create aws launch configs with ansible ec2_lc module

Readme.org.md

Agenda

To automate the autoscaling launch config generation process.

if its boring with 🐁 clicks and uis, lets automate it with ⌨ --randomthought

Conventions/Assumptions

convention	<100>
userdata.sh	holds the script that runs as cloud inti script
vars*.yml	the variables necessary to generate configs are defined there
vpc security groups	they must be the real values like (sg-xxxxxx) (yes 😏 weird, why you no use names)
assumptions
ansible-version	2.2.0.0

Sample run example

check the sample run block...

Learnings

• the moduel ec2_lc is idempotent (that means, it will give no damn how many times you run it. changed: false, yes that will get)

• docs 🏁 needs improvement (helps are scattered in so many google-groups discussion links like )

ec2_auto_scaling_launch_gen_with_ansible.yml

- hosts: localhost
  connection: local
  vars_files:
    - "vars_{{SCALING_RULE_FOR|default('bg_worker')}}.yml"
  tasks:
    
    - ec2_lc:
        image_id: "{{ami_id}}"
        instance_type: "{{instance_profile}}"
        name: "{{launch_config_name}}"
        instance_profile_name: "{{iam_role}}"
        user_data: "{{ lookup('file', 'user_data.sh') }}"
        classic_link_vpc_id: "{{vpc_id_to_link}}"
        classic_link_vpc_security_groups: "{{vpc_sgs}}"
        # volumes:
        #   - device_name: /dev/sda1
        #     device_type: standard
        #     delete_on_termination: true
        #   - device_name: /dev/sdb
        #     ephemeral: ephemeral0
        security_groups: "{{classic_groups}}"

sample run

$   ansible-playbook ec2_auto_scaling_launch_gen_with_ansible.yml -vvvv                                                                                                          
Using /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg as config file
 [WARNING]: Host file not found: /etc/ansible/hosts

 [WARNING]: provided hosts list is empty, only localhost is available

Loading callback plugin default of type stdout, v2.0 from /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible/plugins/callback/__init__.pyc
 _________________________ ______________________________
< PLAYBOOK: ec2_auto_scaling_launch_gen_with_ansible.yml >
 -------------------------------------------------------- 
        \   ^__^
         \  (oo)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\
                ||----w |
                ||     ||

1 plays in ec2_auto_scaling_launch_gen_with_ansible.yml
 __________________ 
< PLAY [localhost] >
 ------------------ 
        \   ^__^
         \  (oo)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\
                ||----w |
                ||     ||

 ______________ 
< TASK [setup] >
 -------------- 
        \   ^__^
         \  (oo)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\
                ||----w |
                ||     ||

...
ok: [localhost]
 _______________ 
< TASK [ec2_lc] >
 --------------- 
        \   ^__^
         \  (oo)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\
                ||----w |
                ||     ||

...
ok: [localhost] => {
    "arn": "arn:aws:autoscaling:us-east-1:<<MY_USER_ID>>:launchConfiguration:<<some_random_hash>>:launchConfigurationName/configuration-name-to-put-generated-v0.0.1", 
    "changed": false, 
    "created_time": "2016-12-09 07:22:18.035000", 
    "image_id": "ami-id-string", 
    "instance_type": "c3.xlarge", 
    "invocation": {
        "module_args": {
            "assign_public_ip": null, 
            "associate_public_ip_address": null, 
            "aws_access_key": null, 
            "aws_secret_key": null, 
            "classic_link_vpc_id": "vpc-id-string", 
            "classic_link_vpc_security_groups": [
                "sg-string-vpc-specific-abcdef", 
                "sg-string-vpc-specific-ghijkl"
            ], 
            "ebs_optimized": false, 
            "ec2_url": null, 
            "image_id": "ami-id-string", 
            "instance_monitoring": false, 
            "instance_profile_name": "my_kickass_iam_role", 
            "instance_type": "c3.xlarge", 
            "kernel_id": null, 
            "key_name": null, 
            "name": "configuration-name-to-put-generated-v0.0.1", 
            "profile": null, 
            "ramdisk_id": null, 
            "region": null, 
            "security_groups": [
               "my_sg_001",
               "my_sg_010",
               "my_sg_100"
            ], 
            "security_token": null, 
            "spot_price": null, 
            "state": "present", 
            "user_data": "long string in escaped form...of user_data.sh below"
            "validate_certs": true, 
            "volumes": null
        }, 
        "module_name": "ec2_lc"
    }, 
  ...
    ]
}
 ____________ 
< PLAY RECAP >
 ------------ 
        \   ^__^
         \  (oo)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\
                ||----w |
                ||     ||

localhost                  : ok=2    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0  

user_data.sh

#!/bin/bash

export BUCKET_NAME="my-secure-s3-bucket"
export PRIVATE_KEY_PATH_IN_S3="${BUCKET_NAME}/id_rsa" #my private key
export SSH_CONFIG_PATH_IN_S3="${BUCKET_NAME}/config"  #my ssh config for github
export LATEST_REVISION_PATH_IN_S3="${BUCKET_NAME}/pull_revision.sh" # my custom script to pull the latest deployed release

export SSH_DIR="/thapakazi/.ssh"
export SSH_CONFIG_LOCAL="${SSH_DIR}/config"
export PRIVATE_KEY_LOCAL="${SSH_DIR}/github_rsa"
export LATEST_REVISION_LOCAL="/usr/local/bin/pull_revision"
export REGION="us-east-1"

# pull the private key
aws s3 cp s3://${PRIVATE_KEY_PATH_IN_S3} ${PRIVATE_KEY_LOCAL} --region ${REGION}
chmod 400 ${PRIVATE_KEY_LOCAL}

# pull the config file for github
aws s3 cp s3://${SSH_CONFIG_PATH_IN_S3} ${SSH_CONFIG_LOCAL} --region ${REGION}
chmod 600 ${SSH_CONFIG_LOCAL}

# pull latest deployed hash of the application
aws s3 cp s3://${LATEST_REVISION_PATH_IN_S3} ${LATEST_REVISION_LOCAL} --region ${REGION}
chmod 755 ${LATEST_REVISION_LOCAL}

# pull the playbook and run
export SCALEBOOKS_URL="github.com:thapkazi/autoscale"
export SCALEBOOKS_DIR="/thapakazi/playbooks"
ansible-pull -d ${SCALEBOOKS_DIR} -i 'localhost' -U git@${SCALEBOOKS_URL}.git --accept-host-key bootstrap.yml

vars_bg_worker.yml

---
instance_profile: "c3.xlarge"
vpc_id_to_link: "vpc-id-string"
ami_id: "ami-id-string"
launch_config_name: "configuration name to put generated v0.0.1'
classic_groups:
  - "my_sg_001"
  - "my_sg_010"
  - "my_sg_100"

vpc_sgs: 
  - "sg-string-vpc-specific-abcdef"
  - "sg-string-vpc-specific-ghijkl"
  
iam_role: "my_kickass_iam_role"