Chapter 11. Ansible Automation Platform Resource Operator
11.1. Resource Operator overview
Resource Operator is a custom resource (CR) that you can deploy after you have created your automation controller deployment. With Resource Operator you can define projects, job templates, and inventories through the use of YAML files. These YAML files are then used by automation controller to create these resources. You can create the YAML through the Form view that prompts you for keys and values for your YAML code. Alternatively, to work with YAML directly, you can select YAML view.
There are currently two custom resources provided by the Resource Operator:
- AnsibleJob: launches a job in the automation controller instance specified in the Kubernetes secret (automation controller host URL, token).
- JobTemplate: creates a job template in the automation controller instance specified.
11.2. Using Resource Operator
The Resource Operator itself does not do anything until the user creates an object. As soon as the user creates an AutomationControllerProject or AnsibleJob resource, the Resource Operator will start processing that object.
Prerequisites
- Install the Kubernetes-based cluster of your choice.
-
Deploy automation controller using the
automation-controller-operator.
After installing the automation-controller-resource-operator in your cluster, you must create a Kubernetes (k8s) secret with the connection information for your automation controller instance. Then you can use Resource Operator to create a k8s resource to manage your automation controller instance.
11.3. Connecting Resource Operator to automation controller
To connect Resource Operator with automation controller you need to create a k8s secret with the connection information for your automation controller instance.
Procedure
To create an OAuth2 token for your user in the automation controller UI:
-
In the navigation panel, select
. - Select the username you want to create a token for.
- Click on , then click .
- You can leave Applications empty. Add a description and select Read or Write for the Scope.
Alternatively, you can create a OAuth2 token at the command-line by using the create_oauth2_token manage command:
$ controller-manage create_oauth2_token --user example_user New OAuth2 token for example_user: j89ia8OO79te6IAZ97L7E8bMgXCON2
Make sure you provide a valid user when creating tokens. Otherwise, you will get an error message that you tried to issue the command without specifying a user, or supplying a username that does not exist.
11.4. Creating a automation controller connection secret for Resource Operator
To make your connection information available to the Resource Operator, create a k8s secret with the token and host value.
Procedure
The following is an example of the YAML for the connection secret. Save the following example to a file, for example,
automation-controller-connection-secret.yml.apiVersion: v1 kind: Secret metadata: name: controller-access type: Opaque stringData: token: <generated-token> host: https://my-controller-host.example.com/
- Edit the file with your host and token value.
-
Apply it to your cluster by running the
kubectl createcommand:
kubectl create -f controller-connection-secret.yml
11.5. Creating an AnsibleJob
Launch an automation job on automation controller by creating an AnsibleJob resource.
Procedure
Specify the connection secret and job template you want to launch.
apiVersion: tower.ansible.com/v1alpha1 kind: AnsibleJob metadata: generateName: demo-job-1 # generate a unique suffix per 'kubectl create' spec: connection_secret: controller-access job_template_name: Demo Job Template
Configure features such as, inventory, extra variables, and time to live for the job.
spec: connection_secret: controller-access job_template_name: Demo Job Template inventory: Demo Inventory # Inventory prompt on launch needs to be enabled runner_image: quay.io/ansible/controller-resource-runner runner_version: latest job_ttl: 100 extra_vars: # Extra variables prompt on launch needs to be enabled test_var: test job_tags: "provision,install,configuration" # Specify tags to run skip_tags: "configuration,restart" # Skip tasks with a given tagNoteYou must enable prompt on launch for inventories and extra variables if you are configuring those. To enable Prompt on launch, within the automation controller UI: From the
page, select your template and select the Prompt on launch checkbox next to Inventory and Variables sections. Launch a workflow job template with an AnsibleJob object by specifying the
workflow_template_nameinstead ofjob_template_name:apiVersion: tower.ansible.com/v1alpha1 kind: AnsibleJob metadata: generateName: demo-job-1 # generate a unique suffix per 'kubectl create' spec: connection_secret: controller-access workflow_template_name: Demo Workflow Template
11.6. Creating a JobTemplate
Create a job template on automation controller by creating a JobTemplate resource:
apiVersion: tower.ansible.com/v1alpha1 kind: JobTemplate metadata: name: jobtemplate-4 spec: connection_secret: controller-access job_template_name: ExampleJobTemplate4 job_template_project: Demo Project job_template_playbook: hello_world.yml job_template_inventory: Demo Inventory
