linuxexpert-practice-labs/labs/ex294/4-1-ansible-playbook-and-navigator/README.md

EX294 4.1: ansible-playbook and ansible-navigator

Run the same playbook with ansible-playbook and with ansible-navigator, browse a run in navigator's interactive mode, and see which files an execution environment can read.

Before you start

This VM is the control node. The lab creates the user greg (password Lab-Pass-1) with an SSH key, and installs ansible-core and ansible-navigator (from PyPI, in /opt/le-lab-navigator). Work as greg, in /home/greg/ansible: its ansible.cfg reads the inventory inventory, logs in as devops and becomes root, and its ansible-navigator.yml uses the execution environment image localhost/lab-ee:2.16 (built on this VM from AlmaLinux 10's ansible-core and collections from Ansible Galaxy; no registry or login) and never pulls. It doesn't set the mode, so navigator starts in interactive mode unless you give -m stdout.

site.yml checks every node and adds a line to the node's /var/log/lab-runs.log saying which command ran it, where Ansible ran, and the --limit. The lab also leaves a note for task 3 in /tmp/lab-note.txt.

The managed nodes node1 (10.99.1.11) and node2 (10.99.1.12) are AlmaLinux 10 containers reached over SSH by name; on both, devops accepts greg's key and may use sudo without a password. For a root shell on a node, sudo podman exec -it node1 bash.

Tasks

1. Run site.yml with ansible-playbook, then with ansible-navigator run in stdout mode, limited to one node. Both recaps show the same counts for that node.
2. Run site.yml with navigator in interactive mode and open the result of one task. Not graded: check that the task screen shows changed: and the module's arguments under invocation.
3. Write /home/greg/ansible/note.yml, a playbook for localhost that prints the note's contents with a file lookup, and run it with both commands. ansible-playbook prints it from /tmp; navigator can't find it there. Copy the note into the project and point the lookup at the copy, so both commands print it.

Hints

• --limit node1, -m stdout. In interactive mode, type a row's number (:0) to open it, Esc to go back, :q to quit.
• lookup('ansible.builtin.file', 'PATH') in a debug task's msg.
• The execution environment sees the project directory and ~/.ssh, not the rest of the control node. A relative path in a file lookup is looked for next to the playbook (and in files/).