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Ansible Level 03 Day 01: Creating Soft Links Using Ansible

This document outlines the solution for Ansible Level 03 Day 01. The objective was to use the Ansible file module to create specific empty files with tailored ownership on different application servers, and to establish a symbolic (soft) link linking two directories.

Table of Contents

Task Overview

Objective: Create specific files and soft links across the application servers.

  • Playbook Location: /home/thor/ansible/playbook.yml
  • Inventory Location: /home/thor/ansible/inventory (Already exists)
  • Requirements per Server:
    • App Server 1 (stapp01): Create /opt/security/blog.txt (owner/group: tony). Symlink /opt/security -> /var/www/html.
    • App Server 2 (stapp02): Create /opt/security/story.txt (owner/group: steve). Symlink /opt/security -> /var/www/html.
    • App Server 3 (stapp03): Create /opt/security/media.txt (owner/group: banner). Symlink /opt/security -> /var/www/html.
  • Constraint: Must run cleanly using ansible-playbook -i inventory playbook.yml.

Step-by-Step Solution

1. Create the Playbook

We will structure the playbook with three separate plays, each targeting a specific host. This makes the code highly readable and strictly enforces the distinct file and ownership requirements for each server.

Writing to /opt and /var/www/ requires root privileges, so we must include become: yes. The force: yes attribute on the link task ensures the symlink is created successfully even if the destination directory already exists or has conflicts.

Command: 

cd /home/thor/ansible
vi playbook.yml

Content: 

---
- name: Configure App Server 1
  hosts: stapp01
  become: yes
  tasks:
    - name: Create empty file blog.txt
      file:
        path: /opt/security/blog.txt
        state: touch
        owner: tony
        group: tony

    - name: Create symbolic link
      file:
        src: /opt/security
        dest: /var/www/html
        state: link
        force: yes

- name: Configure App Server 2
  hosts: stapp02
  become: yes
  tasks:
    - name: Create empty file story.txt
      file:
        path: /opt/security/story.txt
        state: touch
        owner: steve
        group: steve

    - name: Create symbolic link
      file:
        src: /opt/security
        dest: /var/www/html
        state: link
        force: yes

- name: Configure App Server 3
  hosts: stapp03
  become: yes
  tasks:
    - name: Create empty file media.txt
      file:
        path: /opt/security/media.txt
        state: touch
        owner: banner
        group: banner

    - name: Create symbolic link
      file:
        src: /opt/security
        dest: /var/www/html
        state: link
        force: yes

2. Execute and Validate

Run the playbook using the required command.

Command: 

ansible-playbook -i inventory playbook.yml

Expected Output: 

PLAY [Configure App Server 1] *******************************************************
...
changed: [stapp01] (File Created)
changed: [stapp01] (Symlink Created)

PLAY [Configure App Server 2] *******************************************************
...
changed: [stapp02] (File Created)
changed: [stapp02] (Symlink Created)

PLAY [Configure App Server 3] *******************************************************
...
changed: [stapp03] (File Created)
changed: [stapp03] (Symlink Created)

Manual Verification (Optional): You can verify the symlink creation on one of the servers using an ad-hoc command: 

ansible stapp01 -i inventory -m command -a "ls -ld /var/www/html" --become
# Output should show: lrwxrwxrwx ... /var/www/html -> /opt/security

Deep Dive: Ansible Concepts Used

The file Module (State: touch)

Just like the Linux touch command, setting state: touch in the Ansible file module will create an empty file if it does not exist. It also allows you to simultaneously set the owner and group attributes, ensuring the new file is immediately provisioned with the correct permissions.

Symbolic links (soft links) are crucial for redirecting paths without duplicating data. * state: link: Tells Ansible to create a symlink. * src: The absolute path of the directory/file you want to link to (the actual data location, e.g., /opt/security). * dest: The path where the shortcut will be placed (e.g., /var/www/html). * force: yes: (Optional but recommended in this scenario) If /var/www/html already exists as a regular directory or file, standard symlink creation will fail. force: yes tells Ansible to overwrite it with the requested symlink.