- Better YAML formatting in ansible-python.

a ``library`` directory (the Ansible default, so you can change this in

``ansible.cfg``) and create an empty ``__init__.py`` file inside that directory.

Add a git submodule inside that directory and you're done. Let's see an

example::

example

.. code:: shell

    git init ansible-modules

    cd ansible-modules

At my current employer we have several servers in production with various

providers, some of them with multiple ip addresses. When configuring the

firewall to allow traffic from other servers I reached for Ansible. The

obvious solution was to use a nested loop, something like this: ::

obvious solution was to use a nested loop, something like this:

.. code:: yaml

    - name: Allow other servers

      ufw: rule=allow from_ip={{ item[1] }}

      ufw:

        rule: allow

        from_ip: '{{ item[1] }}'

      with_nested:

        - all_hosts

        - {{ item.ansible_all_ipv4_addresses }}

        - '{{ item.ansible_all_ipv4_addresses }}'

However, this syntax is invalid (and other variations I tried). Using 'include'

with 'with_items' is deprecated and I didn't manage to get it to work with

-------------------------------

To retrieve all of the ip addresses I'd ran the setup module to gather the

information ::

information

.. code:: python

    from ansible.runner import Runner

    struct = Runner (module_name='setup', pattern='all_hosts').run()

Now we have a complex data structure that is the output of Ansible's fact

gathering module. Running it in the interpeter and examining the structure is

not hard at all and that is how I managed to write the following code to extract

a list of all of our server's ip addresses. ::

a list of all of our server's ip addresses.

.. code:: python

    ipaddresses = []

    for host in struct['contacted']:

Now that we have a list of the ip addresses, we can start running Ansible

commands right from with Python (just like we did) or build a playbook by

outputing a YAML file. I chose the latter. ::

outputing a YAML file. I chose the latter.

.. code:: python

    from yaml import safe_dump

    doc = {'all_ipv4': ipaddresses}

    print (safe_dump (doc), file='vars.yml')

This will create a vars.yml file with the all_ipv4 variable already defined

there to be imported to any playbook and run. For example: ::

there to be imported to any playbook and run. For example:

.. code:: yaml

    ---

    - hosts: all_hosts

        - vars.yml

      tasks:

        - name: Allow other servers

          ufw: rule=allow from_ip={{ item }}

          with_items: all_ipv4

          ufw:

            rule: allow

            from_ip: '{{ item }}'

With this much little code we were able to query all of our hosts, extract the

needed information and output it back to Ansible for further use. I see this as

Installing Pelican

------------------

As Pelican is a static blog/ website generator, all we're doing is in your workstation. All you need to have server-wise is a bog-standard web server (like Apache or Nginx). Everything else is done on your local machine. I installed Pelican from Debian (it's currently available in testing) ::

As Pelican is a static blog/ website generator, all we're doing is in your workstation. All you need to have server-wise is a bog-standard web server (like Apache or Nginx). Everything else is done on your local machine. I installed Pelican from Debian (it's currently available in testing)

	$ apt-get install python-pelican fabric

.. code:: shell

Alternatively, you can use pip ::

	apt-get install python-pelican fabric

    $ pip install pelican fabric

Alternatively, you can use pip

.. code:: shell

    pip install pelican fabric

Creating a blog

---------------

Themes

------

Pelican comes with a default theme (the same as used by Pelican's website) but I wanted something more understated so I took at look at `https://github.com/getpelican/pelican-themes <https://github.com/getpelican/pelican-themes>`_ and chose pelican-mockingbird. Cloned it ::

Pelican comes with a default theme (the same as used by Pelican's website) but I wanted something more understated so I took at look at `https://github.com/getpelican/pelican-themes <https://github.com/getpelican/pelican-themes>`_ and chose pelican-mockingbird. Cloned it

  $ git clone https://github.com/wrl/pelican-mockingbird.git

.. code:: shell

    git clone https://github.com/wrl/pelican-mockingbird.git

and set the theme to that by adding the following to pelicanconf.py: ::

    :author: <Insert your name here>

    :summary: <Insert summary here>

After we added the content we want to upload it to our web server (I use fabric) ::

After we added the content we want to upload it to our web server (I use fabric)

.. code:: shell

    $ fab publish

    fab publish

If you don't have keys set for the server it will ask you for your password to the server.

Last thing, you can create pages, create a pages directory inside contents and save the files there. Their format is the same as articles but they'll have a somewhat template applied and they will be shown in the menu. A good example will an 'About Me' page.