Define rules that trigger automation from events

A rulebook is a set of conditional rules that Event-Driven Ansible uses to perform IT actions in an event-driven automation model. Rulebooks are the means that users tell Event-Driven Ansible which source to check for an event and when that event occurs what to do when certain conditions are met.

A rulebook specifies actions to be performed when a rule is triggered. A rule gets triggered when the events match the conditions for the rules. The following actions are currently supported:

  • run_playbook (only supported with ansible-rulebook CLI)
  • run_module
  • run_job_template
  • run_workflow_template
  • set_fact
  • post_event
  • retract_fact
  • print_event
  • shutdown
  • debug
  • none

To view further details, see Ansible Actions.

A rulebook activation is a process running in the background defined by a decision environment executing a specific rulebook. You can set up your rulebook activation by following Set up a rulebook activation.

Warning

Red Hat does not recommend the use of a non-supported source plugin with 1 postgres database. This can pose a potential risk to your use of Ansible Automation Platform.

 Important

To meet high availability demands, Event-Driven Ansible controller shares centralized Redis (REmote DIctionary Server) with the Ansible Automation Platform UI. When Redis is unavailable, the following functions will not be available:

  • Creating an activation, if is_enabled is True
  • Deleting an activation
  • Enabling an activation, if not already enabled
  • Disabling an activation, if not already disabled
  • Restarting an activation

Set up a rulebook activation
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Create a rulebook activation to link a rulebook to a decision environment and event sources, initiating the event-driven automation process.

Before you begin
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  • You are logged in to the Ansible Automation Platform Dashboard as a Content Consumer.
  • You have set up a project.
  • You have set up a decision environment.

Procedure
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  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.

    Note

    In the context of automation controller and Event-Driven Ansible controller, you can use both extra_vars and credentials to store a variety of information. However, credentials are the preferred method of storing sensitive information such as passwords or API keys because they offer better security and centralized management, whereas extra_vars are more suitable for passing dynamic, non-sensitive data.
    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.

Results
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Your rulebook activation is now created and can be managed on the Rulebook Activations page.

After saving the new rulebook activation, the rulebook activation’s details page is displayed, with either a Pending, Running, or Failed status. From there or the Rulebook Activations list view, you can restart or delete it.

Note

Occasionally, when a source plugin shuts down, it causes a rulebook to exit gracefully after a certain amount of time. When a rulebook activation shuts down, any tasks that are waiting to be performed will be canceled, and an info level message is sent to the activation log. For more information, see Rulebooks.

Rulebook activation list view
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Use the Rulebook Activations list view to quickly monitor the operational status, event fire count, and restart frequency of all your deployed automation services.

If the Status is Running, it means that the rulebook activation is running in the background and executing the required actions according to the rules declared in the rulebook.

You can view more details by selecting the activation from the Rulebook Activations list view.

For all activations that have run, you can view the Details and History tabs to get more information about what happened.

View activation output
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View the activation output in the History tab to inspect the execution results, confirm successful automation runs, and diagnose runtime errors or task failures.

Procedure
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  1. Select the History tab to access the list of all the activation instances. An activation instance represents a single execution of the activation.
  2. Then select the activation instance you want to view. The Output for the activation instance is displayed.

What to do next
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To view events that came in and triggered an action, navigate to Automation Decisions > Rule Audit and follow instructions in the Rule Audit section.