Bootstrapping a fresh Linux install with Ansible
command line
Ansible is an IT tool that enables Infrastructure as Code, letting you automate provisioning, configuration, management and deployment of services and applications. I like using it at a fraction of it's full power to bootstrap fresh installs of Linux for my homelab.
Sections
This is not a comprehensive tutorial for Ansible, but simple a terse quick guide of my personal use case for Ansible in my home lab. For a deeper dive, I strongly suggest Learn Linux TV series of Ansible tutorials which is how I first learned to use it myself.
Install Ansible
First install Ansible, which requires adding the repository to download the package via APT.
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ansible/ansible
sudo apt install ansible -y
The playbook
Contents of the playbook, which I named bootstrap.yml:
- name: Bootstrap Linux Server
hosts: hostname-or-IP-address
become: true
vars:
user: admin
tasks:
- name: Update all installed packages
apt:
update_cache: yes
name: "*"
state: latest
- name: Install various apt packages
apt:
update_cache: yes
name:
- zsh
- git
- sudo
- vim
- htop
- inxi
- net-tools
- speedtest-cli
- samba
- cifs-utils
- docker
- docker-compose
- smartmontools
- neofetch
state: present
install_recommends: yes
when: ansible_distribution == 'Debian' or ansible_distribution == 'Kali' or ansible_distribution == 'Linuxmint' or ansible_distribution == 'Ubuntu'
- name: Clean cache & remove unnecessary dependencies
apt:
autoclean: yes
autoremove: yes
when: ansible_distribution == 'Debian' or ansible_distribution == 'Kali' or ansible_distribution == 'Linuxmint' or ansible_distribution == 'Ubuntu'
# Samba
- name: Copy the Samba config file
copy:
src: files/smb
dest: /etc/samba/smb.conf
- name: Start the Samba daemon
service:
name: smbd
state: started
- name: Start the NetBIOs daemon
service:
name: nmbd
state: started
- name: Enable the Samba daemon
ansible.builtin.systemd:
name: smbd
enabled: yes
- name: Enable the NetBIOS daemon
ansible.builtin.systemd:
name: nmbd
enabled: yes
- name: Copy the zsh config file
copy:
src: files/zshrc
dest: /home/user/zshrc # rename file to .zshrc after setting up oh-my-zsh
owner: user
group: group
mode: 0644
- name: Copy the aliases file
copy:
src: files/aliases
dest: /home/user/.aliases
owner: user
group: group
mode: 0644
- name: Copy the Git config file
copy:
src: files/gitconfig
dest: /home/user/.gitconfig
owner: user
group: group
mode: 0644
- name: Copy the Nano config file
copy:
src: files/nanorc
dest: /etc/nanorc
owner: user
group: group
mode: 0644
# Final steps
- name: Set the default shell
user:
name: "user"
shell: "zsh"
- name: Check if reboot is required
stat:
path: /var/run/reboot-required
register: reboot_required_file
- name: Reboot if required
reboot:
msg: Rebooting due to a kernel update
when: reboot_required_file.stat.exists
This playbook will installs a selection of packages I commonly use, changes the default shell, and copies over dotfiles and other configs.
The inventory and config files
Next we need the inventory file, which I named hosts (no file extension) and I’m using the INI file format (you can also use YAML if you prefer):
[server]
192.168.1.200
192.168.1.210
[test]
192.168.1.220
[all:vars]
ansible_user=username
ansible_sudo_pass=password
This inventory is very simple, it gives Ansible two groups of hosts as targets [server] and [test], and provides a superuser and their sudo password as variables for all targets. This works for me because I use the same username and password for all the linux machines on my network, but you can make different sets of variables, for example:
[targets]
192.168.1.200 ansible_user=user1 ansible_password=password2
192.168.1.210 ansible_user=user2 ansible_password=password1
192.168.1.220 ansible_user=user3 ansible_password=password3
Next is the configuration file, ansible.cfg:
[defaults]
inventory = hosts
private_key_file = ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
retry_files_enabled = False
ansible_python_interpreter=/usr/bin/python3
timeout=30
[ssh_connections]
pipelining = true
This tells Ansible the name of the inventory file (hosts), the location of the SSH private key to use, and pipelining = true vastly improves the speed at which Ansible executes tasks.
Running the playbook
All that’s left now is to run the playbook and bootstrap the server, but first it’s highly recommended to do a dry-run that runs the playbook in check mode, to verify it works without making any changes. Make sure you’re in the same directory as bootstrap.yml (the playbook), ansible.cfg (the config) and hosts (inventory file). Then, use the following command:
ansible-playbook bootstrap.yml --check
You’ll see some output as the playbook carries out its tasks. Below as an example:
PLAY [Bootstrap home server] *********************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ***************************************************************************
ok: [apollo]
TASK [Update all installed packages] *************************************************************
ok: [apollo]
TASK [Install various apt packages] **************************************************************
ok: [apollo]
TASK [Clean cache & remove unnecessary dependencies] *********************************************
ok: [apollo]
TASK [Start the Samba daemon] ********************************************************************
ok: [apollo]
TASK [Start the NetBIOs daemon] ******************************************************************
ok: [apollo]
TASK [Enable the Samba daemon] *******************************************************************
ok: [apollo]
TASK [Enable the NetBIOS daemon] *****************************************************************
ok: [apollo]
TASK [Copy the zsh config file] ******************************************************************
changed: [apollo]
TASK [Copy the aliases file] *********************************************************************
changed: [apollo]
TASK [Copy the Git config file] ******************************************************************
ok: [apollo]
TASK [Copy the Nano config file] *****************************************************************
ok: [apollo]
TASK [Set the default shell] *********************************************************************
changed: [apollo]
TASK [Check if reboot is required] ***************************************************************
ok: [apollo]
TASK [Reboot if required] ************************************************************************
skipping: [apollo]
PLAY RECAP ***************************************************************************************
apollo : ok=15 changed=3 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=1 rescued=0 ignored=0
If all looks good and there’s no errors, you can run the playbook for real:
ansible-playbook bootstrap.yml