I’ve talked before about how OpenCrowbar distributes SSH keys automatically as part of its deployment process.  Now, it’s time to unleash some of the subsequent magic!

[5/21 Update: We added the “crowbar-access” role to the Drill release that allows you to inject/remove keys on a per node basis from the API or CLI at any point in the node life-cycle]

If you provision servers with your keys in place, then Ansible will just work with truly minimal configuration (one line in a file!).

Video Demo (steps bellow):

Here are my steps:

1. Install OpenCrowbar and run some nodes to ready state [videos]
2. Install Ansible [simple steps]
3. Add hosts range “192.168.124.[81:83]  ansible_ssh_user=root” to the
   “/etc/ansible/hosts” file
4. If you are really lazy, add “[Default] // host_key_checking = False” to your “~/.ansible.cfg” file
5. now ping the hosts, “ansible all -m ping”
6. pat yourself on the back, you’re done.
7. to show off:
   1. touch all machines “ansible all -a “/bin/echo hello”
   2. look at types of Linux “ansible all -a “uname -a”

Further integration work can make this even more powerful.  

I’d like to see OpenCrowbar generate the Ansible inventory file from the discovery data and to map Ansible groups from deployments.  Crowbar could also call Ansible directly to use playbooks or even do a direct hand-off to Tower to complete an install without user intervention.

Wow, that would be pretty handy!   If you think so too, please join us in the OpenCrowbar community.