1.3 Job Template Creation

In the previous section we’ve built our first playbook, now let’s get it into Ascender so we can launch it. Ascender has several components that must be assembled before a piece of automation can be run.

Add Credentials

When connecting to hosts, we must authenticate to them with some form of credentials. Ascender will store secret information encrypted in its database for injection to playbooks at run time. This means I don’t have to store any sensitive information directly in my playbook.

Adding a credential to Ascender is done in the Credentials section under the Resources menu. From here, click Add.

From here you will want to create a Machine credential. I’m keeping things simple and just using a username/password.

The most commonly used credential type is Machine. It’s used for Linux, Windows, network, security, and other hosts. There are a myriad of other credential types for different applications, and there is even the ability to create a custom credential to acquire whatever confidential information that’s required.

Speaking of other types of credentials, let’s create one to connect to our git repository with. Create a new credential with the following information:

Adding A Project

Projects are how we connect a git repository to Ascender to bring in playbooks, templates, roles, etc.

Before we add the project, we need to figure out what the Source Control URL will be. You can log into the Gitea server, but it’s likely easier for you to just directly build the URL, then paste it in.

Start by looking at your username again from the main lab screen:

In my example, the username is “student1”, but yours will be different.

Use YOUR student name to replace [YOURID] in the following:

https://[YOURID]-git.ascender.workshop.ciqlab.dev/[YOURID]/ciq-basics.git

So, in my example, where my student is “student1”, the result would be:
https://student1-git.ascender.workshop.ciqlab.dev/student1/ciq-basics.git

*Remember, don’t copy/paste my example directly, rather build your own with your student ID when filling out the project info below*

From the Resources menu, choose Projects and click Add.

From the Create New Project screen fill in the blanks as follows:

A quick note on Update Revision on Launch: this option will synchronize this repository everytime a piece of automation is run from it. This is great while we are developing as it will automatically pull in my new playbook changes. If, however, I’m not developing and simply running playbooks, this will add unwanted processing time to my automations. I generally leave this option off, but since we will be actively working on playbooks(and when you are first starting you will inevitably have errors), let’s turn it on.

After clicking save the repository will start syncing.

Once complete it will show Successful.

Review Your Inventory

As previously discussed, an inventory is a big list of hosts I could possibly operate against. One of the more useful features of Ascender is its ability to dynamically build an inventory. This could be from a Configuration Management Database (CMDB) like that built into ServiceNow or perhaps via a cloud provider. For this workshop, we have already created / populated your inventory. This means no modifications are required, but let’s look at the steps required to create one anyway.

To view our inventory, in the Resource menu click on Inventories

You can see basics-inventory in the list, which is what we will use for this workshop. If it didn’t exist, we would click Add, and choose Add inventory. Again, we don’t have to as it already exists.

To enter the inventory I’ll simply click on it’s name:

From here I will click on the Hosts tab to review all of the hosts currently in this inventory:

The hosts section will allow me to click on any host to view any additional information about said host. I’ll click on my basics-host to see what info is there:

If your hostname (the name section above) is a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN), then you are done. If it’s not, there’s a magic variable known as ansible_host you can fill out to supply the IP address used to connect to the host with. You can also add any additional variables here if desired.

Add A Job Template

Job templates are where everything comes together. This is, ultimately, what allows you to run playbooks.

To add a template, go to the Resources menu on the left, choose Templates, Click Add, and choose Add job template.

Use the following to complete the template.

TIP: When filling out options like inventory, project, and credentials click the magnifying glass and choose the correct option from the list.

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