vault_warmup.md

Ansible-Vault Directory Challenge!

Good morning! To get the blood moving today we are going to improve an already existing playbook! This is what the playbook is SUPPOSED to do:

• Access the host farnsworth using SSH with password authentication
• Create directories for a list of popular cartoon characters

STEP ONE. Reset your inventory and planetexpress hosts with our bash reset command.

student@bchd:~$ bash ~/px/scripts/full-setup.sh

STEP TWO. Remove the SSH password from farnsworth's inventory. Run the following command.

student@bchd:~/mycode$ wget -O ~/mycode/inv/dev/hosts https://raw.githubusercontent.com/csfeeser/ansible_essentials/main/data/hosts

STEP THREE. Confirm that farnsworth is no longer accessible with the following command.

student@bchd:~$ ansible farnsworth -m ping

farnsworth | UNREACHABLE! => {
    "changed": false,
    "msg": "Failed to connect to the host via ssh: Warning: Permanently added '10.10.2.6' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.\r\nfarnsworth@10.10.2.6: Permission denied (publickey,gssapi-keyex,gssapi-with-mic,password).",
    "unreachable": true
}

STEP FOUR. Paste the following playbook into vim.

---
- name: Create directories for popular cartoon characters on farnsworth
  hosts: farnsworth
  gather_facts: no

  vars:
    ansible_ssh_pass: alta3

    cartoon_characters:
      - MickeyMouse
      - BugsBunny
      - HomerSimpson
      - SpongeBobSquarePants
      - ScoobyDoo

  tasks:
    - name: Create directories for each cartoon character
      file:
        path: "{{ cartoon_characters.0 }}"
        state: directory
    - name: Create directories for each cartoon character
      file:
        path: "{{ cartoon_characters.1 }}"
        state: directory
    - name: Create directories for each cartoon character
      file:
        path: "{{ cartoon_characters.2 }}"
        state: directory
    - name: Create directories for each cartoon character
      file:
        path: "{{ cartoon_characters.3 }}"
        state: directory
    - name: Create directories for each cartoon character
      file:
        path: "{{ cartoon_characters.4 }}"
        state: directory

Objective 1:

• Use Lab 39. 💻 Complete Ansible Vault to help you with this one.
• Instead of having the variable ansible_ssh_pass defining the password alta3 as plain text in the playbook, encrypt it with Ansible Vault!

  The variable must be ansible_ssh_pass, no variations.

• Where you put the encrypted password is up to you! (vars, vars_files)

Objective 2 (Optional):

• Reduce this playbook from five tasks to one by using a loop!

Click here for the solution!

Playbook with Ansible Vault Integration

NOTE: the following is just one way to secure the ansible_ssh_pass using Ansible Vault. You may have done it differently and that's ok!

1. Encrypt the SSH Password:

   ansible-vault encrypt_string 'alta3' --name 'ansible_ssh_pass' --vault-id warmup@prompt > ~/mycode/vault.yml

   • Choose whatever password you like to encrypt it.
   • You can confirm it's done with batcat ~/mycode/vault.yml. This will output something like:

   ansible_ssh_pass: !vault |
     $ANSIBLE_VAULT;1.1;AES256
     31346339326565636365623838623266336662663631393736396561633834333234323039303833
     3864623231623433313334396633383133353533356237340a343837623537643532343331386465
     62356430353834316339626666373234363835373264353963393735313462356366336238353934
     3236663038643731640a313862623165396432353635663362313332336634373163383031366432
     3061

2. Update the Playbook to Use the Encrypted Password:

   ---
   - name: Create directories for popular cartoon characters on farnsworth
     hosts: farnsworth
     gather_facts: no
   
     vars:
       cartoon_characters:
         - MickeyMouse
         - BugsBunny
         - HomerSimpson
         - SpongeBobSquarePants
         - ScoobyDoo
   
     vars_files:   # NEW
       - vault.yml # NEW
   
     tasks:
       - name: Create directories for each cartoon character
         file:
           path: "{{ item }}"              # NEW
           state: directory
         loop: "{{ cartoon_characters }}"  # NEW
   
     # delete the rest!