Setup Ansible Control Node

To set up an Ansible control node, execute the following steps from the Uyuni Web UI.

To configure a client as the Ansible Control Node, the Ansible package must be installed on that system. Usually, the Ansible package should be obtained from the operating system vendor’s official repositories. For example, on SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP6 and SP7, Ansible is available through the Systems Management Module.

Procedure: Setting up Ansible Control Node on a SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP6 or SP7 system

In the Uyuni Web UI, navigate to Admin Setup Wizard Products, verify that SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6 x86_64 (or later) with the Systems Management Module and the required Python 3 Module are selected and synchronized.
Deploy a SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP6 (or later) client.
In the Uyuni Web UI, navigate to the Systems Overview page of the client. Select Software Software Channels and subscribe the client to the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6 x86_64 (or later SP), Systems Management Module and Python 3 Module channels.
Select Details Properties of your client. From the Add-On System Types list enable Ansible Control Node and click Update Properties.
Navigate to the client overview page, select State Highstate, and click Apply Highstate.
Select the Events tab and verify the status of the highstate.

If you want to install a newer Ansible on a SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP4 or SP5 client, you must enable the Python 3 Module.

Newer versions of Ansible no longer support managing nodes with outdated Python versions. If a managed node still defaults to an older Python version, you may encounter connection errors or failures during playbook runs. To address this, user should upgrade Python on the managed node, if possible and set the correct Python interpreter in the Ansible inventory or configuration.

1. Create Ansible Inventory Files

Ansible Integration tools deploy a playbook as an inventory file. Create one inventory file for each operating system listed in Table 1.

Procedure: Creating Ansible Inventory Files

Create and add your hosts to an inventory file to be managed by Ansible. The default path for an Ansible inventory is /etc/ansible/hosts.

Listing 1. Inventory Example

client240.mgr.example.org
client241.mgr.example.org
client242.mgr.example.org
client243.mgr.example.org ansible_ssh_private_key_file=/etc/ansible/some_ssh_key

[mygroup1]
client241.mgr.example.org
client242.mgr.example.org

[mygroup2]
client243.mgr.example.org

[all:vars]
ansible_ssh_private_key_file=/etc/ansible/my_ansible_private_key

In the Uyuni Web UI, from the Ansible tab navigate to Ansible Control Node to add inventory files to the control node.
Under the Playbook Directories section add /usr/share/scap-security-guide/ansible to the Add a Playbook Directories field and click Save.
Under Inventory Files add your inventory file locations to the Add an Inventory file field and click Save.
Listing 2. Examples
```
/etc/ansible/sles15
/etc/ansible/sles12
/etc/ansible/centos7
```
For additional playbook examples, see https://github.com/ansible/ansible-examples.

2. Establish Communication with Ansible Nodes

Procedure: Establishing Communication with Ansible Nodes

Create the SSH keys that you are using in your inventory.
```
ssh-keygen -f /etc/ansible/my_ansible_private_key
```

Copy the generated SSH keys to the Ansible managed clients. Example:

ssh-copy-id -i /etc/ansible/my_ansible_private_key root@client240.mgr.example.org

Declare the private key in /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg as follows:
```
private_key_file = /etc/ansible/my_ansible_private_key
```
Replace my_ansible_private_key with the name of the file containing the private key.
Test that Ansible is working by executing the following commands from the control node:
```
ansible all -m ping
ansible mygroup1 -m ping
ansible client240.mgr.example.org -m ping
```

You may now run remediations. For more information, see Compliance as Code.