a particular job, relaunch jobs, or remove jobs.

2. Click on the ``create_vs`` Job

   

   The ``create_vs`` job was the most recent (unless you have been launching more jobs). Click on this job to return to the Job Details View. Ansible Automation Controller will save the history of every job launched.

Solution

The finished Ansible Playbook is provided here. Click here: `create_vs.yml https://github.com/f5devcentral/ansible-tower-workshop-examples/blob/master/create_vs.yml>`__.

Verifying the Solution

• Login to the F5 with your web browser to see what was configured. Grab the IP information for the F5 load balancer from the lab_inventory/hosts file, and type it in like so:

  • https://X.X.X.X:443/

• Login information for the BIG-IP:

  • username: admin

  • password: found in the inventory hosts file

• The load balancer virtual server can be found by navigating the menu on the left. Click on Local Traffic. then click on Virtual Server. See the screenshot below:

Verifying the web servers

• Each RHEL web server actually already has a webserver running. Exercise 1.1 through 1.5 have successfully setup the load balancer for the pool of web servers. To view the results of the Web services:

  • In the UDF Console goto the External Client and select Access and then select FireFox

  • In the Bookmarks bar you can select the Ansible Labs Folder and goto 101 - Labs and Select HTTPS

  • OR within the browser you can browse to https://10.1.20.30/

  • You will need to bypass the certificate warning (within Firefox Warning –> Advanced –> Accept the Risk and Continue)

  

• Each time you refresh the host will change between node1 and node2. Here is animation of the host field changing:

  

You have finished this exercise.

Takeaways

You have successfully demonstrated

• Creating a Job Template to deploy a Virtual Server

• Launching a Job Template from the Ansible Automation Controller UI

• Verifying the Virtual Server is correctly created

• Veryfying the web server is up and running

Complete

You have completed lab exercise 4.1

Click here to return to the Ansible Network Automation Workshop