How to Provision Alibaba Cloud Resources with Ansible
By Philip Choi, Solutions Architect
This article will show you how to create Alibaba Cloud resources using Ansible through the Ansible Alicloud Module.
Introduction
Ansible is one of the DevOps tools that is available in the market and widely being adopted among developer and operators. This document will describe how one can provision Alibaba Cloud Resources by using Ansible, such as creating an Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance by using an Ansible playbook.
Comparison of Provisioning Methods
In general, Alicloud provides 4 ways for user to manage their cloud resources, namely Web Console, CLI, language-specific SDK, and RawAPI. Each of the method has its own pros and cons in terms of user-friendliness or automation capability. The following matrix describe each of the pros and cons of each methods. Ansible is something between CLI and SDK in terms of user friendliness as well as automation capability.
MediumUser friendlinessAutomation CapabilityProduct CoverageConsoleAnyone, intuitiveNo wayAllCLIProbably OK, for experienced sysadminWorks, but not perfectECS/VPC/RDS/SLB/StorageAnsibleProbably OK, for experienced sysadmin who can scriptBetter than CLI and more manageableECS/VPC/RDS/SLB/StorageSDKProbably OK, for experienced developerFlexible, but quite a bit of effortAllRaw APINot user friendly at allVery capable, but extensive effortAll
What Is Ansible and How Does It Support IaaS and the Cloud?
As mentioned Ansible is one of the DevOps tools being widely used in the IaaS automation space. It allows sysadmins or developers to maintain their infrastructure as a code, supporting IaaS from traditional vendors like VMware to modern cloud vendors like Alibaba Cloud. Below is a comparison matrix on Ansible’s capability in supporting other cloud vendors in the market.
Setting Up the Test Environment
Here is the overview of setting up the environment. After it is done, we can then run the example to create a ECS instance through ansible.
- Have Ansible installed
- Have Alicloud ansible-provider installed
Install Ansible
Please refer to the official documentation for details. In my case, I am using a CentOS 7 server to install the Ansible. You can do so with the following command.
yum -y install \ https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm
yum -y install ansibleInstall Alicloud Ansible module
By default Ansible doesn’t ship with Alicloud module, in order to provision Alicloud resources we will need this module. To install the module, please follow the steps documented in https://github.com/alibaba/ansible-provider
Run the following command to install the module on a CentOS 7 machine.
yum -y install python2-pip
pip install ansible_alicloudGo through a Deployment Example
Define the Playbook
Playbook is the template which contains the resources that we want to create. You can find the example template from below url: http://philipchoi-test.oss-cn-hongkong.aliyuncs.com/example.yml
Run the Results
To run the playbook, use the following command
ansible-playbook $FILENAME.ymlHere is a simulation run.
And from the web console, we can see that the instance is created.
Also, as from our playbook, we defined installation of web server and creation of web page, we can now fetch the page too.
Command Error during Playbook Execution
NTP Time Lag
In case the node running the Ansible playbook have a major time lag, the following error may occur. To solve the problem, sync the clock with ntp server to avoid any time lag.
TASK [make sure ingress port 22 and 80 are allowed] ******************************************************************************************************************************************************
fatal: [localhost]: FAILED! => {"changed": false, "msg": "Error in get_all_security_groups: ECSResponseError: , HTTP Status: 400 Error:IllegalTimestamp The input parameter \"Timestamp\" that is mandatory for processing this request is not supplied. RequestID: 9FAC5E19-46E3-4A72-A879-422A691585BC,\nNone"}
to retry, use: --limit @/root/test.retryAppendix
Example Playbook
This example will create one ECS instance (or multiple instance, depends how much number you put into the “count” variable in the playbook),. However, you will need to input your own:
- Access key and secret key pair
- Create the security group in advance and provide the security-group ID
- Create the ssh-key pair in advance and provide the ssh-keypair ID
- Create the VPC in advance and provide the vswitch ID
- name: basic provisioning example
hosts: localhost
vars:
alicloud_access_key: YOUR_ACCESS_KEY_HERE # replace it with your Alicloud Access Key
alicloud_secret_key: YOUR_SECRET_KEY_HERE # replace it with your Alicloud Secret Key
alicloud_region: cn-hongkong # replace it with the region you plan to use
image: centos_7_02_64_20G_alibase_20170818.vhd # replace it with the image to use
instance_type: ecs.n4.small # replace it with the flavor type
vswitch_id: vsw-YOUR_VSWITCH_ID_HERE # replace it with the Vswitch ID
assign_public_ip: True # set to false in case you dont need public ip
max_bandwidth_out: 10
host_name: PREFERRED_HOSTNAME # hostname
system_disk_category: cloud_efficiency
system_disk_size: 50
internet_charge_type: PayByTraffic
group_id: sg-YOUR_SG_ID_HERE # replace with the security-group-id
sg_action: join
key_name: SSH_KEY_NAME # replace with the ssh key
count: 2 # number of instances to create
user_data: |
#!/bin/sh
yum -y install httpd
systemctl start httpd
echo "Server Up at $(date -R)!" | tee /var/www/html/index.html tasks:
- name: make sure ingress port 22 and 80 are allowed
alicloud_security_group:
alicloud_access_key: '{{ alicloud_access_key }}'
alicloud_secret_key: '{{ alicloud_secret_key }}'
group_id: '{{ group_id }}'
alicloud_region: '{{ alicloud_region }}'
rules:
- ip_protocol: tcp
port_range: 22/22
source_cidr_ip: '0.0.0.0/0'
policy: accept
- ip_protocol: tcp
port_range: 80/80
source_cidr_ip: '0.0.0.0/0'
policy: accept - name: launch ECS instance in VPC network
alicloud_instance:
alicloud_access_key: '{{ alicloud_access_key }}'
alicloud_secret_key: '{{ alicloud_secret_key }}'
alicloud_region: '{{ alicloud_region }}'
image: '{{ image }}'
system_disk_category: '{{ system_disk_category }}'
system_disk_size: '{{ system_disk_size }}'
instance_type: '{{ instance_type }}'
vswitch_id: '{{ vswitch_id }}'
assign_public_ip: '{{ assign_public_ip }}'
internet_charge_type: '{{ internet_charge_type }}'
max_bandwidth_out: '{{ max_bandwidth_out }}'
group_id: '{{ group_id }}'
key_name: '{{ key_name }}'
host_name: '{{ host_name }}'
#password: '{{ password }}'
user_data: '{{ user_data }}'
count: '{{ count }}'
instance_tags:
Name: created_through_ansible
register: status - name: Poll instance information
alicloud_instance_facts:
alicloud_access_key: '{{ alicloud_access_key }}'
alicloud_secret_key: '{{ alicloud_secret_key }}'
alicloud_region: '{{ alicloud_region }}'
instance_ids: '{{ status.instance_ids }}'
register: all_instances - set_fact:
instances_info: [] - set_fact:
instances_info: "{{ instances_info + [ { 'id': item.id, 'host_name': item.host_name, 'public_ip': item.public_ip }] }}"
with_items: "{{ all_instances.instances }}"
no_log: true
- name: print instance information
debug:
msg: "ECS instance {{ item.host_name }} created, id: {{ item.id }}. IP: {{ item.public_ip }} . URL http://{{ item.public_ip }}/"
with_items: "{{ instances_info }}
Example Task Definition to Create VPC
This example task will create a VPC.
- name: create vpc
hosts: localhost
connection: local
vars:
alicloud_access_key: YOUR_ACCESS_KEY_HERE # replace it with your Alicloud Access Key
alicloud_secret_key: YOUR_SECRET_KEY_HERE # replace it with your Alicloud Secret Key
alicloud_region: cn-hongkong
state: present
cidr_block: 192.168.0.0/16
vpc_name: Demo_VPC
description: Demo VPC
tasks:
- name: create vpc
alicloud_vpc:
alicloud_region: '{{ alicloud_region }}'
state: '{{ state }}'
cidr_block: '{{ cidr_block }}'
vpc_name: '{{ vpc_name }}'
description: '{{ description }}'Example Task Definition to Create RDS
This example task will create a RDS.
- name: create rds instance
hosts: localhost
vars:
alicloud_access_key: <your-alicloud-access-key-id>
alicloud_secret_key: <your-alicloud-access-secret-key>
alicloud_region: cn-beijing
tasks:
- name: create instance
alicloud_rds_instance:
alicloud_access_key: '{{ alicloud_access_key }}'
alicloud_secret_key: '{{ alicloud_secret_key }}'
alicloud_region: '{{ alicloud_region }}'
state: present
engine: MySQL
engine_version: 5.6
instance_class: rds.mysql.t1.small
instance_storage: 30
instance_net_type: Internet
security_ips: 10.23.12.24/24
instance_charge_type: PostpaidExample Task Definition to Create SLB
This example task will create a SLB.
- name: create server load balancer
hosts: localhost
connection: local
vars:
alicloud_region: cn-beijing
alicloud_access_key: <your-alicloud-access-key-id>
alicloud_secret_key: <your-alicloud-access-secret-key>
load_balancer_name: demo_slb
internet_charge_type: paybytraffic
state: present
tasks:
- name: create server load balancer
alicloud_slb_lb:
alicloud_access_key: '{{ alicloud_access_key }}'
alicloud_secret_key: '{{ alicloud_secret_key }}'
alicloud_region: '{{ alicloud_region }}'
load_balancer_name: '{{ load_balancer_name }}'
internet_charge_type: '{{ internet_charge_type }}'
state: '{{ state }}'Example Skeleton to Create VPC, RDS and ECS
An example skeleton to create VPC, RDS and ECS in one playbook (Notes, you will need to glue each of the above examples together to form one playbook)
- name: create server stack
hosts: localhost
connection: local
vars:
alicloud_region: cn-beijing
alicloud_access_key: <your-alicloud-access-key-id>
alicloud_secret_key: <your-alicloud-access-secret-key>
.. line skipped ..
tasks:
- name: create VPC
alicloud_vpc:
.. line skipped .. - name: create RDS
alicloud_rds_instance:
.. line skipped .. - name: create ECS
alicloud_instances:
.. line skipped ..
