Configuration¶

Ansible¶

To begin using ARA, you’ll first need to set up Ansible so it knows about the the ARA callback and, if necessary, the ara_record and ara_read modules.

The callback and modules are bundled when installing ARA but you need to know where they have been installed in order to let Ansible know where they are located.

Tip

The location where ARA will be depends on your operating system and how it is installed. Here’s some examples of where ARA can be found:

/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ara

- /usr/lib/python3.5/site-packages/ara - $VIRTUAL_ENV/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ara

If you’re not sure where ARA will end up being installed, you can use this snippet to print its location. It works in both Python 2 and Python 3:

python -c "import os,ara; print(os.path.dirname(ara.__file__))"

Using ansible.cfg¶

Set up your ansible.cfg file to seek the callback and modules in the appropriate directories:

$ export ara_location=$(python -c "import os,ara; print(os.path.dirname(ara.__file__))")
$ cat > ansible.cfg <<EOF
[defaults]
# callback_plugins configuration is required for the ARA callback
callback_plugins = $ara_location/plugins/callbacks

# action_plugins and library configuration is required for the ara_record and ara_read modules
action_plugins = $ara_location/plugins/actions
library = $ara_location/plugins/modules
EOF

Using environment variables¶

Depending on the context and your use case, configuring Ansible using environment variables instead of an ansible.cfg file might be more convenient. Here’s how you can set up Ansible to seek out ARA’s callback and modules:

$ export ara_location=$(python -c "import os,ara; print(os.path.dirname(ara.__file__))")
$ export ANSIBLE_CALLBACK_PLUGINS=$ara_location/plugins/callbacks
$ export ANSIBLE_ACTION_PLUGINS=$ara_location/plugins/actions
$ export ANSIBLE_LIBRARY=$ara_location/plugins/modules

ARA¶

ARA uses the same mechanism and configuration files as Ansible to retrieve it’s configuration. It comes with sane defaults that can be customized if need be.

The order of priority is the following:

Environment variables
./ansible.cfg (In the current working directory)
~/.ansible.cfg (In the home directory)
/etc/ansible/ansible.cfg

When using the ansible.cfg file, the configuration options must be set under the ara namespace, as follows:

[ara]
variable = value

Note

The callback, CLI client and web application all share the same settings. For example, if you configure the database location, all three will use that location.

Parameters and their defaults¶

Environment variable	[ara] ansible.cfg variable	Default value
ARA_DIR	dir	~/.ara
ARA_DATABASE	database	sqlite:///~/.ara/ansible.sqlite
ARA_HOST	host	127.0.0.1
ARA_PORT	port	9191
ARA_LOG_FILE	logfile	~/.ara/ara.log
ARA_LOG_LEVEL	loglevel	INFO
ARA_LOG_FORMAT	logformat	%(asctime)s - %(levelname)s - %(message)s
ARA_SQL_DEBUG	sqldebug	False
ARA_IGNORE_PARAMETERS	ignore_parameters	extra_vars
ARA_IGNORE_EMPTY_GENERATION	ignore_empty_generation	True
ARA_IGNORE_MIMETYPE_WARNINGS	ignore_mimetype_warnings	True
ARA_PLAYBOOK_OVERRIDE	playbook_override	None
ARA_PLAYBOOK_PER_PAGE	playbook_per_page	10
ARA_RESULT_PER_PAGE	result_per_page	25

ARA_DIR¶

Base directory where ARA will store it’s log file and sqlite database, unless specified otherwise.

ARA_DATABASE¶

ARA records Ansible data in a database. The callback, the CLI client and the web application all need to know where that database is located.

ARA ensures the database exists and it’s schema is created when it is run.

ARA comes out of the box with sqlite enabled and no additional setup required. If, for example, you’d like to use MySQL instead, you will need to create a database and it’s credentials:

CREATE DATABASE ara;
CREATE USER ara@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON ara.* TO ara@localhost;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

And then setup the database connection:

export ARA_DATABASE="mysql+pymysql://ara:password@localhost/ara"
# or
[ara]
database = mysql+pymysql://ara:password@localhost/ara

When using a different database driver such as MySQL (pymysql), you also need to make sure you install the driver:

# From pypi
pip install pymysql
# For RHEL derivatives
yum install python-PyMySQL
# For Debian or Ubuntu
apt-get install python-pymysql

Alternatively, if you prefer PostgreSQL, you can do the following in psql:

CREATE ROLE ara WITH LOGIN PASSWORD 'password';
CREATE DATABASE ara OWNER ara;
GRANT ALL ON DATABASE ara TO ara;

Be sure you update your pg_hba.conf afterwards if needed.

Then, setup the database connection:

export ARA_DATABASE="postgresql+psycopg2://ara:password@localhost:5432/ara"
# or
[ara]
database = postgresql+psycopg2://ara:password@localhost:5432/ara

You will need to install the database driver by:

# From pypi
pip install psycopg2
# For RHEL derivatives
yum install python-psycopg2
# For Debian or Ubuntu
apt-get install python-psycopg2

ARA_HOST¶

The host on which the development server will bind to by default when using the ara-manage runserver command.

It is equivalent to the -h or --host argument of the ara-manage runserver command.

ARA_PORT¶

The port on which the development server will listen on by default when using the ara-manage runserver command.

It is equivalent to the -p or --port argument of the ara-manage runserver command.

ARA_LOG_FILE¶

Path to the logfile to store ARA logs in.

ARA_LOG_LEVEL¶

The loglevel to adjust debug or verbosity.

ARA_LOG_FORMAT¶

The log format of the logs.

ARA_SQL_DEBUG¶

Enables the SQLAlchemy echo verbose mode.

ARA_IGNORE_PARAMETERS¶

ARA will, by default, save every parameter and option passed to ansible-playbook (except extra-vars) and make them available as part of your reports.

If, for example, you use extra_vars to send a password or secret variable to your playbooks, it is likely you don’t want this saved in ARA’s database.

This configuration allows you to customize what ARA will and will not save. It is a list, provided by a comma-separated values.

ARA_IGNORE_EMPTY_GENERATION¶

When using ara generate html, whether or not to ignore warnings provided by flask-frozen about endpoints for which the application found no available data.

For example, if you do not use the ara_record module as part of your playbooks, this avoids printing a MissingURLGeneratorWarning because there is no recorded data to render.

ARA_IGNORE_MIMETYPE_WARNINGS¶

When using ara generate html, whether or not to ignore file mimetype warnings provided by flask-frozen.

ARA_PLAYBOOK_OVERRIDE¶

This configuration is exposed mostly for the purposes of the ara generate html and ara generate junit commands but you can use it as well.

ARA_PLAYBOOK_OVERRIDE will limit the playbooks displayed in the web application to the list of playbook IDs specified. This is expected to be playbook IDs (ex: retrieved through ara playbook list) in a comma-separated list.

ARA_PLAYBOOK_PER_PAGE¶

This is the amount of playbooks runs shown in a single page in the ARA web interface. The default is 10 but you might want to tweak this number up or down depending on the amount of hosts, tasks and task results contained in your playbooks. This directly influences the weight of the pages that will end up being displayed. Setting this value too high might yield very heavy pages.

Set this parameter to 0 to disable playbook listing pagination entirely.

ARA_RESULT_PER_PAGE¶

This is the amount of results shown in a single page in the different data tables such as hosts, plays and tasks of the ARA web interface. The default is 25 but you might want to tweak this number up or down depending on your preference. This has no direct impact on the weight of the page being sent for the reports as these data tables are rendered on the client side.

Set this parameter to 0 to disable pagination for results entirely.

The CLI client and the web application¶

The CLI client and the web application do not need to be run on the same machine that Ansible is executed from but they do need a database and know it’s location.

Both could query a local sqlite database or a remote MySQL database, for example.