Installation and configuration

Ansible is a tool to automate IT administration tasks. It comprises one controlling node, on which the Ansible collections are stored and executed, and one or multiple managed nodes, for which the administration tasks are performed. The general concept of Ansible assumes agent-less operations, i.e. the Ansible collections are only installed on the controlling node, but not on the managed nodes. Whenever updates are applied to the Ansible collections, they only need to be applied to the controlling node.

Nevertheless, the usage of Ansible collections requires a one-time setup on both the controlling node and the managed nodes. All nodes need to be enabled to run Open Source packages and have Python 3 installed. Beginning with AIX 7.3, Python 3 is automatically pre-installed with the operating system. On the controlling node, also Ansible version 2.9 or higher must be installed.

Prerequisites

To execute Ansible playbooks for SAP on IBM AIX, the following is required:

Control node (if on AIX)

OS: AIX 7.1 TL5 or AIX 7.2 TL4 and higher
Ansible version: 2.9 or later
Python: 3.7 or later
AIX OpenSSH

Managed node

OS: AIX 7.1 TL5 or AIX 7.2 TL4 and higher
Python on AIX: 2.7 or later
AIX OpenSSH
sudo

Remark: All the packages can be downloaded from: AIX Toolbox for Linux Applications (https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/aix-toolbox-linux-applications-downloads-alpha).

Installation

  1. Install Ansible:

    yum install ansible

  2. Add /opt/freeware/bin to your environment (PATH variable).

  3. Install the Ansible roles that you want to use:

    ansible-galaxy install <path to ansible role>

Configuration

  1. On the controlling node create an Ansible configuration file:

    cat ~/.ansible.cfg

#remote_tmp     = ~/.ansible/tmp
#local_tmp      = ~/.ansible/tmp
inventory       = ~/.ansible/hosts
library         = ~/.ansible/modules
roles_path      = ~/.ansible/roles
ssh_args        = -i /home/johndoe/ssh/id_rsa
transfer_method = scp

  2. On the controlling node create an inventory file:

    cat ~/.ansible/hosts

[ibmaix_servers]
ibmaixserver01.mycorp.com
ibmaixserver02.mycorp.com
ibmaixserver03.mycorp.com

[ibmaix_servers:vars]
ansible_python_interpreter=/opt/freeware/bin/python

Security

If you plan to use the AIX security concept RBAC (Role Bases Access Control) with Ansible, see: Using RBAC with Ansible.

License

This collection is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license.

Author Information

SAP on IBM Power Development Team