Chapter 12. Configuring firewalld by using RHEL system roles
RHEL system roles is a set of contents for the Ansible automation utility. This content together with the Ansible automation utility provides a consistent configuration interface to remotely manage multiple systems at once.
The rhel-system-roles
package contains the rhel-system-roles.firewall
RHEL system role. This role was introduced for automated configurations of the firewalld
service.
With the firewall
RHEL system role you can configure many different firewalld
parameters, for example:
- Zones
- The services for which packets should be allowed
- Granting, rejection, or dropping of traffic access to ports
- Forwarding of ports or port ranges for a zone
12.1. Resetting the firewalld
settings by using the firewall
RHEL system role
Over time, updates to your firewall configuration can accumulate to the point, where they could lead to unintended security risks. With the firewall
RHEL system role, you can reset the firewalld
settings to their default state in an automated fashion. This way you can efficiently remove any unintentional or insecure firewall rules and simplify their management.
Prerequisites
- You have prepared the control node and the managed nodes.
- You are logged in to the control node as a user who can run playbooks on the managed nodes.
-
The account you use to connect to the managed nodes has
sudo
permissions on them.
Procedure
Create a playbook file, for example
~/playbook.yml
, with the following content:--- - name: Reset firewalld example hosts: managed-node-01.example.com tasks: - name: Reset firewalld ansible.builtin.include_role: name: rhel-system-roles.firewall vars: firewall: - previous: replaced
The settings specified in the example playbook include the following:
previous: replaced
Removes all existing user-defined settings and resets the
firewalld
settings to defaults. If you combine theprevious:replaced
parameter with other settings, thefirewall
role removes all existing settings before applying new ones.For details about all variables used in the playbook, see the
/usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.firewall/README.md
file on the control node.
Validate the playbook syntax:
$ ansible-playbook --syntax-check ~/playbook.yml
Note that this command only validates the syntax and does not protect against a wrong but valid configuration.
Run the playbook:
$ ansible-playbook ~/playbook.yml
Verification
Run this command on the control node to remotely check that all firewall configuration on your managed node was reset to its default values:
# ansible managed-node-01.example.com -m ansible.builtin.command -a 'firewall-cmd --list-all-zones'
Additional resources
-
/usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.firewall/README.md
file -
/usr/share/doc/rhel-system-roles/firewall/
directory
12.2. Forwarding incoming traffic in firewalld
from one local port to a different local port by using the firewall
RHEL system role
You can use the firewall
RHEL system role to remotely configure forwarding of incoming traffic from one local port to a different local port.
For example, if you have an environment where multiple services co-exist on the same machine and need the same default port, there are likely to become port conflicts. These conflicts can disrupt services and cause a downtime. With the firewall
RHEL system role, you can efficiently forward traffic to alternative ports to ensure that your services can run simultaneously without modification to their configuration.
Prerequisites
- You have prepared the control node and the managed nodes.
- You are logged in to the control node as a user who can run playbooks on the managed nodes.
-
The account you use to connect to the managed nodes has
sudo
permissions on them.
Procedure
Create a playbook file, for example
~/playbook.yml
, with the following content:--- - name: Configure firewalld hosts: managed-node-01.example.com tasks: - name: Forward incoming traffic on port 8080 to 443 ansible.builtin.include_role: name: rhel-system-roles.firewall vars: firewall: - forward_port: 8080/tcp;443; state: enabled runtime: true permanent: true
The settings specified in the example playbook include the following:
forward_port: 8080/tcp;443
- Traffic coming to the local port 8080 using the TCP protocol is forwarded to the port 443.
runtime: true
Enables changes in the runtime configuration. The default is set to
true
.For details about all variables used in the playbook, see the
/usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.firewall/README.md
file on the control node.
Validate the playbook syntax:
$ ansible-playbook --syntax-check ~/playbook.yml
Note that this command only validates the syntax and does not protect against a wrong but valid configuration.
Run the playbook:
$ ansible-playbook ~/playbook.yml
Verification
On the control node, run the following command to remotely check the forwarded-ports on your managed node:
# ansible managed-node-01.example.com -m ansible.builtin.command -a 'firewall-cmd --list-forward-ports' managed-node-01.example.com | CHANGED | rc=0 >> port=8080:proto=tcp:toport=443:toaddr=
Additional resources
-
/usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.firewall/README.md
file -
/usr/share/doc/rhel-system-roles/firewall/
directory
12.3. Configuring a firewalld
DMZ zone by using the firewall
RHEL system role
As a system administrator, you can use the firewall
RHEL system role to configure a dmz
zone on the enp1s0 interface to permit HTTPS
traffic to the zone. In this way, you enable external users to access your web servers.
Prerequisites
- You have prepared the control node and the managed nodes.
- You are logged in to the control node as a user who can run playbooks on the managed nodes.
-
The account you use to connect to the managed nodes has
sudo
permissions on them.
Procedure
Create a playbook file, for example
~/playbook.yml
, with the following content:--- - name: Configure firewalld hosts: managed-node-01.example.com tasks: - name: Creating a DMZ with access to HTTPS port and masquerading for hosts in DMZ ansible.builtin.include_role: name: rhel-system-roles.firewall vars: firewall: - zone: dmz interface: enp1s0 service: https state: enabled runtime: true permanent: true
For details about all variables used in the playbook, see the
/usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.firewall/README.md
file on the control node.Validate the playbook syntax:
$ ansible-playbook --syntax-check ~/playbook.yml
Note that this command only validates the syntax and does not protect against a wrong but valid configuration.
Run the playbook:
$ ansible-playbook ~/playbook.yml
Verification
On the control node, run the following command to remotely check the information about the
dmz
zone on your managed node:# ansible managed-node-01.example.com -m ansible.builtin.command -a 'firewall-cmd --zone=dmz --list-all' managed-node-01.example.com | CHANGED | rc=0 >> dmz (active) target: default icmp-block-inversion: no interfaces: enp1s0 sources: services: https ssh ports: protocols: forward: no masquerade: no forward-ports: source-ports: icmp-blocks:
Additional resources
-
/usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.firewall/README.md
file -
/usr/share/doc/rhel-system-roles/firewall/
directory