Ansible Directory Layout

Review possible Ansible directory layouts.

We'll cover the following

When to create a repository

  1. Per team

    • SRE
    • Infrastructure
    • Network

  2. Per application and or platform

    • Redis
    • Navigation
    • Database

The reason being, they have different workflows.

Following are the possible layouts for an Ansible directory:

Basic

Review the basic layout below:

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|-- dev.yml
|-- production.yml
|-- group_vars/
| |-- all.yml
| |-- linux.yml
| |-- windows.yml
|-- host_vars/
| |-- linuxweb01.yml
| |-- winweb01.yml
|-- ping.yml
|-- win_ping.yml
|-- configure_nginx_web_server.yml
|-- configure_iis_web_server.yml
|-- roles/
| |-- chocolatey/
| |-- ngnix/
| |-- iis/

Alternate

Review the alternate layout below:

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|-- inventories/ 
| |
| |-- dev/
| | |-- hosts
| | |-- group_vars/
| | | |-- all.yml
| | | |-- linux.yml
| | | |-- windows.yml
| | |-- host_vars/
| | | |-- linuxweb01.yml
| | |  |-- winweb01.yml
| |
| |-- production/
| | |-- hosts
| | |-- group_vars/
| | | |-- all.yml
| | | |-- linux.yml
| | | |-- windows.yml 
| | |-- host_vars/
| | | |-- linuxweb01.yml
| | | |-- winweb01.yml
|-- ping.yml
|-- win_ping.yml
|-- configure_nginx_web_server.yml
|-- configure_iis_web_server.yml
|-- roles/
| |-- chocolatey/
| |-- ngnix/
| |-- iis/

Multistage

Review the multistage layout below:

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|-- environments/ 
| |
| |-- 000_cross_env_vars
| |
| |--dev/
| | |-- hosts
| | |-- group_vars/
| | | |-- all/
| | | | |-- 000_cross_env_vars -> ../../../000_cross_env_vars 
| | | | |-- env_specific
| | | |-- linux.yml
| | | |-- windows.yml
| | |-- host_vars/
| | | |-- linuxweb01.yml
| | | |-- winweb01.yml
| |
production/
| | |--hosts
| | |--group_vars/
| | | |-- all/
| | | | |-- 000_cross_env_vars -> ../../../000_cross_env_vars 
| | | | |-- env_specific
| | | |-- linux.yml
| | | |-- windows.yml
| | |-- host_vars/
| | | |-- linuxweb01.yml
| | | |-- winweb01.yml
|-- ping.yml
|-- win_ping.yml
|-- configure_nginx_web_server.yml
|-- configure_iis_web_server.yml
|-- roles/
| |-- chocolatey/
| |-- ngnix/
| |-- iis/

The highlighted lines represent the following:

  • Line-3: symbolic link, shares variable across all environments
  • Line-10: env specific variables

Both 000_cross_env_vars and env_specific are provided to the hosts via the all group.

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