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Ansible

Install

Virtualenv (python)

Python virtual environment is highly recommended to isolate the python packages in shared systems and avoid broken dependencies when projects needs specific packages/versions.

To use python virtual environment (recommended when using many ansible projects) you need to install the base python package on your system (need elevated permissions - sudo):

  • Install using the System's package manager: 

    sudo dnf install python3-virtualenv

  • Install using python3 package management (pip3):

sudo pip3 install virtualenv
  • Create the virtuale environment

in general .venv is the default virtualenvironemnt that resides in the same directory of the project that the virtualenv will be used (ex. dir my-project)

python3 -m venv my-project/.venv
  • Enter in the project's directory and enable the virtual environment
cd my-project && \
source .venv/bin/activate

NOTE1: the terminal should have a prefix ((.venv)) indicating that the venv is enabled, like that:

(.venv) [me@localhost .my-project]$

NOTE2: all the python environment should be behind the path .venv, you can see the new path of pip: 

which pip3
# OR just pip (ur new environment has default py interpreter py3, so both are version 3)
which pip

  • Install the Ansible OR use requirements.txt file to persiste packages w/ versions

  • ad-hoc install 

    pip3 install ansible

  • requirements.txt file

requirements.txt content: 

ansible>=2.9,<2.10

install

pip3 install -r requirements

Container

To use ansible in a container, just use the same strategy of python virtual environment isolated.

There is two ways: - install dependencies directly on Dockerfile, OR - create a requirements.txt file with it's dependencies (highly recommended)

  1. Create Dockerfile

a) Create Dockerfile with requirements.txt file: 

FROM centos:latest
WORKDIR /ansible
COPY requirements.txt .
RUN yum -y install python3-pip && \
    pip3 install -r requirements.txt

b) OR, leave all dependences inside Dockerfile: 

FROM centos:latest
WORKDIR /ansible
COPY requirements.txt .
RUN yum -y install python3-pip && \
    pip3 install ansible

  1. Build the image
sudo podman build -t ansible .
  1. Run the container w/ ad-hoc command ping
sudo podman run -v $PWD:/ansible -it ansible ansible localhost -m ping

References