Setup Ansible Control Node

Table of Contents

1. Install the SCAP security guide package
2. Create Ansible Inventory Files
3. Establish Communication with Ansible Nodes

To set up an Ansible control node, execute the following steps from the Uyuni Web UI.

Procedure: Setting up Ansible Control Node

In the Uyuni Web UI, navigate to Admin Setup Wizard Products, verify that SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5 x86_64 and SUSE Manager Client Tools for SLE 15 x86_64 are selected and synchronized.
Deploy a SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP5 client.
In the Uyuni Web UI, navigate to the Systems Overview page of the client. Select Software Software Channels and subscribe the client to the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5 x86_64 and SUSE Manager Client Tools for SLE 15 x86_64 channels.

The Uyuni client tools contain the ansible package.
Select Details Properties of your client. From the Add-On System Types list enable Ansible Control Node and click Update Properties.
Navigate to the client overview page, select State Highstate, and click Apply Highstate.
Select the Events tab and verify the status of the highstate.

1. Install the SCAP security guide package

For executing remediations you need to install the SCAP security guide package on the Ansible control node.

Procedure: Installing the SCAP security guide package

From Systems Overview, select the client. Then click Software Packages Install.

Search for scap-security-guide and install the package suitable for your system. See the following table for package distribution requirements:

Table 1. SCAP security guide package requirements
Package name	Supported Systems
scap-security-guide	openSUSE, SLES12, SLES15
scap-security-guide-redhat	CentOS 7, CentOS 8, Fedora, Oracle Linux 7, Oracle Linux 8, RHEL7, RHEL8, RHEL9, Red Hat OpenStack Platform 10, Red Hat OpenStack Platform 13, Red Hat Virtualization 4, Scientific Linux
scap-security-guide-debian	Debian 11, Debian 12
scap-security-guide-ubuntu	Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04

2. Create Ansible Inventory Files

Ansible Integration tools deploy a playbook as an inventory file. Create one inventory file for each operating system listed in Table 1.

Procedure: Creating Ansible Inventory Files

Create and add your hosts to an inventory file to be managed by Ansible. The default path for an Ansible inventory is /etc/ansible/hosts.

Listing 1. Inventory Example

client240.mgr.example.org
client241.mgr.example.org
client242.mgr.example.org
client243.mgr.example.org ansible_ssh_private_key_file=/etc/ansible/some_ssh_key

[mygroup1]
client241.mgr.example.org
client242.mgr.example.org

[mygroup2]
client243.mgr.example.org

[all:vars]
ansible_ssh_private_key_file=/etc/ansible/my_ansible_private_key

In the Uyuni Web UI, from the Ansible tab navigate to Ansible Control Node to add inventory files to the control node.
Under the Playbook Directories section add /usr/share/scap-security-guide/ansible to the Add a Playbook Directories field and click Save.
Under Inventory Files add your inventory file locations to the Add an Inventory file field and click Save.
Listing 2. Examples
```
/etc/ansible/sles15
/etc/ansible/sles12
/etc/ansible/centos7
```
For additional playbook examples, see https://github.com/ansible/ansible-examples.

3. Establish Communication with Ansible Nodes

Procedure: Establishing Communication with Ansible Nodes

Create the SSH keys that you are using in your inventory.
```
ssh-keygen -f /etc/ansible/my_ansible_private_key
```

Copy the generated SSH keys to the Ansible managed clients. Example:

ssh-copy-id -i /etc/ansible/my_ansible_private_key root@client240.mgr.example.org

Declare the private key in /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg as follows:
```
private_key_file = /etc/ansible/my_ansible_private_key
```
Replace my_ansible_private_key with the name of the file containing the private key.
Test that Ansible is working by executing the following commands from the control node:
```
ansible all -m ping
ansible mygroup1 -m ping
ansible client240.mgr.example.org -m ping
```

You may now run remediations. For more information, see Compliance as Code.