Tag: ansible

This blog is the continuation of Ansible with DellEMC storage multi-part blog. 

In Part 1 of this series, we discussed getting started with the installation of dependencies for the Ansible and DellEMC Ansible module, followed by Ansible installation.

In Part 2 we discussed the high-level basics of Ansible to get you started quickly.

The purpose of earlier blogs was to get you to familiarize yourself with Ansible. In this blog, we will talk about DellEMC PowerMax Ansible module.

First let’s get our management server ready. Make sure following pre-requisites are in place

• PowerMax is running with Unisphere 9.0
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5 (or equivalent). CentOS in my case
• Ansible is installed (min version 2.6)
• Python 2.7.12 or higher is installed
• Python library for Unisphere (PyU4V) 3.0.0.14 is installed

Ansible relies on Python and the Ansible for PowerMax modules rely on the PyU4V Python library. Check this link for more details on the latest PyU4V module.

Make sure that Python and “pip” are installed. pip is a Python package manager. Install “pip” if required and then use it to install PyU4V.

Below commands will get pip and PyU4V installed.

# python -V
# pip -V
# yum install python-pip
# pip install PyU4V

Once the system is ready with required packages next step is to get the PowerMax module from GitHub. To get the modules run below commands.

# git clone https://github.com/dell/ansible-powermax
# cd dellemc_ansible
# ls

This folder (dellemc_ansible) contains multiple documents including “Product Guide” and “Release Notes” for the downloaded version.

We also need to copy a few files from downloaded modules to Ansible directories. Follow below process to complete the copy operation

# cp utils/* /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible/module_utils/
# mkdir /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible/modules/storage/dellemc/
# cd /powermax/library
# ls
# cp * /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible/modules/storage/dellemc/

You’ll get an error in case of dellemc directory already exists, which you can ignore.

At this point, we are ready with an Ansible server with DellEMC PowerMax modules installed.

There are multiple files in the downloaded directory, each for different management tasks of DellEMC PowerMax (SRP, Volumes, Masking, etc.). We’ll discuss each module in the next blog post in this series.

• Part 1 – Installing Ansible
• Part 2 – Understanding Ansible
• Part 3 – Installing DellEMC PowerMax Ansible Module
• Part 4 – DellEMC PowerMax Ansible Modules

This blog is the continuation of Ansible with DellEMC storage series. Earlier we discussed about getting started with installation of dependencies for Ansible and DellEMC Ansible module, followed by Ansible installation.

In this blog let’s talk more around Ansible architecture and it’s concepts. So let’ get started.

Similar to any other platform or software Ansible also has it’s own concepts which you should understand. This will help you get better hands-on with Ansible.

Below diagram is the high level depiction of the Ansible concepts.

On high level there are two types of nodes

Managed Nodes (Right side of the diagram) – Managed nodes are the devices or software you’ll manage using Ansible. Note that managed nodes don’t need Ansible installed.

Control/Master Node (Left side of the diagram) – This the machine Ansible is installed. On which you’ll login to run Ansible commands.

Master node as multiple components which work together. Below are the high level details

1. Inventory – This is the list of managed nodes which Ansible will talk to. Ansible always refers to node details from inventory file for executing any tasks. Inventory file support grouping, nesting, etc. which makes it easier for management and administration
2. Modules – Each module defines certain Ansible function. You can execute modules using defining multiple tasks as part of playbooks
3. Ansible Config – Consider this file as database of Ansible environment variables. Variables set in Ansible config supersedes any other setting configured in Ansible. Usually default configurations in this file are enough for many environments but there will be situations where you need to edit this file (/etc/ansible/ansible.cfg).
4. Playbooks – Consider playbooks as list of many tasks which Ansible will execute in the sequence. Playbooks are written in YAML (.yml) and hence they are very easy to create and manage without the extensive knowledge of the coding.

To simplify the playbook understanding just remember that

• Playbooks contains Plays
  • Plays contains Tasks
    • Tasks call Modules

Below is the example of Ansible Playbook

There are more concepts when it comes to Ansible (like Tower, Vault, Variables, etc.) but in my personal experience this is the good starting point.

If you find this information stimulating enough and you want to read further then I would highly recommend that you start from here.

I hope these bite sized blogs are helping you pickup Ansible faster. More to come 🙂

• Part 1 – Installing Ansible
• Part 2 – Understanding Ansible
• Part 3 – Installing DellEMC PowerMax Ansible Module
• Part 4 – DellEMC PowerMax Ansible Modules

There are many blogs which cover what is Ansible and why we should care. But this multi-part blog series will cover how DellEMC and Ansible can help you automate many storage tasks.

Ansible is being used in many organizations nowadays to manage a vast range of infrastructure, ranging from traditional configuration management to cloud resources in public clouds to physical infrastructure such as network and storage devices. There are multiple reasons why you might want to use Ansible, including – but not limited to – below examples.

• You’re trying to have efficient DevOps environment
• Automate Day 1/2 tasks
• Need centralized configuration management

Getting Started with Ansible

Even if you’ve not installed Ansible before, it’s very easy to get started. There are many different ways to install Ansible and many dependencies will be needed based on your environment and systems you’ll be managing.

Once your Linux machine is up and running (CentOS in my case) you can follow next steps

Apart from Ansible itself there will be many dependencies which needs to be installed. In the case of DellEMC PowerMax storage we will need

• Unisphere for PowerMax 9.0 to manage Dell EMC PowerMax arrays
• Ansible 2.6 or higher
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5. (I have used CentOS)
• Python 2.7.12 or higher
• Python library for Unisphere (PyU4V) 3.0.0.14

Note that Ansible relies on Python and the Ansible for PowerMax modules relies on a the PyU4V Python library

So let’s get started

Check the installed Python version by running below command and make sure it’s supported version

# python -V

For installing PIP package on CentOS you will need to install EPEL repository, which can be done by running below command

# sudo yum install epel-release -y

Once EPEL is installed you can run below command to install PIP. Also check version once installed

# sudo yum install python-pip -y
# pip -V

As mentioned earlier DellEMC PowerMax Ansible integration relies on a the PyU4V Python library Run below command to install PyU4V

# pip install PyU4V

Finally run below command to install Ansible

# sudo yum install ansible

At this point you have successfully installed Ansible and ready for next parts.

• Part 1 – Installing Ansible
• Part 2 – Understanding Ansible
• Part 3 – Installing DellEMC PowerMax Ansible Module
• Part 4 – DellEMC PowerMax Ansible Modules