Chapter 8. Introduction to RHEL system roles
By using RHEL system roles, you can remotely manage the system configurations of multiple RHEL systems across major versions of RHEL.
Important terms and concepts
The following describes important terms and concepts in an Ansible environment:
- Control node
- A control node is the system from which you run Ansible commands and playbooks. Your control node can be an Ansible Automation Platform, Red Hat Satellite, or a RHEL 9, 8, or 7 host. For more information, see Preparing a control node on RHEL 8.
- Managed node
- Managed nodes are the servers and network devices that you manage with Ansible. Managed nodes are also sometimes called hosts. Ansible does not have to be installed on managed nodes. For more information, see Preparing a managed node.
- Ansible playbook
- In a playbook, you define the configuration you want to achieve on your managed nodes or a set of steps for the system on the managed node to perform. Playbooks are Ansible’s configuration, deployment, and orchestration language.
- Inventory
- In an inventory file, you list the managed nodes and specify information such as IP address for each managed node. In the inventory, you can also organize the managed nodes by creating and nesting groups for easier scaling. An inventory file is also sometimes called a hostfile.
Available roles on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 control node
On a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 control node, the rhel-system-roles package provides the following roles:
| Role name | Role description | Chapter title |
|---|---|---|
|
| Certificate Issuance and Renewal | Requesting certificates by using RHEL system roles |
|
| Web console | Installing and configuring web console with the cockpit RHEL system role |
|
| System-wide cryptographic policies | Setting a custom cryptographic policy across systems |
|
| Firewalld | Configuring firewalld by using system roles |
|
| HA Cluster | Configuring a high-availability cluster by using system roles |
|
| Kernel Dumps | Configuring kdump by using RHEL system roles |
|
| Kernel Settings | Using Ansible roles to permanently configure kernel parameters |
|
| Logging | Using the logging system role |
|
| Metrics (PCP) | Monitoring performance by using RHEL system roles |
|
| Microsoft SQL Server | Configuring Microsoft SQL Server by using the microsoft.sql.server Ansible role |
|
| Networking | Using the network RHEL system role to manage InfiniBand connections |
|
| Network Bound Disk Encryption client | Using the nbde_client and nbde_server system roles |
|
| Network Bound Disk Encryption server | Using the nbde_client and nbde_server system roles |
|
| Postfix | Variables of the postfix role in system roles |
|
| PostgreSQL | Installing and configuring PostgreSQL by using the postgresql RHEL system role |
|
| SELinux | Configuring SELinux by using system roles |
|
| SSH client | Configuring secure communication with the ssh system roles |
|
| SSH server | Configuring secure communication with the ssh system roles |
|
| Storage | Managing local storage by using RHEL system roles |
|
| Terminal Session Recording | Configuring a system for session recording by using the tlog RHEL system role |
|
| Time Synchronization | Configuring time synchronization by using RHEL system roles |
|
| VPN | Configuring VPN connections with IPsec by using the vpn RHEL system role |
Additional resources
- Automating system administration by using RHEL system roles
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) system roles
-
/usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.<role_name>/README.mdfile -
/usr/share/doc/rhel-system-roles/<role_name>/directory
