Create Ansible Role to create a new EC2 instance | Ansible Role for provisioning infrastructure in AWS | Refactor Ansible playbook into Ansible Role

We will learn how to create Ansible Role for provisioning a new EC2 instance in AWS cloud. We will pick a playbook which has all the logic and we will refactor into reusable ansible role.

What is Ansible Role?

Ansible also lets you organize tasks in a directory structure called a Role. Using Ansible roles you can break down complex playbooks into smaller and manageable chunks. Ansible role enables reuse and share our Ansible code efficiently.

How to create Ansible Role?

Using ansible galaxy command, we can create Ansible role. This will create the below directory with all the files. 

directory structure of Ansible role

aws-infra-role/

├── README.md

├── create.yml

├── defaults

│   └── main.yml

├── handlers

│   └── main.yml

├── meta

│   └── main.yml

├── tasks

│   ├── create-ec2.yml

│   └── create-sg.yml

├── tests

│   ├── inventory

│   └── test.yml

└── vars

    └── main.yml

Directory structure explained

tasks - contains the main list of tasks to be executed by the role.
handlers - handlers are typically used to start, reload, restart, and stop services.
defaults - default variables for the role.
vars - other variables for the role. Vars has the higher priority than defaults.
meta - defines some data / information about this role (author, dependency, versions, examples, etc,.)

tests - test cases if you have any.

Pre-requisites:

• Ansible is installed and Boto is also installed on Ubuntu EC2 instance
• Make sure you create an IAM role with AmazonEC2FullAccess policy and attach the role to EC2 instance.

Steps to create EC2 instance using Ansible Role:

Login to EC2 instance using Git bash or ITerm/putty where you installed Ansible. Execute the below command:

Create an Inventory file first

sudo mkdir /etc/ansible

Edit Ansible hosts or inventory file

sudo vi /etc/ansible/hosts

Add the below two lines in the end of the file:
[localhost]
local

cd ~
mkdir roles  

cd roles

Create Ansible Role

ansible-galaxy role init aws-infra-role

We will convert this playbook into ansible role.

So all the variables will go inside vars folder.

vars

    └── main.yml

sudo vi aws-infra-role/vars/main.yml

(copy below content)

keypair: myNov2023Key

instance_type: t2.small

image: ami-007855ac798b5175e

wait: yes

group: webserver

region: us-east-1

security_group: my-jenkins-security-grp1

Save the file and come out of it.

So all the tasks will go inside tasks folder. let's create security group first.

sudo vi aws-infra-role/tasks/create-sg.yml

---

  - include_vars: "vars/main.yml"

    tags: create

# tasks file for security group

  - name: configuring security group for the instance

    ec2_group:

        name: "{{ security_group }}"

        description: my-ajenkin-security_groAup

        region: "{{ region }}"

        rules:

            - proto: tcp

              from_port: 22

              to_port: 22

              cidr_ip: 0.0.0.0/0

            - proto: tcp

              from_port: 80

              to_port: 80

              cidr_ip: 0.0.0.0/0

            - proto: tcp

              from_port: 8080

              to_port: 8080

              cidr_ip: 0.0.0.0/0

        rules_egress:

            - proto: all

              cidr_ip: 0.0.0.0/0

Let's create a task for ec2 instance creation.

sudo vi aws-infra-role/tasks/create-ec2.yml

---

  - include_vars: "vars/main.yml"

    tags: create

  - name: creating ec2 instance

    ec2_instance:

        security_group: "{{ security_group }}"

        name: target-ec2-instance

        key_name: "{{ keypair }}"

        instance_type: "{{ instance_type}}"

        image_id: "{{ image }}"

        region: "{{ region }}"

        wait_timeout: 2   

Let's create Ansible main playbook.

sudo vi aws-infra-role/main.yml

---

# This Playbook creates infra in aws cloud

- hosts: local

  connection: local

  gather_facts: False

  tags: ec2_create

  tasks:

  - include: tasks/create-sg.yml

  - include: tasks/create-ec2.yml

now execute the ansible playbook by

ansible-playbook aws-infra-role/main.yml

If everything is good, you should see the new instance created on AWS console. make sure you are able to connect to that instance.

That's it!! That is how you create a new EC2 instance using Ansible role in AWS cloud. 

Please watch steps in YouTube channel: