Installing packages on multiple Operating Systems

[Alex Williams]

Hi,

I'm wondering if there's a better way to install packages on multiple operating systems.

TL;DR: I'm looking for a method to abstract the OS differences to avoid duplicating files and templates all over the place.

Here's what I'm currently doing:

- name: Install OpenJDK

  apt: pkg={{ item }} state=present

            with_items:

              - openjdk-7-jdk 

  tags:

    - java

  when: ansible_distribution == 'Ubuntu'

- name: Install OpenJDK

  yum: name=java-1.7.0-openjdk state=present

  tags:

    - java

  when: ansible_distribution == 'CentOS' 

This works fine when you only have 1 task or 1 role, but I currently have 10 roles with multiple configurations, and each role has its own set of tasks, files, templates, etc.

I considered creating separate directories in each role, for each OS, but then handlers, templates and other files will need to be duplicated.

Is there a "package" module to replace "yum/apt" ? If not, can someone recommend a better approach? So far all the solutions I've found are only good as "examples", but far from ideal in the real world.

Thanks

[James Cammarata]

I would recommend using the group_by option, which can be used to group systems based on facts or other variables. So something like this:

- hosts: all

  tasks:

    - name: group hosts by distribution

      group_by: key="{{ ansible_distribution }}-{{ ansible_distribution_version }}"

- hosts: RedHat-6*:CentOS-6*:SL-6*

  tasks:

  - name: Install OpenJDK

    yum: name=java-1.7.0-openjdk state=present

    tags:

    - java

- hosts: Ubuntu-*

  tasks:

  - name: Install OpenJDK

    apt: pkg=openjdk-7-jdk state=present

    tags:

    - java

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http://www.ansibleworks.com/

[Walid]

Dear James,

This is very neat,  related to this how do i use varaibles/facts for hosts, i tried the documentation example following in ansible, ansible-playbook but could not get it working

webservers:!{{excluded}}:&{{required}}

where should I define these variables, i tried to define them in the inventory hosts files, or pass them via the "-e" option both did not work for me.

regards

Walid

[James Cammarata]

Walid, this question came up the other day and I mentioned that it works correctly when setting the variable with -e. Could you post some samples of your inventory/playbook.

Also, if asking a new question it's generally best to start a new thread, to avoid confusion and switching topics.

[Brian Coca]

you can use the {{ansible_pkg_manager}} variable to try to make it a single task, but then you have the problem of the package names not matching, so James' solution is the best option.

[Michael DeHaan]

The host selector is there for selecting groups defined in inventory explicitly.

If you want to further pare down hosts, rather than doing the "-e" bits and making it more complex with {{ vars }}, it's easier to just use --limit

ansible-playbook site.yml --limit pod6

Would run the whole playbook just on machines in pod6.

On Wed, Sep 25, 2013 at 6:21 PM, Brian Coca <bria...@gmail.com> wrote:

you can use the {{ansible_pkg_manager}} variable to try to make it a single task, but then you have the problem of the package names not matching, so James' solution is the best option.

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[Matt Willsher]

On Wednesday, 25 September 2013 19:06:41 UTC+1, James Cammarata wrote:

I would recommend using the group_by option, which can be used to group systems based on facts or other variables. So something like this:

- hosts: all

  tasks:

    - name: group hosts by distribution

      group_by: key="{{ ansible_distribution }}-{{ ansible_distribution_version }}"

- hosts: RedHat-6*:CentOS-6*:SL-6*

  tasks:

  - name: Install OpenJDK

    yum: name=java-1.7.0-openjdk state=present

    tags:

    - java

- hosts: Ubuntu-*

  tasks:

  - name: Install OpenJDK

    apt: pkg=openjdk-7-jdk state=present

    tags:

    - java

Can this be achieved in a single role, or would multiple roles be required, one for each OS? 

[James Cammarata]

This would need to be separate roles, since roles can't contain hosts: entries. 

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[Michael DeHaan]

You can just use the when statement in this case if you want to keep things in the same role.

when: ansible_os_family == 'Debian'

etc