Chapter 20. Managing local storage using RHEL System Roles
To manage LVM and local file systems (FS) using Ansible, you can use the storage
role, which is one of the RHEL System Roles available in RHEL 8.
Using the storage
role enables you to automate administration of file systems on disks and logical volumes on multiple machines and across all versions of RHEL starting with RHEL 7.7.
For more information about RHEL System Roles and how to apply them, see Introduction to RHEL System Roles.
20.1. Introduction to the storage
RHEL System Role
The storage
role can manage:
- File systems on disks which have not been partitioned
- Complete LVM volume groups including their logical volumes and file systems
- MD RAID volumes and their file systems
With the storage
role, you can perform the following tasks:
- Create a file system
- Remove a file system
- Mount a file system
- Unmount a file system
- Create LVM volume groups
- Remove LVM volume groups
- Create logical volumes
- Remove logical volumes
- Create RAID volumes
- Remove RAID volumes
- Create LVM volume groups with RAID
- Remove LVM volume groups with RAID
- Create encrypted LVM volume groups
- Create LVM logical volumes with RAID
20.2. Parameters that identify a storage device in the storage
RHEL System Role
Your storage
role configuration affects only the file systems, volumes, and pools that you list in the following variables.
storage_volumes
List of file systems on all unpartitioned disks to be managed.
storage_volumes
can also includeraid
volumes.Partitions are currently unsupported.
storage_pools
List of pools to be managed.
Currently the only supported pool type is LVM. With LVM, pools represent volume groups (VGs). Under each pool there is a list of volumes to be managed by the role. With LVM, each volume corresponds to a logical volume (LV) with a file system.
20.3. Example Ansible playbook to create an XFS file system on a block device
This section provides an example Ansible playbook. This playbook applies the storage
role to create an XFS file system on a block device using the default parameters.
The storage
role can create a file system only on an unpartitioned, whole disk or a logical volume (LV). It cannot create the file system on a partition.
Example 20.1. A playbook that creates XFS on /dev/sdb
--- - hosts: all vars: storage_volumes: - name: barefs type: disk disks: - sdb fs_type: xfs roles: - rhel-system-roles.storage
-
The volume name (
barefs
in the example) is currently arbitrary. Thestorage
role identifies the volume by the disk device listed under thedisks:
attribute. -
You can omit the
fs_type: xfs
line because XFS is the default file system in RHEL 8. To create the file system on an LV, provide the LVM setup under the
disks:
attribute, including the enclosing volume group. For details, see Example Ansible playbook to manage logical volumes.Do not provide the path to the LV device.
Additional resources
-
The
/usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.storage/README.md
file.
20.4. Example Ansible playbook to persistently mount a file system
This section provides an example Ansible playbook. This playbook applies the storage
role to immediately and persistently mount an XFS file system.
Example 20.2. A playbook that mounts a file system on /dev/sdb to /mnt/data
--- - hosts: all vars: storage_volumes: - name: barefs type: disk disks: - sdb fs_type: xfs mount_point: /mnt/data roles: - rhel-system-roles.storage
-
This playbook adds the file system to the
/etc/fstab
file, and mounts the file system immediately. -
If the file system on the
/dev/sdb
device or the mount point directory do not exist, the playbook creates them.
Additional resources
-
The
/usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.storage/README.md
file.
20.5. Example Ansible playbook to manage logical volumes
This section provides an example Ansible playbook. This playbook applies the storage
role to create an LVM logical volume in a volume group.
Example 20.3. A playbook that creates a mylv logical volume in the myvg volume group
- hosts: all vars: storage_pools: - name: myvg disks: - sda - sdb - sdc volumes: - name: mylv size: 2G fs_type: ext4 mount_point: /mnt/data roles: - rhel-system-roles.storage
The
myvg
volume group consists of the following disks:-
/dev/sda
-
/dev/sdb
-
/dev/sdc
-
-
If the
myvg
volume group already exists, the playbook adds the logical volume to the volume group. -
If the
myvg
volume group does not exist, the playbook creates it. -
The playbook creates an Ext4 file system on the
mylv
logical volume, and persistently mounts the file system at/mnt
.
Additional resources
-
The
/usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.storage/README.md
file.
20.6. Example Ansible playbook to enable online block discard
This section provides an example Ansible playbook. This playbook applies the storage
role to mount an XFS file system with online block discard enabled.
Example 20.4. A playbook that enables online block discard on /mnt/data/
--- - hosts: all vars: storage_volumes: - name: barefs type: disk disks: - sdb fs_type: xfs mount_point: /mnt/data mount_options: discard roles: - rhel-system-roles.storage
Additional resources
- Example Ansible playbook to persistently mount a file system
-
The
/usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.storage/README.md
file.
20.7. Example Ansible playbook to create and mount an Ext4 file system
This section provides an example Ansible playbook. This playbook applies the storage
role to create and mount an Ext4 file system.
Example 20.5. A playbook that creates Ext4 on /dev/sdb and mounts it at /mnt/data
--- - hosts: all vars: storage_volumes: - name: barefs type: disk disks: - sdb fs_type: ext4 fs_label: label-name mount_point: /mnt/data roles: - rhel-system-roles.storage
-
The playbook creates the file system on the
/dev/sdb
disk. -
The playbook persistently mounts the file system at the
/mnt/data
directory. -
The label of the file system is
label-name
.
Additional resources
-
The
/usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.storage/README.md
file.
20.8. Example Ansible playbook to create and mount an ext3 file system
This section provides an example Ansible playbook. This playbook applies the storage
role to create and mount an Ext3 file system.
Example 20.6. A playbook that creates Ext3 on /dev/sdb
and mounts it at /mnt/data
--- - hosts: all vars: storage_volumes: - name: barefs type: disk disks: - sdb fs_type: ext3 fs_label: label-name mount_point: /mnt/data roles: - rhel-system-roles.storage
-
The playbook creates the file system on the
/dev/sdb
disk. -
The playbook persistently mounts the file system at the
/mnt/data
directory. -
The label of the file system is
label-name
.
Additional resources
-
The
/usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.storage/README.md
file.
20.9. Example Ansible playbook to resize an existing Ext4 or Ext3 file system using the storage
RHEL System Role
This section provides an example Ansible playbook. This playbook applies the storage
role to resize an existing Ext4 or Ext3 file system on a block device.
Example 20.7. A playbook that set up a single volume on a disk
---
- name: Create a disk device mounted on /opt/barefs
- hosts: all
vars:
storage_volumes:
- name: barefs
type: disk
disks:
- /dev/sdb
size: 12 GiB
fs_type: ext4
mount_point: /opt/barefs
roles:
- rhel-system-roles.storage
-
If the volume in the previous example already exists, to resize the volume, you need to run the same playbook, just with a different value for the parameter
size
. For example:
Example 20.8. A playbook that resizes ext4
on /dev/sdb
---
- name: Create a disk device mounted on /opt/barefs
- hosts: all
vars:
storage_volumes:
- name: barefs
type: disk
disks:
- /dev/sdb
size: 10 GiB
fs_type: ext4
mount_point: /opt/barefs
roles:
- rhel-system-roles.storage
- The volume name (barefs in the example) is currently arbitrary. The Storage role identifies the volume by the disk device listed under the disks: attribute.
Using the Resizing
action in other file systems can destroy the data on the device you are working on.
Additional resources
-
The
/usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.storage/README.md
file.
20.10. Example Ansible playbook to resize an existing file system on LVM using the storage
RHEL System Role
This section provides an example Ansible playbook. This playbook applies the storage
RHEL System Role to resize an LVM logical volume with a file system.
Using the Resizing
action in other file systems can destroy the data on the device you are working on.
Example 20.9. A playbook that resizes existing mylv1 and myvl2 logical volumes in the myvg volume group
--- - hosts: all vars: storage_pools: - name: myvg disks: - /dev/sda - /dev/sdb - /dev/sdc volumes: - name: mylv1 size: 10 GiB fs_type: ext4 mount_point: /opt/mount1 - name: mylv2 size: 50 GiB fs_type: ext4 mount_point: /opt/mount2 - name: Create LVM pool over three disks include_role: name: rhel-system-roles.storage
This playbook resizes the following existing file systems:
-
The Ext4 file system on the
mylv1
volume, which is mounted at/opt/mount1
, resizes to 10 GiB. -
The Ext4 file system on the
mylv2
volume, which is mounted at/opt/mount2
, resizes to 50 GiB.
-
The Ext4 file system on the
Additional resources
-
The
/usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.storage/README.md
file.
20.11. Example Ansible playbook to create a swap volume using the storage
RHEL System Role
This section provides an example Ansible playbook. This playbook applies the storage
role to create a swap volume, if it does not exist, or to modify the swap volume, if it already exist, on a block device using the default parameters.
Example 20.10. A playbook that creates or modify an existing XFS on /dev/sdb
--- - name: Create a disk device with swap - hosts: all vars: storage_volumes: - name: swap_fs type: disk disks: - /dev/sdb size: 15 GiB fs_type: swap roles: - rhel-system-roles.storage
-
The volume name (
swap_fs
in the example) is currently arbitrary. Thestorage
role identifies the volume by the disk device listed under thedisks:
attribute.
Additional resources
-
The
/usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.storage/README.md
file.
20.12. Configuring a RAID volume using the storage System Role
With the storage
System Role, you can configure a RAID volume on RHEL using Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and Ansible-Core. Create an Ansible playbook with the parameters to configure a RAID volume to suit your requirements.
Prerequisites
- The Ansible Core package is installed on the control machine.
-
You have the
rhel-system-roles
package installed on the system from which you want to run the playbook. -
You have an inventory file detailing the systems on which you want to deploy a RAID volume using the
storage
System Role.
Procedure
Create a new playbook.yml file with the following content:
--- - name: Configure the storage hosts: managed-node-01.example.com tasks: - name: Create a RAID on sdd, sde, sdf, and sdg include_role: name: rhel-system-roles.storage vars: storage_safe_mode: false storage_volumes: - name: data type: raid disks: [sdd, sde, sdf, sdg] raid_level: raid0 raid_chunk_size: 32 KiB mount_point: /mnt/data state: present
WarningDevice names might change in certain circumstances, for example, when you add a new disk to a system. Therefore, to prevent data loss, do not use specific disk names in the playbook.
Optional: Verify the playbook syntax:
# ansible-playbook --syntax-check playbook.yml
Run the playbook:
# ansible-playbook -i inventory.file /path/to/file/playbook.yml
Additional resources
- Managing RAID
-
The
/usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.storage/README.md
file - Preparing a control node and managed nodes to use RHEL System Roles.
20.13. Configuring an LVM pool with RAID using the storage
RHEL System Role
With the storage
System Role, you can configure an LVM pool with RAID on RHEL using Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform. In this section you will learn how to set up an Ansible playbook with the available parameters to configure an LVM pool with RAID.
Prerequisites
- The Ansible Core package is installed on the control machine.
-
You have the
rhel-system-roles
package installed on the system from which you want to run the playbook. -
You have an inventory file detailing the systems on which you want to configure an LVM pool with RAID using the
storage
System Role.
Procedure
Create a new
playbook.yml
file with the following content:- hosts: all vars: storage_safe_mode: false storage_pools: - name: my_pool type: lvm disks: [sdh, sdi] raid_level: raid1 volumes: - name: my_pool size: "1 GiB" mount_point: "/mnt/app/shared" fs_type: xfs state: present roles: - name: rhel-system-roles.storage
NoteTo create an LVM pool with RAID, you must specify the RAID type using the
raid_level
parameter.Optional. Verify playbook syntax.
# ansible-playbook --syntax-check playbook.yml
Run the playbook on your inventory file:
# ansible-playbook -i inventory.file /path/to/file/playbook.yml
Additional resources
- Managing RAID.
-
The
/usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.storage/README.md
file.
20.14. Example Ansible playbook to compress and deduplicate a VDO volume on LVM using the storage
RHEL System Role
This section provides an example Ansible playbook. This playbook applies the storage
RHEL System Role to enable compression and deduplication of Logical Volumes (LVM) using Virtual Data Optimizer (VDO).
Example 20.11. A playbook that creates a mylv1
LVM VDO volume in the myvg
volume group
--- - name: Create LVM VDO volume under volume group 'myvg' hosts: all roles: -rhel-system-roles.storage vars: storage_pools: - name: myvg disks: - /dev/sdb volumes: - name: mylv1 compression: true deduplication: true vdo_pool_size: 10 GiB size: 30 GiB mount_point: /mnt/app/shared
In this example, the compression
and deduplication
pools are set to true, which specifies that the VDO is used. The following describes the usage of these parameters:
-
The
deduplication
is used to deduplicate the duplicated data stored on the storage volume. - The compression is used to compress the data stored on the storage volume, which results in more storage capacity.
-
The vdo_pool_size specifies the actual size the volume takes on the device. The virtual size of VDO volume is set by the
size
parameter. NOTE: Because of the Storage role use of LVM VDO, only one volume per pool can use the compression and deduplication.
20.15. Creating a LUKS2 encrypted volume using the storage
RHEL System Role
You can use the storage
role to create and configure a volume encrypted with LUKS by running an Ansible playbook.
Prerequisites
-
Access and permissions to one or more managed nodes, which are systems you want to configure with the
crypto_policies
System Role. - An inventory file, which lists the managed nodes.
-
Access and permissions to a control node, which is a system from which Red Hat Ansible Core configures other systems. On the control node, the
ansible-core
andrhel-system-roles
packages are installed.
RHEL 8.0-8.5 provided access to a separate Ansible repository that contains Ansible Engine 2.9 for automation based on Ansible. Ansible Engine contains command-line utilities such as ansible
, ansible-playbook
, connectors such as docker
and podman
, and many plugins and modules. For information about how to obtain and install Ansible Engine, see the How to download and install Red Hat Ansible Engine Knowledgebase article.
RHEL 8.6 and 9.0 have introduced Ansible Core (provided as the ansible-core
package), which contains the Ansible command-line utilities, commands, and a small set of built-in Ansible plugins. RHEL provides this package through the AppStream repository, and it has a limited scope of support. For more information, see the Scope of support for the Ansible Core package included in the RHEL 9 and RHEL 8.6 and later AppStream repositories Knowledgebase article.
Procedure
Create a new
playbook.yml
file with the following content:- hosts: all vars: storage_volumes: - name: barefs type: disk disks: - sdb fs_type: xfs fs_label: label-name mount_point: /mnt/data encryption: true encryption_password: your-password roles: - rhel-system-roles.storage
You can also add the other encryption parameters such as
encryption_key
,encryption_cipher
,encryption_key_size
, andencryption_luks
version in the playbook.yml file.Optional: Verify playbook syntax:
# ansible-playbook --syntax-check playbook.yml
Run the playbook on your inventory file:
# ansible-playbook -i inventory.file /path/to/file/playbook.yml
Verification
View the encryption status:
# cryptsetup status sdb /dev/mapper/sdb is active and is in use. type: LUKS2 cipher: aes-xts-plain64 keysize: 512 bits key location: keyring device: /dev/sdb [...]
Verify the created LUKS encrypted volume:
# cryptsetup luksDump /dev/sdb Version: 2 Epoch: 6 Metadata area: 16384 [bytes] Keyslots area: 33521664 [bytes] UUID: a4c6be82-7347-4a91-a8ad-9479b72c9426 Label: (no label) Subsystem: (no subsystem) Flags: allow-discards Data segments: 0: crypt offset: 33554432 [bytes] length: (whole device) cipher: aes-xts-plain64 sector: 4096 [bytes] [...]
View the
cryptsetup
parameters in theplaybook.yml
file, which thestorage
role supports:# cat ~/playbook.yml - hosts: all vars: storage_volumes: - name: foo type: disk disks: - nvme0n1 fs_type: xfs fs_label: label-name mount_point: /mnt/data encryption: true #encryption_password: passwdpasswd encryption_key: /home/passwd_key encryption_cipher: aes-xts-plain64 encryption_key_size: 512 encryption_luks_version: luks2 roles: - rhel-system-roles.storage
Additional resources
- Encrypting block devices using LUKS
-
/usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.storage/README.md
file
20.16. Example Ansible playbook to express pool volume sizes as percentage using the storage
RHEL System Role
This section provides an example Ansible playbook. This playbook applies the storage
System Role to enable you to express Logical Manager Volumes (LVM) volume sizes as a percentage of the pool’s total size.
Example 20.12. A playbook that express volume sizes as a percentage of the pool’s total size
--- - name: Express volume sizes as a percentage of the pool's total size hosts: all roles - rhel-system-roles.storage vars: storage_pools: - name: myvg disks: - /dev/sdb volumes: - name: data size: 60% mount_point: /opt/mount/data - name: web size: 30% mount_point: /opt/mount/web - name: cache size: 10% mount_point: /opt/cache/mount
This example specifies the size of LVM volumes as a percentage of the pool size, for example: "60%". Additionally, you can also specify the size of LVM volumes as a percentage of the pool size in a human-readable size of the file system, for example, "10g" or "50 GiB".
20.17. Additional resources
-
/usr/share/doc/rhel-system-roles/storage/
-
/usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.storage/