Azure Dynamic Inventory in Ansible

1. Introduction

Azure Dynamic Inventory is a method in Ansible that allows you to automatically gather and use inventories from Azure resources. This capability is essential for managing cloud environments efficiently.

2. Key Concepts

3. Prerequisites

• Access to an Azure account.
• Ansible installed on your local machine.
• Azure CLI installed and configured.
• Python and the azure SDK for Python.

4. Setup

To set up Azure Dynamic Inventory, follow these steps:

1. Install Required Packages:

   pip install azure-mgmt-compute azure-mgmt-network azure-mgmt-resource

2. Configure Azure Credentials:

   Use Azure CLI to log in:

   az login

3. Create an Inventory Script:

   Save the following script as azure_rm_inventory.py:

   #!/usr/bin/env python
   
   import os
   import json
   from azure.identity import DefaultAzureCredential
   from azure.mgmt.resource import ResourceManagementClient
   
   # Initialize Azure credentials
   credential = DefaultAzureCredential()
   subscription_id = os.environ["AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID"]
   resource_client = ResourceManagementClient(credential, subscription_id)
   
   # Gather resources
   resources = resource_client.resources.list()
   inventory = {"_meta": {"hostvars": {}}}
   for resource in resources:
       if resource.type == "Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines":
           inventory[resource.name] = {"ansible_host": resource.id}
   
   print(json.dumps(inventory))

4. Make the Script Executable:

   chmod +x azure_rm_inventory.py

5. Usage

To use the dynamic inventory in your Ansible playbooks, specify the inventory file as follows:

ansible-playbook -i azure_rm_inventory.py your_playbook.yml

6. Best Practices

• Use tags in Azure to organize resources effectively.
• Limit the number of resources fetched by filtering in the inventory script.
• Ensure secure handling of credentials and sensitive data.

7. FAQ