This project is a repertoir of playbooks, task and other definitions used with the Ansible automation framework. Tasks defined here can be imported as a Git Submodule and reused across projects with similar requirements in their build and deployment methodologies. The central usage scenario assumed by the authors is developing a web application locally and publishing to a virtual private server or cloud server instance. The configuration was put together for use with DigitalOcean, though it should function with other Linux-based servers, as well.
Some tasks may use certain variables to control what kind of operations they perform through other utilities or what data is used for specific operations. Included task definitions with specific variable requirements are listed in this section.
The set-up process prepares a cloud server instance for use and creates a suitable user account for use with SSH and Ansible automation tasks. The following variables are needed by the set-up task.
The name of the dedicated administration, automation and maintenance account, copying authentication from the root user set up during provisioning (e.g. SSH known public keys). As ansible_user is usually root for initial set-up, this variable should not be set to root too following best practices.
Creating certificates uses the publicly available service Let's Encrypt. When including the task, the following variables should be defined.
The root directory all output and dependency files for certbot are placed for permanent residence on the server, commonly set to /etc/letsencrypt.
The directory to store all logs created by certbot during operation, commonly set to var/log/letsencrypt.
The directory to store all logs created by certbot during operation, commonly set to var/log/letsencrypt.
The Swift language is a general-purpose, open source programming language launched by Apple. It is the dominant development language for macOS and iOS with compilation also available for Linux and Windows. The language's core libraries are required to run command line utilities included herein. When including the task, the following variables should be defined.
The public URL of the binary release of Swift as an archive, ready for installation on the target system.
The file name at the end of the URL for the used Swift release.
GitLab Listener is a utility for setting up autonomous releases and custom lifecycles for server environments. When including the task, the following variables should be defined.
The public URL of the precompiled and packaged binary release of GitLab Listener as an archive, ready for installation on the target system.
The public URL to a prepared systemd service definition file to be copied and installed for use as a start-on-launch service on a remote.
The exposed port GitLab Listener listens on for events send through webhooks or custom user events.
The internal data and managed assets can be saved to a local archive on disk or restored from previously extracted data with Cockpit Sync, a command line utility to manage a Cockpit set-up running through Docker and an associated data volume. When including the task, the following variables should be defined.
The public URL of the precompiled and packaged binary release of Cockpit Sync as an archive, ready for installation on the target system.