Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Documentation
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Working with Ansible Inventory

Ansible tracks configuration resources by preserving lists, called inventory lists, as simple files (also sometimes called a hostfile). These inventory lists can be static or dynamic. Dynamic lists can automatically update when inventory resources are added, deleted, or moved.

Because many Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) resources are added and deleted over time, static inventory lists can easily become obsolete. Tools such as Terraform or the OCI SDKs also may affect your resources.

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure provides a dynamic inventory plugin for maintaining accurate Ansible inventory.

For more information about Ansible inventory files, see Working with Inventory and Working with Dynamic Inventory.

Enabling the Inventory Plugin

If you have an existing ansible.cfg file and that configuration already enables plugins using enable_plugins, you must enable the OCI inventory plugin by adding it as well. For example:

[inventory]
enable_plugins = oracle.oci.oci

If you do not already have an ansible.cfg file that contains enable_plugins, you do not need to add the OCI inventory plugin to the configuration.

Configuring the Inventory Plugin

The only requirement for using the OCI inventory plugin after it is enabled is to provide an inventory source you have permissions to parse. Inventory sources are defined in a YAML configuration file. See User Permissions for more information.

To start using the inventory plugin with a YAML configuration source, create a file with with one of the following accepted filenames:

  • <filename>.oci.yml
  • <filename>.oci.yaml

Add plugin: oracle.oci.oci to the YAML configuration file.

The minimum inventory source file needed to run the OCI inventory plugin looks like this, for example:

# demo.oci.yml
plugin: oracle.oci.oci
 
# Optional fields to specify oci connection config:
config_file: ~/.oci/config
config_profile: DEFAULT

This example uses the config_file and config_profile parameters so the plugin can use authentication information that is outlined in the SDK and CLI Configuration File. Some parameters can also be provided as environment variables.

For a complete list of parameters and environment variables that the plugin supports, see OCI Inventory Plugin. The inventory scenarios include many of the available parameters.

Important

By default, the OCI inventory plugin discovers and lists only compute instances that have a public IP address. See Hostname Format Preferences for more information.

Order of Precedence

The inventory plugin uses the following order of precedence when an option is provided in more than one location:

  1. YAML file settings.
  2. Environment variables.
  3. Configuration settings in the selected profile in your OCI configuration file.

Fetching Database Hosts

By default, the OCI inventory plugin discovers and lists only compute instances. Database nodes are servers running database software. Database nodes are fetched by setting the option fetch_db_hosts to true. For example:

# demo.oci.yml

# DB Hosts
plugin: oracle.oci.oci
fetch_db_hosts: true

Using the Inventory Plugin

Ansible inventory plugins allow you to define the data sources used to compile an inventory of hosts that Ansible uses to target tasks. These data sources are accessed by using either the -i /path/to/file or the -i 'host1, host2' command line parameters, or from other configuration sources.

You can run the inventory with this command, for example:

ansible-inventory -i <filename>.oci.yml --graph

This produces output similar to the following:

@all:
  |--@oci:
  |  |--compute_instance1
  |  |--compute_instance2
  |–@ungrouped:
Important

By default, the inventory is generated for all the compartments in the tenancy. You must have COMPARTMENT_INSPECT permission on the root compartment for this script to be able to access all compartments. However, when compartment_ocid is specified, the inventory is generated for only the specific compartment, so you only need COMPARTMENT_INSPECT permission on the specified compartment. For more information, see How Policies Work.

To fetch all instance details, you must also have permission to list and read instances and VNICs, and read VCNs and subnets. See User Permissions for more information.

You can add inventory plugins to your plugin path and set the default inventory path to simplify your commands. Add the default inventory path to the [defaults] section of your ansible.cfg file, or use the ANSIBLE_INVENTORY environment variable to point your inventory sources. You can then run the following command to yield the same output as when you pass your YAML configuration sources directly:

ansible-inventory --graph

Inventory plugins normally only execute at the start of a run, before playbooks, plays, and roles are loaded. You can 're-execute' a plugin by using the meta: refresh_inventory task, which clears out the existing inventory and rebuilds it.

Inventory Output

The inventory list that is generated by the inventory plugin is grouped using the following attributes:

  • The region in which the compute instance resides
  • The name of the compartment the compute instance belongs to
  • The Availability Domain the compute instance is in
  • The vcn_id of the VCN the compute instance is in
  • The subnet_id of the subnet the compute instance is in
  • The security_list_ids of the subnet the compute instance is in
  • The image_id of the image used to launch the compute instance
  • Shape of the compute instance
  • The compute instance's free-form tags, with the group name set to tag_<tag_name>=<tag_value>
  • The compute instance's defined tags, with the group name set to <tag_namespace>#<tag_name>=<tag_value>
  • OCI compute instance metadata (key-value pairs), with the group name set to <metadata-key>=<metadata-value>
  • OCI compute instance extended metadata (key-value pairs), with the group name set to <metadata-key>=<metadata-value>

Hostname Format Preferences

The inventory generated by the OCI inventory plugin contains only instances that have a public IP address by default. This is useful in cases where the Ansible controller node is outside of the VCN, since Ansible can only reach instances that have public IP addresses.

You can configure the inventory_hostname to private_ip or any custom hostname by passing Jinja2 expressions as a list to the hostname_format_preferences option. The hostname_format_preferences option takes a list of Jinja2 expressions in order of precedence to compose inventory_hostname. The inventory plugin ignores expressions if the result is an empty string or "None" value. The instance is ignored if none of the hostname_format_preferences expressions result in a non-empty value.

The following example sets the inventory_hostname to either "display_name+'.oci.com'" or "private_ip" or "public_ip":

hostname_format_preferences:
  - "display_name+'.oci.com'"
  - "private_ip"
  - "public_ip"

Expressions are evaluated on host_vars of every instance. Evaluation respects the order of precedence in your configuration to compose inventory_hostname. In the preceding example, "display_name+'.oci.com'" is evaluated before "private_ip" and "public_ip".

Filtering Hosts

The OCI inventory plugin comes with various filtering options to filter the hosts returned by the plugin.

Exclude Hosts from Inventory

You can pass a list of Jinja2 conditional expressions to the exclude_host_filters parameter. Each expression in the list is evaluated for each host. When the expression is true, the host is excluded from the inventory. The exclude_host_filters parameter takes priority over the include_host_filters and filters options.

The following example excludes hosts that are not in the region 'iad' from the inventory:

exclude_host_filters:
  - "region not in ['iad']"

Exclude Hosts Using Freeform Tags

To exclude a host from the inventory using freeform tags, you can use the following syntax:

exclude_host_filters:
  # filter the hosts with freeform tag with key <tag_key> which has value <tag_value>
  - "'<tag_value>' == freeform_tags.<tag_key>"
  # filter the hosts which has <tag_key> freeform tag
  - "'<tag_key>' in freefrom_tags"

For example:

exclude_host_filters:
  - "'operating_system' in freeform_tags"
  - "'linux' == freeform_tags.operating_system"

Exclude Hosts Using Defined Tags

To exclude a host from the inventory using defined tags, you can use the following syntax:

exclude_host_filters:
  #filter the hosts with defined tag in <namespace> with <tag_key> and <tag_value>
  - "'<tag_value>' == defined_tags.<namespace>.<tag_key>"
  # filter the hosts with <tag_key> in the <namespace> in defined tags
  - "'<tag_key>' in defined_tags.<namespace>"

For example:

exclude_host_filters:
  - "'ansible' == defined_tags.ansible_collections_tag_namespace.managed_by"
  - "'managed_by' in defined_tags.ansible_collections_tag_namespace"

Include Hosts in Inventory

You can pass a list of Jinja2 conditional expressions to the include_host_filters parameter. Each expression in the list is evaluated for each host. When the expression is true, the host is included in the inventory.

The following example includes only the hosts that have a display_name ending with '.oci.com' in the inventory:

include_host_filters:
  - "display_name is match('.*.oci.com')"
Note

The include_host_filters and filters options cannot be used together.

Include Hosts Using Freeform Tags

To include a host from the inventory using freeform tags, you can use the following syntax:

include_host_filters:
  # filter the hosts with freeform tag with key <tag_key> which has value <tag_value>
  - "'<tag_value>' == freeform_tags.<tag_key>"
  # filter the hosts which has <tag_key> freeform tag
  - "'<tag_key>' in freefrom_tags"

For example:

include_host_filters:
  - "'operating_system' in freeform_tags"
  - "'linux' == freeform_tags.operating_system"

Include Hosts Using Defined Tags

To include a host from the inventory using defined tags, you can use the following syntax:

include_host_filters:
  #filter the hosts with defined tag in <namespace> with <tag_key> and <tag_value>
  - "'<tag_value>' == defined_tags.<namespace>.<tag_key>"
  # filter the hosts with <tag_key> in the <namespace> in defined tags
  - "'<tag_key>' in defined_tags.<namespace>"

For example:

include_host_filters:
  -  "'ansible' == defined_tags.ansible_collections_tag_namespace.managed_by"
  -  "'managed_by' in defined_tags.ansible_collections_tag_namespace"

Enabling Caching

Caching can be enabled to speed lookups. You can set caching options for an individual YAML configuration source or for multiple inventory sources using environment variables or Ansible configuration files. If you enable caching for an inventory plugin without providing inventory-specific caching options, the inventory plugin uses fact-caching options.

Here is an example of enabling caching for an individual YAML configuration file:

# demo.oci.yml
plugin: oracle.oci.oci
cache: yes
cache_plugin: jsonfile
cache_timeout: 7200
cache_connection: /tmp/oci_inventory
cache_prefix: oci

Using Dynamic Groups

You can create dynamic groups using host variables with the constructed keyed_groups option. The option groups can also be used to create groups and create and modify host variables. Syntax for keyed groups and groups that use tags follows:

keyed_groups
- key: freeform_tags.<tag key>
  prefix: <my_prefix>
- key: defined_tags.<namespace>.<tag key>
  prefix: <my_prefix>

groups:
  <group_name>: "'<tag_value>' == freeform_tags.<tag_key>"
  <group_name>: "'<tag_value>' == defined_tags.<namespace>.<tag_key>"
  <group_name>: "'<tag_key>' in defined_tags.<namespace>"

For example: 

# demo.oci.yml
plugin: oracle.oci.oci
regions:
  - us-phoenix-1
  - us-ashburn-1
keyed_groups:
  # add hosts to tag_Name_value groups for each oci host's tags.Name variable
  - key: tags.Name
    prefix: tag_Name_
groups:
  # add hosts to the group development if any of the dictionary's keys or values is the word 'devel'
  development: "'devel' in (tags|list)"
  # add hosts with freefrom_tags that has 'operating_system' key and 'linux' value to 'linux' group
  linux: "'linux' == freeform_tags.operating_system"
  # add hosts with freefrom tags that has 'operating_system' key to os group
  os: "'operating_system' in freeform_tags"
  # add hosts with defined tags in the namespace 'ansible_collections_tag_namespace' with tag 'managed_by' and value 'ansible'
  ansible_managed: "'ansible' == defined_tags.ansible_collections_tag_namespace.managed_by"
  # add hosts with defined tags in the namespace 'ansible_collections_tag_namespace' with tag 'managed_by'
  cm_managed_hosts: "'managed_by' in defined_tags.ansible_collections_tag_namespace"

This example produces output similar to the following: 

@all:
  |--@development:
  |  |--compute_instance1
  |  |--compute_instance2
  |--@linux:
  |  |--compute_instance1
  |--@os:
  |  |--compute_instance1
  |  |--compute_instance2
  |--@ansible_managed:
  |  |--compute_instance1
  |--@cm_managed_hosts:
  |  |--compute_instance2
  |--@ungrouped

If a host does not have the variables specified in the configuration, the host is not added to groups other than those that the inventory plugin creates and the ansible_host host variable is not modified.

Inventory Scenarios

The following sections include configuration examples that cover common inventory scenarios.

Fetch All Compute Hosts

To fetch all hosts, your configuration can be as simple as the following example:

plugin: oracle.oci.oci

Fetch Only DB Hosts

To fetch all nodes hosting database software while excluding Compute hosts, your configuration would look like the following example:

plugin: oracle.oci.oci

# fetch databse hosts
fetch_db_hosts: true
# don't fetch Compute hosts
fetch_compute_hosts: False

Fetch Hosts from Specific Regions

To fetch hosts only in specified regions, your configuration would look similar to the following example:

plugin: oracle.oci.oci

# Fetch only the hosts in the regions us-ashburn-1, us-phoenix-1
regions:
  - us-ashburn-1
  - us-phoenix-1

Set Inventory Hostname

To set the format of the inventory hostname used in the inventory, your configuration would include a section similar to the following example:

plugin: oracle.oci.oci

# Sets the inventory_hostname to either "display_name+'.oci.com'", "public_ip", "private_ip", or "id" 
# "display_name+'.oci.com'" has more preference than "public_ip", "private_ip", "id".
hostname_format_preferences:
  - "display_name+'.oci.com'"
  - "public_ip"
  - "private_ip"
  - "id"

See Hostname Format Preferences for more information.

Exclude Hosts from Inventory

To use a Jinja2 conditional expression to exclude hosts from the inventory, your configuration would include a section similar to the following example:

plugin: oracle.oci.oci

# Excludes hosts that are not in the region 'iad' from the inventory
exclude_host_filters:
  - "region not in ['iad']"

See Filtering Hosts for more information.

Include Hosts in Inventory

To use a Jinja2 conditional expression to include hosts in inventory, your configuration would include a section similar to the following example:

plugin: oracle.oci.oci

# Includes only the hosts that have a display_name ending with '.oci.com' in the inventory
include_host_filters:
  - "display_name is match('.*.oci.com')"

See Filtering Hosts for more information.

Note

The include_host_filters and filters options cannot be used together.

Fetch Hosts from Specific Compartments

The following example shows how to fetch all hosts from the specified compartments:

# Fetch all hosts
plugin: oracle.oci.oci

# Select compartment by OCID or name
compartments:
  - compartment_ocid: <ocid1.compartment.oc1..exampleuniqueID>
    fetch_hosts_from_subcompartments: false

  - compartment_name: "<compartment_name>"
    parent_compartment_ocid: <ocid1.tenancy.oc1..exampleuniqueID>

Other Options

The following example configuration combines the preceding scenarios with more configuration options:

# Fetch all hosts
plugin: oracle.oci.oci

# Optional fields:
config_file: ~/.oci/config
config_profile: DEFAULT

# Example select regions
regions:
  - us-ashburn-1
  - us-phoenix-1

# Enable threads to speedup lookup
enable_parallel_processing: yes

# Select compartment by ocid or name
compartments:
  - compartment_ocid: <ocid1.compartment.oc1..exampleuniqueID>
    fetch_hosts_from_subcompartments: false

  - compartment_name: "<compartment_name>"
    parent_compartment_ocid: <ocid1.tenancy.oc1..exampleuniqueID>

# Sets the inventory_hostname. Each item is a Jinja2 expression and it gets evaluated on host_vars.
hostname_format_preferences:
  - "display_name+'.oci.com'"
  - "private_ip"
  - "public_ip"

# Excludes a host from the inventory when any of the Jinja2 expression evaluates to true.
exclude_host_filters:
  - "region not in ['iad']"
  - "'<tag_key>' in freeform_tags"
  - "'<tag_value>' == freeform_tags.<tag_key>"
  - "'<tag_value>' == defined_tags.<namespace>.<tag_key>"
  - "'<tag_key>' in defined_tags.<namespace>"

# Includes a host in the inventory when any of the Jinja2 expression evaluates to true.
include_host_filters:
  - "display_name is match('.*.oci.com')"
  - "'<tag_key>' in freeform_tags"
  - "'<tag_value>' == freeform_tags.<tag_key>"
  - "'<tag_value>' == defined_tags.<namespace>.<tag_key>"
  - "'<tag_key>' in defined_tags.<namespace>"

# Example group results by key
keyed_groups
- key: freeform_tags.<tag key>
  prefix: <my_prefix>
- key: defined_tags.<namespace>.<tag key>
  prefix: <my_prefix>

groups:
  <group_name>: "'<tag_value>' == freeform_tags.<tag_key>"
  <group_name>: "'<tag_value>' == defined_tags.<namespace>.<tag_key>"
  <group_name>: "'<tag_key>' in defined_tags.<namespace>"

# Example to create and modify a host variable
compose:
  ansible_host: display_name+'.oracle.com'

# Example flag to turn on debug mode
debug: true

# Enable Cache
cache: yes
cache_plugin: jsonfile
cache_timeout: 7200
cache_connection: /tmp/oci-cache
cache_prefix: oci_

# DB Hosts
fetch_db_hosts: True

# Compute Hosts (bool type)
fetch_compute_hosts: True

# Process only the primary vnic of a compute instance
primary_vnic_only: True

Troubleshooting the Inventory Plugin

If the inventory list generated by the OCI inventory plugin does not include every compute instance in your tenancy, review the following information.

User Permissions

Ensure that the user has the following policy permissions. The user OCID is specified using either the OCI_USER environment variable, or the profile section in your SDK and CLI configuration file.

To see a list of permissions for API operations, see Details for the Core Services.

The inventory plugin makes API calls for the following operations:

  • ListCompartments
  • GetCompartment
  • ListVNICAttachments
  • GetVNIC
  • GetSubnet
  • GetVLAN
  • GetVCN
  • ListInstances
  • GetInstance
  • ListDBNodes
  • ListDBSystems
  • ListRegionSubscriptions

For More Information

Detailed information about using the OCI inventory plugin is available on docs.oracle.com and readthedocs.io.

You can also use the following command to see the plugin documentation:

ansible-doc -t inventory oracle.oci.oci

Refer to the the official Ansible documentation for more information about inventory plugins.

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