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Chapter 6. Backing up IdM servers using Ansible playbooks

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Using the ipabackup Ansible role, you can automate backing up an IdM server and transferring backup files between servers and your Ansible controller.

This section covers the following topics:

6.1. Preparing your Ansible control node for managing IdM

As a system administrator managing Identity Management (IdM), when working with Red Hat Ansible Engine, it is good practice to do the following:

  • Create a subdirectory dedicated to Ansible playbooks in your home directory, for example ~/MyPlaybooks.
  • Copy and adapt sample Ansible playbooks from the /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/* and /usr/share/doc/rhel-system-roles/* directories and subdirectories into your ~/MyPlaybooks directory.
  • Include your inventory file in your ~/MyPlaybooks directory.

By following this practice, you can find all your playbooks in one place and you can run your playbooks without invoking root privileges.

Note

You only need root privileges on the managed nodes to execute the ipaserver, ipareplica, ipaclient, ipabackup, ipasmartcard_server and ipasmartcard_client ansible-freeipa roles. These roles require privileged access to directories and the dnf software package manager.

Follow this procedure to create the ~/MyPlaybooks directory and configure it so that you can use it to store and run Ansible playbooks.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed an IdM server on your managed nodes, server.idm.example.com and replica.idm.example.com.
  • You have configured DNS and networking so you can log in to the managed nodes, server.idm.example.com and replica.idm.example.com, directly from the control node.
  • You know the IdM admin password.

Procedure

  1. Create a directory for your Ansible configuration and playbooks in your home directory: 

    $ mkdir ~/MyPlaybooks/

  2. Change into the ~/MyPlaybooks/ directory: 

    $ cd ~/MyPlaybooks

  3. Create the ~/MyPlaybooks/ansible.cfg file with the following content: 

    [defaults]
inventory = /home/your_username/MyPlaybooks/inventory

[privilege_escalation]
become=True

  4. Create the ~/MyPlaybooks/inventory file with the following content: 

    [ipaserver]
server.idm.example.com

[ipareplicas]
replica1.idm.example.com
replica2.idm.example.com

[ipacluster:children]
ipaserver
ipareplicas

[ipacluster:vars]
ipaadmin_password=SomeADMINpassword

[ipaclients]
ipaclient1.example.com
ipaclient2.example.com

[ipaclients:vars]
ipaadmin_password=SomeADMINpassword

    This configuration defines two host groups, eu and us, for hosts in these locations. Additionally, this configuration defines the ipaserver host group, which contains all hosts from the eu and us groups.

  5. Optional: Create an SSH public and private key. To simplify access in your test environment, do not set a password on the private key: 

    $ ssh-keygen

  6. Copy the SSH public key to the IdM admin account on each managed node: 

    $ ssh-copy-id admin@server.idm.example.com
$ ssh-copy-id admin@replica.idm.example.com

    You must enter the IdM admin password when you enter these commands.

Additional resources

6.2. Using Ansible to create a backup of an IdM server

You can use the ipabackup role in an Ansible playbook to create a backup of an IdM server and store it on the IdM server.

Prerequisites

  • You have configured your Ansible control node to meet the following requirements:

    • You are using Ansible version 2.14 or later.
    • You have installed the ansible-freeipa package on the Ansible controller.
    • The example assumes that in the ~/MyPlaybooks/ directory, you have created an Ansible inventory file with the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) of the IdM server.
    • The example assumes that the secret.yml Ansible vault stores your ipaadmin_password.
  • The target node, that is the node on which the ansible-freeipa module is executed, is part of the IdM domain as an IdM client, server or replica.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the ~/MyPlaybooks/ directory: 

    $ cd ~/MyPlaybooks/

  2. Make a copy of the backup-server.yml file located in the /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/playbooks directory: 

    $ cp /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/playbooks/backup-server.yml backup-my-server.yml
  3. Open the backup-my-server.yml Ansible playbook file for editing.

  4. Adapt the file by setting the hosts variable to a host group from your inventory file. In this example, set it to the ipaserver host group: 

    ---
- name: Playbook to backup IPA server
  hosts: ipaserver
  become: true

  roles:
  - role: ipabackup
    state: present
  5. Save the file.

  6. Run the Ansible playbook, specifying the inventory file and the playbook file: 

    $ ansible-playbook --vault-password-file=password_file -v -i ~/MyPlaybooks/inventory backup-my-server.yml

Verification

  1. Log into the IdM server that you have backed up.

  2. Verify that the backup is in the /var/lib/ipa/backup directory. 

    [root@server ~]# ls /var/lib/ipa/backup/
ipa-full-2021-04-30-13-12-00

Additional resources

  • For more sample Ansible playbooks that use the ipabackup role, see:

    • The README.md file in the /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/roles/ipabackup directory.
    • The /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/playbooks/ directory.

6.3. Using Ansible to create a backup of an IdM server on your Ansible controller

You can use the ipabackup role in an Ansible playbook to create a backup of an IdM server and automatically transfer it on your Ansible controller. Your backup file name begins with the host name of the IdM server.

Prerequisites

  • You have configured your Ansible control node to meet the following requirements:

    • You are using Ansible version 2.14 or later.
    • You have installed the ansible-freeipa package on the Ansible controller.
    • The example assumes that in the ~/MyPlaybooks/ directory, you have created an Ansible inventory file with the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) of the IdM server.
    • The example assumes that the secret.yml Ansible vault stores your ipaadmin_password.
  • The target node, that is the node on which the ansible-freeipa module is executed, is part of the IdM domain as an IdM client, server or replica.

Procedure

  1. To store the backups, create a subdirectory in your home directory on the Ansible controller. 

    $ mkdir ~/ipabackups

  2. Navigate to the ~/MyPlaybooks/ directory: 

    $ cd ~/MyPlaybooks/

  3. Make a copy of the backup-server-to-controller.yml file located in the /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/playbooks directory: 

    $ cp /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/playbooks/backup-server-to-controller.yml backup-my-server-to-my-controller.yml
  4. Open the backup-my-server-to-my-controller.yml file for editing.

  5. Adapt the file by setting the following variables:

    1. Set the hosts variable to a host group from your inventory file. In this example, set it to the ipaserver host group.

    2. Optional: To maintain a copy of the backup on the IdM server, uncomment the following line: 

       # ipabackup_keep_on_server: true

  6. By default, backups are stored in the present working directory of the Ansible controller. To specify the backup directory you created in Step 1, add the ipabackup_controller_path variable and set it to the /home/user/ipabackups directory. 

    ---
- name: Playbook to backup IPA server to controller
  hosts: ipaserver
  become: true
  vars:
    ipabackup_to_controller: true
    # ipabackup_keep_on_server: true
    ipabackup_controller_path: /home/user/ipabackups

  roles:
  - role: ipabackup
    state: present
  7. Save the file.

  8. Run the Ansible playbook, specifying the inventory file and the playbook file: 

    $ ansible-playbook --vault-password-file=password_file -v -i ~/MyPlaybooks/inventory backup-my-server-to-my-controller.yml

Verification

  • Verify that the backup is in the /home/user/ipabackups directory of your Ansible controller: 

    [user@controller ~]$ ls /home/user/ipabackups
server.idm.example.com_ipa-full-2021-04-30-13-12-00

Additional resources

  • For more sample Ansible playbooks that use the ipabackup role, see:

    • The README.md file in the /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/roles/ipabackup directory.
    • The /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/playbooks/ directory.

6.4. Using Ansible to copy a backup of an IdM server to your Ansible controller

You can use an Ansible playbook to copy a backup of an IdM server from the IdM server to your Ansible controller.

Prerequisites

  • You have configured your Ansible control node to meet the following requirements:

    • You are using Ansible version 2.14 or later.
    • You have installed the ansible-freeipa package on the Ansible controller.
    • The example assumes that in the ~/MyPlaybooks/ directory, you have created an Ansible inventory file with the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) of the IdM server.
    • The example assumes that the secret.yml Ansible vault stores your ipaadmin_password.
  • The target node, that is the node on which the ansible-freeipa module is executed, is part of the IdM domain as an IdM client, server or replica.

Procedure

  1. To store the backups, create a subdirectory in your home directory on the Ansible controller. 

    $ mkdir ~/ipabackups

  2. Navigate to the ~/MyPlaybooks/ directory: 

    $ cd ~/MyPlaybooks/

  3. Make a copy of the copy-backup-from-server.yml file located in the /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/playbooks directory: 

    $ cp /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/playbooks/copy-backup-from-server.yml copy-backup-from-my-server-to-my-controller.yml
  4. Open the copy-my-backup-from-my-server-to-my-controller.yml file for editing.

  5. Adapt the file by setting the following variables:

    1. Set the hosts variable to a host group from your inventory file. In this example, set it to the ipaserver host group.
    2. Set the ipabackup_name variable to the name of the ipabackup on your IdM server to copy to your Ansible controller.

    3. By default, backups are stored in the present working directory of the Ansible controller. To specify the directory you created in Step 1, add the ipabackup_controller_path variable and set it to the /home/user/ipabackups directory. 

      ---
- name: Playbook to copy backup from IPA server
  hosts: ipaserver
  become: true
  vars:
    ipabackup_name: ipa-full-2021-04-30-13-12-00
    ipabackup_to_controller: true
    ipabackup_controller_path: /home/user/ipabackups

  roles:
  - role: ipabackup
    state: present
  6. Save the file.

  7. Run the Ansible playbook, specifying the inventory file and the playbook file: 

    $ ansible-playbook --vault-password-file=password_file -v -i ~/MyPlaybooks/inventory copy-backup-from-my-server-to-my-controller.yml
Note

To copy all IdM backups to your controller, set the ipabackup_name variable in the Ansible playbook to all: 

  vars:
    ipabackup_name: all
    ipabackup_to_controller: true

For an example, see the copy-all-backups-from-server.yml Ansible playbook in the /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/playbooks directory.

Verification

  • Verify your backup is in the /home/user/ipabackups directory on your Ansible controller: 

    [user@controller ~]$ ls /home/user/ipabackups
server.idm.example.com_ipa-full-2021-04-30-13-12-00

Additional resources

  • The README.md file in the /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/roles/ipabackup directory.
  • The /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/playbooks/ directory.

6.5. Using Ansible to copy a backup of an IdM server from your Ansible controller to the IdM server

You can use an Ansible playbook to copy a backup of an IdM server from your Ansible controller to the IdM server.

Prerequisites

  • You have configured your Ansible control node to meet the following requirements:

    • You are using Ansible version 2.14 or later.
    • You have installed the ansible-freeipa package on the Ansible controller.
    • The example assumes that in the ~/MyPlaybooks/ directory, you have created an Ansible inventory file with the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) of the IdM server.
    • The example assumes that the secret.yml Ansible vault stores your ipaadmin_password.
  • The target node, that is the node on which the ansible-freeipa module is executed, is part of the IdM domain as an IdM client, server or replica.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the ~/MyPlaybooks/ directory: 

    $ cd ~/MyPlaybooks/

  2. Make a copy of the copy-backup-from-controller.yml file located in the /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/playbooks directory: 

    $ cp /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/playbooks/copy-backup-from-controller.yml copy-backup-from-my-controller-to-my-server.yml
  3. Open the copy-my-backup-from-my-controller-to-my-server.yml file for editing.

  4. Adapt the file by setting the following variables:

    1. Set the hosts variable to a host group from your inventory file. In this example, set it to the ipaserver host group.

    2. Set the ipabackup_name variable to the name of the ipabackup on your Ansible controller to copy to the IdM server. 

      ---
- name: Playbook to copy a backup from controller to the IPA server
  hosts: ipaserver
  become: true

  vars:
    ipabackup_name: server.idm.example.com_ipa-full-2021-04-30-13-12-00
    ipabackup_from_controller: true

  roles:
  - role: ipabackup
    state: copied
  5. Save the file.

  6. Run the Ansible playbook, specifying the inventory file and the playbook file: 

    $ ansible-playbook --vault-password-file=password_file -v -i ~/MyPlaybooks/inventory copy-backup-from-my-controller-to-my-server.yml

Additional resources

  • The README.md file in the /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/roles/ipabackup directory.
  • The /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/playbooks/ directory.

6.6. Using Ansible to remove a backup from an IdM server

You can use an Ansible playbook to remove a backup from an IdM server.

Prerequisites

  • You have configured your Ansible control node to meet the following requirements:

    • You are using Ansible version 2.14 or later.
    • You have installed the ansible-freeipa package on the Ansible controller.
    • The example assumes that in the ~/MyPlaybooks/ directory, you have created an Ansible inventory file with the fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) of the IdM server.
    • The example assumes that the secret.yml Ansible vault stores your ipaadmin_password.
  • The target node, that is the node on which the ansible-freeipa module is executed, is part of the IdM domain as an IdM client, server or replica.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the ~/MyPlaybooks/ directory: 

    $ cd ~/MyPlaybooks/

  2. Make a copy of the remove-backup-from-server.yml file located in the /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/playbooks directory: 

    $ cp /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/playbooks/remove-backup-from-server.yml remove-backup-from-my-server.yml
  3. Open the remove-backup-from-my-server.yml file for editing.

  4. Adapt the file by setting the following variables:

    1. Set the hosts variable to a host group from your inventory file. In this example, set it to the ipaserver host group.

    2. Set the ipabackup_name variable to the name of the ipabackup to remove from your IdM server. 

      ---
- name: Playbook to remove backup from IPA server
  hosts: ipaserver
  become: true

  vars:
    ipabackup_name: ipa-full-2021-04-30-13-12-00

  roles:
  - role: ipabackup
    state: absent
  5. Save the file.

  6. Run the Ansible playbook, specifying the inventory file and the playbook file: 

    $ ansible-playbook --vault-password-file=password_file -v -i ~/MyPlaybooks/inventory remove-backup-from-my-server.yml
Note

To remove all IdM backups from the IdM server, set the ipabackup_name variable in the Ansible playbook to all: 

  vars:
    ipabackup_name: all

For an example, see the remove-all-backups-from-server.yml Ansible playbook in the /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/playbooks directory.

Additional resources

  • The README.md file in the /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/roles/ipabackup directory.
  • The /usr/share/doc/ansible-freeipa/playbooks/ directory.
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