Getting started

Initial configuration

The role comes with a small set of APT packages, useful on pretty much any Debian or Ubuntu host. Some of the packages are installed conditionally, depending on different Ansible facts - for example, firmware packages are installed on rack servers, which may contain network cards that require custom firmware loaded by the kernel for proper operation.

The role is not meant to be used as a dependency of other roles, but you can use it like that if you want to take advantage of the custom lookup template that uses conditional package installation depending on installed operating system, its release or available archive areas.

The difference between debops.apt and debops.apt_install Ansible roles is that the former role is used to configure the APT package manager itself, and latter just installs packages using APT package manager, depending on its configuration.

Similar Ansible roles

There are more comprehensive Ansible roles that install packages:

• ypid.packages - provides an advanced framework meant to allow installation of packages according to different host classes, with a large selection of packages. The role is focused on workstations, live systems and server environments.

Example inventory

The debops.apt_install role is included by default in the common.yml DebOps playbook. You don't need to configure anything in the inventory to enable it.

The role provides a set of default variables to specify what packages should be installed on hosts, depending on the inventory level:

apt_install__packages

This variable should be used in ansible/inventory/group_vars/all/apt_install.yml file and is meant to specify packages present on all hosts in the inventory.

apt_install__group_packages

This variable should be used in ansible/inventory/group_vars/<group-name>/apt_install.yml files and is meant to contain packages that should be installed on hosts in different Ansible groups. Only one level of this variable is supported, so you should be careful about your inventory design. Or, you can use it as a master list that contains different per-group variables.

apt_install__host_packages

This variable should be used in ansible/inventory/host_vars/<hostname>/apt_install.yml files and is meant to contain list of packages that should be installed on specific hosts.

Example playbook

debops.apt_install is designed to be used from a playbook or a role as role dependency. Here's an example configuration:

---

- name: Install APT packages
  hosts: [ 'debops_all_hosts', 'debops_service_apt_install' ]
  become: True

  environment: '{{ inventory__environment | d({})
                   | combine(inventory__group_environment | d({}))
                   | combine(inventory__host_environment  | d({})) }}'

  roles:

    - role: debops.apt_preferences
      tags: [ 'role::apt_preferences', 'skip::apt_preferences' ]
      apt_preferences__dependent_list:
        - '{{ apt_install__apt_preferences__dependent_list }}'

    - role: debops.apt_install
      tags: [ 'role::apt_install', 'skip::apt_install' ]