installing-ansible.md

Installing Ansible

Installing Ansible

• Target Ansible version ≥ 2.7
• Official Documentation
• Explore a couple approaches using:
  • OS package manager
  • Python package manager (pip)

Base Requirements

Python

• Ansible < 2.5 require Python 2.7
  • support for Python 3 considered tech preview
• Ansible ≥ 2.5 supports Python 2.7 and Python ≥ 3.5

Installing OS package

• Ansible available with OS typically a bit out of date
• Generally necessary to add source repo (apt, yum, etc.)

Installing as Python virtualenv

• Other method is to set up a Python virtual environment
• Advantage of this technique: multiple separate ansible environments
  • Different needs for different projects
• Generally possible with both Python2 and Python3
  • We'll assume Python3

Ansible in a Python Virtual Environment

• Install python requirements

  sudo apt-get install python3-pip virtualenv
  

• Set up local Python environment

  virtualenv -p /usr/bin/python3 ~/venv
  

Install Ansible

• Activate virtualenv as base of Python interpreter

  source ~/venv/bin/activate
  

• Update Python package manager (pip)

  pip install -U pip
  

• Use Python package manager to install Ansible

  pip install ansible
  

Extras

• Install some tools that we'll need for the cloud

  pip install openstacksdk dnspython
  

  pip install python-{openstackclient,ceilometerclient,heatclient,neutronclient,swiftclient,octaviaclient,magnumclient}
  

Ansible release cycle

• It is worth keeping up to date with Ansible releases
• Use pip or a PPA to get a recent version
• Ansible is developed and released on a flexible 4 months release cycle
• Ansible supports the two most recent major stable releases