Azure Automation with Ansible

1. Introduction

Azure Automation is a cloud-based automation service that allows you to automate tasks across Azure and on-premises environments. Ansible, a powerful automation tool, can be integrated with Azure to manage resources and automate deployments.

2. Key Concepts

3. Pre-requisites

• An Azure account with appropriate permissions.
• Ansible installed on your local machine or control node.
• Knowledge of YAML syntax for writing playbooks.

4. Step-by-Step Process

4.1 Creating an Azure Service Principal

To enable Ansible to authenticate with Azure, you need to create a Service Principal.

az ad sp create-for-rbac --name "myAnsibleSP" --role Contributor --scopes /subscriptions/{subscription-id}

Make sure to note down the appId and password provided upon creation.

4.2 Installing Required Ansible Collections

Install the Azure modules for Ansible:

ansible-galaxy collection install azure.azcollection

4.3 Setting Up Your Inventory

Create an inventory file inventory.yml to manage your Azure resources:

all:
  hosts:
    myazurehost:
      ansible_host: {public_ip}
      ansible_user: azureuser
      ansible_ssh_private_key_file: ~/.ssh/id_rsa

4.4 Writing an Ansible Playbook

Here’s an example of a simple playbook that provisions a virtual machine in Azure:

- name: Create Azure VM
  hosts: localhost
  tasks:
    - name: Create a resource group
      azure_rm_resourcegroup:
        name: myResourceGroup
        location: eastus

    - name: Create a virtual machine
      azure_rm_virtualmachine:
        resource_group: myResourceGroup
        name: myVM
        vm_size: Standard_DS1_v2
        admin_username: azureuser
        admin_password: 'YourPassword123!'
        image:
          offer: Ubuntu
          publisher: Canonical
          sku: '18.04-LTS'
          version: latest

4.5 Running the Playbook

Execute the playbook using the following command:

ansible-playbook -i inventory.yml playbook.yml

5. Best Practices

• Use variables to manage sensitive information securely.
• Keep your playbooks modular to enhance reusability.
• Regularly update Ansible and Azure modules to leverage new features and security fixes.

6. FAQ