Workshop Exercise 2.5 - Initial Device Configuration Automation

Table of Contents

• Objective
• Step 1 - Writing Our Initial Device Configuration Playbook
• Step 2 - Creating a Job Template
• Solutions

Objective

In this exercise, we’re going to create a playbook that does some simple initial configuration of our edge devices. This will get consumed later by a workflow so our devices are automatically configured correctly when they call home.

Our tasks in the playbook will be:

1. Set the hostname to what the device identified itself as when calling home to Ansible Controller
2. Set a resolver line in the /etc/hosts file

Step 1 - Writing Our Initial Device Configuration Playbook

Return to your code repository and create a new playbook in the playbooks directory called initial-device-config.yml. Enter the following contents:

---
- name: do initial device setup
  hosts: all
  tasks:
    - name: set the system hostname
      ansible.builtin.hostname:
        name: "{{ inventory_hostname }}"
    - name: insert line into /etc/hosts
      ansible.builtin.lineinfile:
        path: /etc/hosts
        line: '{{ ansible_default_ipv4.address }} {{ inventory_hostname }} {{ inventory_hostname }}.lcl'
        insertafter: EOF

Once complete, commit and push your new playbook up into Gitea.

Step 2 - Creating a Job Template

Note

Be sure to sync your project in Controller before attempting to create this job template.

In the Controller WebUI. under Resources > Templates, select Add > Add job template and enter the following information:

Parameter	Value
Name	Initial Device Configuration
Inventory	Edge Systems
Project	Device Edge Codebase
Execution Environment	Device Edge Workshops Execution Environment
Playbook	playbooks/initial-device-config.yml
Credentials	✓ Device Credentials
Limit	✓ Prompt on launch
Options	✓ Privilege Escalation

Remember to click Save.

We’re not going to run this job right now, but instead leverage it in the next exercise.

Solutions

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