diff --git a/docs/ansible.md b/docs/ansible.md index 5ee9c70..8b2b282 100644 --- a/docs/ansible.md +++ b/docs/ansible.md @@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ Docker is normally installed by the playbook, so this may be a bit of a chicken Once you have a working Docker installation on the server, **clone the playbook** somewhere on the server and configure it as per usual (`inventory/hosts`, `inventory/host_vars/..`, etc.), as described in [configuring the playbook](configuring-playbook.md). You would then need to add `ansible_connection=community.docker.nsenter` to the host line in `inventory/hosts`. This tells Ansible to connect to the "remote" machine by switching Linux namespaces with [nsenter](https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/nsenter.1.html), instead of using SSH. -Alternatively, you can leave your `inventory/hosts` as is and specify the connection type in **each** `ansible-playbook` call you do later, like this: `ansible-playbook --connection=community.docker.nsenter ...` +Alternatively, you can leave your `inventory/hosts` as is and specify the connection type in **each** `ansible-playbook` call you do later, like this: `just install-all --connection=community.docker.nsenter` (or `ansible-playbook --connection=community.docker.nsenter ...`). Run this from the playbook's directory: @@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ The `/work` directory contains the playbook's code. First, consider running `git config --global --add safe.directory /work` to [resolve directory ownership issues](#resolve-directory-ownership-issues). -Finally, you can execute `ansible-playbook ...` (or `ansible-playbook --connection=community.docker.nsenter ...`) commands as per normal now. +Finally, you can execute `just` or `ansible-playbook ...` (e.g. `ansible-playbook --connection=community.docker.nsenter ...`) commands as per normal now. ### Running Ansible in a container on another computer (not the server) @@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ The `/work` directory contains the playbook's code. First, consider running `git config --global --add safe.directory /work` to [resolve directory ownership issues](#resolve-directory-ownership-issues). -Finally, you execute `ansible-playbook ...` commands as per normal now. +Finally, you execute `just` or `ansible-playbook ...` commands as per normal now. #### If you don't use SSH keys for authentication diff --git a/docs/installing.md b/docs/installing.md index c12140e..c78aa78 100644 --- a/docs/installing.md +++ b/docs/installing.md @@ -2,14 +2,25 @@ If you've [configured the playbook](configuring-playbook.md) and have prepared the required domains (DNS records) depending on the services you've enabled, you can start the installation procedure. -**Before installing** and each time you update the playbook in the future, you will need to update the Ansible roles in this playbook by running `just roles`. `just roles` is a shortcut (a `roles` target defined in [`justfile`](../justfile) and executed by the [`just`](https://github.com/casey/just) utility) which ultimately runs [ansible-galaxy](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/cli/ansible-galaxy.html) to download Ansible roles. If you don't have `just`, you can also manually run the `roles` commands seen in the `justfile`. +This playbook makes use of the [`just`](https://github.com/casey/just) utility to make it easier to run playbook-related commands defined in the [`justfile`](../justfile). +We recommend installing and using using `just` - otherwise, you'll need to do more manual work. + +**Before installing** and each time you update the playbook in the future, you will need to: + +- (only if you're not using the [`just`](https://github.com/casey/just) utility): create `setup.yml`, `requirements.yml` and `group_vars/mash_servers` based on the up-to-date templates found in the [`templates/` directory](../templates). If you are using `just`, these files are created and maintained up-to-date automatically. + +- update the Ansible roles in this playbook by running `just roles`. `just roles` is a shortcut which ultimately runs [ansible-galaxy](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/cli/ansible-galaxy.html) to download Ansible roles defined in the `requirements.yml` file. If you don't have `just`, you can also manually run the `roles` commands seen in the [`justfile`](../justfile). ## Playbook tags introduction The Ansible playbook's tasks are tagged, so that certain parts of the Ansible playbook can be run without running all other tasks. -The general command syntax is: `ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=COMMA_SEPARATED_TAGS_GO_HERE` +The general command syntax is: + +- (**recommended**) when using `just`: `just run-tags COMMA_SEPARATED_TAGS_GO_HERE` + +- when not using `just`: `ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=COMMA_SEPARATED_TAGS_GO_HERE` Here are some playbook tags that you should be familiar with: @@ -27,10 +38,22 @@ Here are some playbook tags that you should be familiar with: `setup-*` tags and `install-*` tags **do not start services** automatically, because you may wish to do things before starting services, such as importing a database dump, restoring data from another server, etc. +When using `just`, there are also helpful shortcuts you can use: + +- `just install-all`: runs all installation tasks and starts/restarts the services + +- `just setup-all`: runs all installation tasks and also uninstallation tasks that clean up after services you have removed from your `vars.yml` file. This task also starts/restarts all services. + +- `just install-service SERVICE_NAME`: runs the installation tasks only for the `SERVICE_NAME` service and starts/restarts the service. As mentioned above, this is not usually recommended, as installing a service may require running installation tasks for other (dependent) roles to prepare a database, etc. + +- `just stop-all`: stops all services + +- `just start-all`: starts all services + ## 1. Installing services -If you **don't** use SSH keys for authentication, but rather a regular password, you may need to add `--ask-pass` to the all Ansible commands +If you **don't** use SSH keys for authentication, but rather a regular password, you may need to add `--ask-pass` to the all Ansible (or `just`) commands If you **do** use SSH keys for authentication, **and** use a non-root user to *become* root (sudo), you may need to add `-K` (`--ask-become-pass`) to all Ansible commands @@ -42,7 +65,11 @@ There 2 ways to start the installation process - depending on whether you're [In If this is **a brand new** server and you **won't be importing old data into it**, run all these tags: ```sh -ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=install-all,start +# This is equivalent to: just run-tags install-all,start +just install-all + +# Or, when not using just, you can use this instead: +# ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=install-all,start ``` This will do a full installation and start all services. @@ -58,10 +85,13 @@ Starting its services or messing with its database now will affect your data imp To do the installation **without** starting services, run only the `install-all` tag: ```sh -ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=install-all +just run-tags install-all + +# Or, when not using just, you can use this instead: +# ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=install-all ``` -When this command completes, services won't be running yet. +When this command completes, **services won't be running yet**. You can now: @@ -70,7 +100,11 @@ You can now: .. and then proceed to starting all services: ```sh -ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=start +# This is equivalent to: just run-tags start (or: just run-tags start-all) +just start-all + +# Or, when not using just, you can use this instead: +# ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=start ``` Proceed to [Maintaining your setup in the future](#2-maintaining-your-setup-in-the-future). @@ -80,9 +114,25 @@ Proceed to [Maintaining your setup in the future](#2-maintaining-your-setup-in-t Feel free to **re-run the setup command any time** you think something is off with the server configuration. Ansible will take your configuration and update your server to match. -Note that if you remove components from `vars.yml`, or if we switch some component from being installed by default to not being installed by default anymore, you'd need to run the setup command with `--tags=setup-all` instead of `--tags=install-all`. See [Playbook tags introduction](#playbook-tags-introduction) +Note that if you remove components from `vars.yml`, or if we switch some component from being installed by default to not being installed by default anymore, you'd need to use `setup-all` instead of `install-all`. See [Playbook tags introduction](#playbook-tags-introduction) -A way to invoke these `ansible-playbook` commands with less typing in the future is to use [just](https://github.com/casey/just) to run them: `just install-all` or `just setup-all`. See [our `justfile`](../justfile) for more information. +To do it with `just`: + +```sh +just install-all + +# Or, to run potential uninstallation tasks too: +# just setup-all +``` + +To do it without `just`: + +```sh +ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=install-all,start + +# Or, to run potential uninstallation tasks too: +ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=setup-all,start +``` ## 3. Things to do next diff --git a/docs/prerequisites.md b/docs/prerequisites.md index 1edfa63..d2261a5 100644 --- a/docs/prerequisites.md +++ b/docs/prerequisites.md @@ -22,9 +22,9 @@ If your distro runs within an [LXC container](https://linuxcontainers.org/), you - the [passlib](https://passlib.readthedocs.io/en/stable/index.html) Python library installed on the computer you run Ansible. On most distros, you need to install some `python-passlib` or `py3-passlib` package, etc. -- [`git`](https://git-scm.com/) is the recommended way to download the playbook to your computer. `git` may also be required on the server if you will be [self-building](self-building.md) components. +- [git](https://git-scm.com/) is the recommended way to download the playbook to your computer. `git` may also be required on the server if you will be [self-building](self-building.md) components. -- [`just`](https://github.com/casey/just) for running `just roles`, etc. (see [`justfile`](../justfile)), although you can also run these commands manually +- [just](https://github.com/casey/just) for running `just roles` and playbook installation commands, etc. (see [`justfile`](../justfile)). You can get by without `just` (by running `ansible-galaxy`, `ansible-playbook` commands manually), but maintaining your playbook setup will require more manual work. `just` (thanks to the commands defined in the `justfile`) keeps various files (`setup.yml`, `requirements.yml`, `group_vars/mash_servers`) up-to-date with the templates in [the `templates/` directory](../templates/) automatically. - at least one domain name you can use