Using automation decisions

Procedure

1. Log in to the Ansible Automation Platform Dashboard.
2. From the navigation panel, select Automation Decisions → Infrastructure → Credentials.
3. Click Create credential.

4. Insert the following:

   Name

   Insert the name.

   Description

   This field is optional.

   Organization

   Click the list to select an organization or select Default.

   Credential type

   Click the list to select your Credential type.

   Note

   When you select the credential type, the Type Details section is displayed with fields that are applicable for the credential type you chose.

5. Complete the fields that are applicable to the credential type you selected.
6. Click Create credential.

Procedure

1. Edit the credential by using one of these methods:

   • From the Credentials list view, click the Edit credential icon next to the desired credential.
   • From the Credentials list view, select the name of the credential, click Edit credential.
2. Edit the appropriate details and click Save credential.

Procedure

1. Delete the credential by using one of these methods:

   • From the Credentials list view, click the More Actions icon ⋮ next to the desired credential and click Delete credential.
   • From the Credentials list view, select the name of the credential, click the More Actions icon ⋮ next to Edit credential, and click Delete credential.

2. In the pop-up window, select Yes, I confirm that I want to delete this credential.

   Note

   If your credential is still in use by other resources in your organization, a warning message is displayed letting you know that the credential cannot be deleted. Also, if your credential is being used in an event stream, you cannot delete it until the event stream is deleted or attached to a different credential. In general, avoid deleting a credential that is in use because it can lead to broken activations.

3. Click Delete credential.

Procedure

1. Log in to the Ansible Automation Platform Dashboard.
2. From the navigation panel, select Automation Decisions → Infrastructure → Credential Types.
3. Click Create credential type.

4. Insert the following:

   Name

   Insert the name.

   Description

   This field is optional.

5. In the Input Configuration field, specify an input schema that defines a set of ordered fields for that type. The format can be in YAML or JSON:

   YAML

   fields:
     - type: string
       id: username
       label: Username
     - type: string
       id: password
       label: Password
       secret: true
   required:
     - username
     - password

   View more YAML examples at the YAML page.

   JSON

   {
   "fields": [
     {
     "type": "string",
     "id": "username",
     "label": "Username"
     },
     {
     "secret": true,
     "type": "string",
     "id": "password",
     "label": "Password"
      }
     ],
    "required": ["username", "password"]
   }

   View more JSON examples at The JSON website.

6. In the Injector Configuration field, enter environment variables or extra variables that specify the values a credential type can inject. The format can be in YAML or JSON (see examples in the previous step).

   The following configuration in JSON format shows each field and how they are used:

   {
       "extra_vars": {
         "some_extra_var": "{{ username }}:{{ password }}"
     }
   }

7. Click Create credential type.

   Your newly created credential type is displayed in the list of credential types:

   

8. Click the Edit credential type icon to modify the credential type options.

   Note

   On the Edit page, you can modify the details or delete the credential. If the Delete option is disabled, this means that the credential type is being used by a credential, and you must delete the credential type from all the credentials that use it before you can delete it.

Procedure

1. Log in to the Ansible Automation Platform Dashboard.
2. Navigate to Automation Decisions → Projects.
3. Click Create project.

4. Insert the following:

   Name

   Enter project name.

   Description

   This field is optional.

   Source control type

   Git is the only source control type available for use. This field is optional.

   Source control URL

   Enter Git, SSH, or HTTP[S] protocol address of a repository, such as GitHub or GitLab. This field is not editable.

   Note

   This field accepts SSH private key or private key phrase. To enable the use of these private keys, your project URL must begin with git@.

   Proxy

   This is used to access access HTTP or HTTPS servers. This field is optional.

   Source control branch/tag/commit

   This is the branch to checkout. In addition to branches, you can input tags, commit hashes, and arbitrary refs. Some commit hashes and refs may not be available unless you also provide a custom refspec. This field is optional.

   Source control refspec

   A refspec to fetch (passed to the Ansible git module). This parameter allows access to references via the branch field not otherwise available. This field is optional. For more information, see Examples.

   Source control credential

   You must have this credential to utilize the source control URL. This field is optional.

   Content signature validation credential

   Enable content signing to verify that the content has remained secure when a project is synced. If the content has been tampered with, the job will not run. This field is optional.

   Options

   The Verify SSL option is enabled by default. Enabling this option verifies the SSL with HTTPS when the project is imported.

   Note

   You can disable this option if you have a local repository that uses self-signed certificates.

5. Select Create project.

Procedure

1. From the Projects list view, select the More Actions icon ⋮ next to the desired project. The Edit page is displayed.
2. Enter the required changes and select Save project.

Procedure

1. To delete a project, complete one of the following:

   • From the Projects list view, select the checkbox next to the desired project, and click the More Actions icon ⋮ from the page menu.
   • From the Projects list view, click the More Actions icon ⋮ next to the desired project.
2. Select Delete project.
3. In the Permanently delete projects window, select Yes, I confirm that I want to delete this project.
4. Select Delete project.

Procedure

1. Log in to Ansible Automation Platform.
2. Navigate to Automation Decisions → Decision Environments.
3. Click Create decision environment.

4. Insert the following:

   Name

   Insert the name.

   Description

   This field is optional.

   Organization

   Select an organization to associate with the decision environment.

   Image

   This is the full image location, including the container registry, image name, and version tag.

   Credential

   This field is optional. This is the credential needed to use the decision environment image.

5. Select Create decision environment.

Procedure

1. Log in to the Ansible Automation Platform Dashboard.
2. From the navigation panel, select Automation Decisions → Infrastructure → Credentials.
3. Click Create credential.

4. Insert the following:

   Name

   Insert the name.

   Description

   This field is optional.

   Organization

   Click the list to select an organization or select Default.

   Credential type

   Click the list to select your Credential type.

   Note

   When you select the credential type, the Type Details section is displayed with fields that are applicable for the credential type you selected.

   Type Details

   Add the requested information for the credential type you selected. For example, if you selected the GitHub Event Stream credential type, you are required to add an HMAC Secret (symmetrical shared secret) between Event-Driven Ansible controller and the remote server.

5. Click Create credential.

Procedure

1. Log in to Ansible Automation Platform.
2. From the navigation panel, select Automation Decisions → Event Streams.
3. Click Create event stream.

4. Insert the following:

   Name

   Insert the name.

   Organization

   Click the list to select an organization or select Default.

   Event stream type

   Select the event stream type you prefer.

   Note

   This list displays at least 10 default event stream types that can be used to authenticate the connection coming from your remote server.

   Credentials

   Select a credential from the list, preferably the one you created for your event stream.

   Headers

   Enter HTTP header keys, separated by commas, that you want to include in the event payload. To include all headers, leave the field empty.

   Forward events to rulebook activation

   Use this option to enable or disable the capability of forwarding events to rulebook activations.

   Note

   The event stream’s event forwarding can be disabled for testing purposes while diagnosing connections and evaluating the incoming data. Disabling the Forward events to rulebook activation option allows you to test the event stream connection with the remote system, analyze the header and payload, and if necessary, diagnose credential issues. This ensures that events are not be forwarded to rulebook activations causing rules and conditions to be triggered inadvertently while you are in test mode. Some enterprises might have policies to change secrets and passwords at regular cadence. You can enable/disable this option anytime after the event stream is created.

5. Click Create event stream.

1. Log in to your GitHub repository.
2. Click Your profile name → Your repositories.

1. Navigate to Settings (tool bar).
2. In the General navigation pane, select Webhooks.
3. Click Add webhook.
4. In the Payload URL field, paste the URL you saved when you created your event stream.
5. Select application/json in the Content type list.
6. Enter your Secret.
7. Click Add webhook.

1. Log in to Ansible Automation Platform.
2. From the navigation panel, select Automation Decisions → Event Streams.
3. Select the event stream that you created to validate connectivity and ensure that the event stream sends data to the rulebook activation.

4. Verify that the events were received.You can see in the Events received field that the event was received. You can also see the header for the event stream that contains details about the event.

   

   If you scroll down in the UI, you can also see the body of the payload with more information about the webhook.

   

   The Header and Body sections for the event stream are displayed on the Details page. They differ based on the vendor who is sending the event. The header and body can be used to check the attributes in the event payload, which will help you in writing conditions in your rulebook. For example:

5. Toggle the Forward events to rulebook activation option to enable you to push your events to a rulebook activation. This moves the event stream to production mode and makes it easy to attach to rulebook activations.

   When this option is toggled off, your ability to forward events to a rulebook activation is disabled and the This event stream is disabled message is displayed.

1. An event stream can only be used once in a rulebook source swap. If you have multiple sources in the rulebook, you can only replace each source once.
2. The source mapping happens only in the current rulebook activation. You must repeat this process for any other activations using the same rulebook.
3. The source mapping is valid only if the rulebook doesn’t get modified. If the rulebook gets modified during the source mapping process, the source mapping would fail and it would have to be repeated.
4. If the rulebook is modified after the source mapping has been created and a Restart happens, the rulebook activation fails.

Procedure

1. Log in to Ansible Automation Platform.
2. From the navigation panel, select Automation Decisions → Rulebook Activations.
3. Click Create rulebook activation.

4. Insert the following:

   Name

   Insert the name.

   Description

   This field is optional.

   Organization

   Enter your organization name or select Default from the list.

   Project

   Projects are a logical collection of rulebooks. This field is optional.

   Note

   Although this field is optional, selecting a project helps refine your list of rulebooks choices.

   Rulebook

   Rulebooks are shown according to the project selected. Select a rulebook.

   Note

   After you have selected a rulebook, the Event streams field is enabled. You can click the gear icon to display the Event streams mapping form.

   Event streams

   All the event streams available and set up to forward events to rulebook actiavtions are displayed. If you have not created any event streams, this field remains disabled.

   Click the gear icon to display the Event streams mapping UI.

   

   Complete the following fields:

   Rulebook source

   A rulebook can contain multiple sources across multiple rulesets. You can map the same rulebook in multiple activations to multiple event streams. While managing event streams, unnamed sources are assigned temporary names (__SOURCE {n}) for identification purposes.

   Select __SOURCE_1 from the list.

   Event stream

   Select your event stream name from the list.

   Click Save.

   Event streams can replace matching sources in a rulebook, and are server-side webhooks that enable you to connect various event sources to your rulebook activations. Source types that can be replaced with the event stream’s source of type ansible.eda.pg_listener include ansible.eda.webhook and other compatible webhook source plugins. Replacing selected sources affects this activation only, and modifies the rulebook’s source type, source name, and arguments. Filters, rules, conditions, and actions are all unaffected.

   You can select which source you want to replace with a single event stream. If there are multiple sources in your rulebook, you can choose to replace each one of them with event streams, but you are not required to replace each one. The following image displays which sources can be replaced.

   

   The items in pink demonstrate the sources that can be replaced: source type, source name, and arguments. The remaining items (filters, rules, and actions) are not replaced.

   Credential

   Select 0 or more credentials for this rulebook activation. This field is optional.

   Note

   The credentials that display in this field are customized based on your rulebook activation and only include the following credential types: Vault, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, or any custom credential types that you have created. For more information on credentials, see Credentials.

   Decision environment

   A decision environment is a container image used to run Ansible rulebooks.

   Note

   In Event-Driven Ansible controller, you cannot customize the pull policy of the decision environment. By default, it follows the behavior of the always policy. Every time an activation is started, the system tries to pull the most recent version of the image.

   Restart policy

   This is the policy that determines how an activation should restart after the container process running the source plugin ends.

   • Policies:

     1. Always: This restarts the rulebook activation immediately, regardless of whether it ends successfully or not, and occurs no more than 5 times.
     2. Never: This never restarts a rulebook activation when the container process ends.
     3. On failure: This restarts the rulebook activation after 60 seconds by default, only when the container process fails, and occurs no more than 5 times.

   Log level

   This field defines the severity and type of content in your logged events.

   • Levels:

     1. Error: Logs that contain error messages that are displayed in the History tab of an activation.
     2. Info: Logs that contain useful information about rulebook activations, such as a success or failure, triggered action names and their related action events, and errors.
     3. Debug: Logs that contain information that is only useful during the debug phase and might be of little value during production. This log level includes both error and log level data.

   Service name

   This defines a service name for Kubernetes to configure inbound connections if the activation exposes a port. This field is optional.

   Rulebook activation enabled?

   This automatically enables the rulebook activation to run.

   Variables

   The variables for the rulebook are in a JSON or YAML format. The content would be equivalent to the file passed through the --vars flag of ansible-rulebook command.

   Options

   Check the Skip audit events option if you do not want to see your events in the Rule Audit.

5. Click Create rulebook activation.

   After you create your rulebook activation, the Details page is displayed.

   You can navigate to the Event streams page to confirm your events have been received.

Procedure

1. Go back to the GitHub Webhook / Manage webhook page.
2. Click the Recent Deliveries tab.
3. Click the ellipsis.
4. Click Redeliver. A Redeliver payload? window is displayed with a delivery message.
5. Click Yes, redeliver this payload.
6. Return to the Ansible Automation Platform to check your rule audit.

Procedure

1. Log in to Ansible Automation Platform.

2. From the navigation panel, select Automation Decisions → Rule Audit.

   If your rulebook activation received the event data from the event stream type you selected, the Rule Audit page displays the results similar to this image.

   

Procedure

1. Log in to the Ansible Automation Platform Dashboard.
2. From the navigation panel, select Automation Decisions → Infrastructure → Credentials.
3. Click Create credential.

4. Insert the following:

   Name

   Insert the name.

   Description

   This field is optional.

   Organization

   Click the list to select an organization or select Default.

   Credential type

   Click the list and select Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform.

   Note

   When you select the credential type, the Type Details section is displayed with fields that are applicable for the credential type you chose.

5. In the required Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform field, enter your automation controller URL.

   Note

   For Event-Driven Ansible controller 2.5 with automation controller 2.4, use the following example: https://<your_controller_host>

   For Ansible Automation Platform 2.5, use the following example: https://<your_gateway_host>/api/controller/

6. Enter a valid Username and Password, or Oauth Token.
7. Click Create credential.

Procedure

1. Log in to Ansible Automation Platform.
2. Navigate to the Automation Decisions → Rulebook Activations.
3. Click Create rulebook activation.

4. Insert the following:

   Name

   Insert the name.

   Description

   This field is optional.

   Organization

   Enter your organization name or select Default from the list.

   Project

   Projects are a logical collection of rulebooks. This field is optional.

   Rulebook

   Rulebooks are displayed according to the project selected.

   Credential

   Select 0 or more credentials for this rulebook activation. This field is optional.

   Note

   • The credentials that display in this field are customized based on your rulebook activation and only include the following credential types: Vault, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, or any custom credential types that you have created. For more information about credentials, see Credentials.
   • If you plan to use a Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform credential, you can only select 1 Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform credential type for a rulebook activation.

   Decision environment

   Decision environments are a container image to run Ansible rulebooks.

   Note

   In Event-Driven Ansible controller, you cannot customize the pull policy of the decision environment. By default, it follows the behavior of the always policy. Every time an activation is started, the system tries to pull the most recent version of the image.

   Restart policy

   This is the policy that determines how an activation should restart after the container process running the source plugin ends.

   • Policies:

     1. Always: This restarts the rulebook activation immediately, regardless of whether it ends successfully or not, and occurs no more than 5 times.
     2. Never: This never restarts a rulebook activation when the container process ends.
     3. On failure: This restarts the rulebook activation after 60 seconds by default, only when the container process fails, and occurs no more than 5 times.

   Log level

   This field defines the severity and type of content in your logged events.

   • Levels:

     1. Error: Logs that contain error messages that are displayed in the History tab of an activation.
     2. Info: Logs that contain useful information about rulebook activations, such as a success or failure, triggered action names and their related action events, and errors.
     3. Debug: Logs that contain information that is only useful during the debug phase and might be of little value during production. This log level includes both error and log level data.

   Service name

   This defines a service name for Kubernetes to configure inbound connections if the activation exposes a port. This field is optional.

   Rulebook activation enabled?

   This automatically enables the rulebook activation to run.

   Variables

   The variables for the rulebook are in a JSON or YAML format. The content would be equivalent to the file passed through the --vars flag of ansible-rulebook command.

   Options

   Check the Skip audit events option if you do not want to see your events in the Rule Audit.

5. Click Create rulebook activation.

Procedure

1. Select the switch on the row level to enable or disable your chosen rulebook.
2. In the window, select Yes, I confirm that I want to enable/disable these X rulebook activations.
3. Select Enable/Disable rulebook activation.

Procedure

1. Select the More Actions icon ⋮ next to Rulebook Activation enabled/disabled toggle.
2. Select Restart rulebook activation.
3. In the window, select Yes, I confirm that I want to restart these X rulebook activations.
4. Select Restart rulebook activations.

Procedure

1. Select the More Actions icon ⋮ next to the Rulebook Activation enabled/disabled toggle.
2. Select Delete rulebook activation.
3. In the window, select Yes, I confirm that I want to delete these X rulebook activations.
4. Select Delete rulebook activations.

Procedure

1. Create a Route (on OpenShift Container Platform) to expose the service. The following is an example Route for an ansible-rulebook source that expects POST’s on port 5000 on the decision environment pod:

   kind: Route
   apiVersion: route.openshift.io/v1
   metadata:
     name: test-sync-bug
     namespace: dynatrace
     labels:
       app: eda
       job-name: activation-job-1-5000
   spec:
     host: test-sync-bug-dynatrace.apps.aap-dt.ocp4.testing.ansible.com
     to:
       kind: Service
       name: activation-job-1-5000
       weight: 100
     port:
       targetPort: 5000
     tls:
       termination: edge
       insecureEdgeTerminationPolicy: Redirect
     wildcardPolicy: None

2. When you create the Route, test it with a Post to the Route URL:

   curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST
   test-sync-bug-dynatrace.apps.aap-dt.ocp4.testing.ansible.com -d
   '{}'

   Note

   You do not need the port as it is specified on the Route (targetPort).

Procedure

1. Run the following command to expose the port on the cluster for a given service:

   kubectl port-forward svc/<ACTIVATION_SVC_NAME> 5000:5000

2. Make the HTTP requests against the localhost:5000 to trigger the rulebook:

   curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST test-sync-bug-dynatrace.apps.aap-dt.ocp4.testing.ansible.com -d '{}'

Procedure

1. From the navigation panel select Automation Decisions → Rule Audit.
2. Select the desired rule, this brings you to the Details tab.

Procedure

1. From the navigation panel, select Automation Decisions → Rule Audit.
2. Select the desired rule, this brings you to the Details tab. To view all the events that triggered an action, select the Events tab. This shows you the event that triggered actions.
3. Select an event to view the Event log, along with the Source type and Timestamp.

Procedure

1. From the navigation panel select Automation Decisions → Rule Audit.
2. Select the desired rule, then select the Actions tab.

1. Number of simultaneous rulebook activations
2. Number of events received by Event-Driven Ansible controller