Get Started: Configure Ansible in a Docker container

Article
01/06/2022

This article shows you how to install Ansible running in a Docker container. Using a container for Ansible development solves the problem of "It works on my machine." by providing a consistent experience across all your environments, locally or in production.

In this article, you learn to:

Create an Azure service principal

Create a Dockerfile

Build a Docker image

Install Ansible in a Docker container

Use a Service Principal to authenticate Ansible to Azure from a Docker container

Run Ansible commands from a Docker container

Prerequisites

Azure subscription: If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a free account before you begin.

Docker Desktop: Installation options are available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Create an Azure Service Principal

Run the following commands to create an Azure Service Principal:

Azure CLI
Azure PowerShell

az ad sp create-for-rbac --name <service-principal-name> \
        --role Contributor \
        --scopes /subscriptions/<subscription_id>

Replace <service-principal-name> with your service principal name.

Important

Make note of the password value in the output, you won't be able to retrieve it afterwards.

$subId = '<subcriptionID>'
$credentials = New-Object Microsoft.Azure.Commands.ActiveDirectory.PSADPasswordCredential -Property @{ StartDate=Get-Date; EndDate=Get-Date -Year 2024; Password='<Password>'};

$params = @{
    DisplayName = '<service-principal-name>'
    PasswordCredential = $credentials
}

$sp = New-AzAdServicePrincipal @params

$roleAssignmentSplat = @{
    ObjectId = $sp.id
    RoleDefinitionName = 'Contributor'
    Scope = "/subscriptions/$subId"
}

New-AzRoleAssignment @roleAssignmentSplat

Replace <subcriptionID> and <Password> and <service-principal-name> with the appropriate values.

Create a Dockerfile that will install Ansible

Create a directory in which to test and run the sample code and make it the current directory.
Create a new file named Dockerfile.

Insert the following Docker commands into the new file.

FROM centos:7

ENV LANG en_US.UTF-8
ENV LC_ALL en_US.UTF-8

RUN yum check-update; \
    yum install -y gcc libffi-devel python3 epel-release; \
    yum install -y python3-pip; \
    yum install -y wget; \
    yum clean all

RUN pip3 install --upgrade pip; \
    pip3 install --upgrade virtualenv; \
    pip3 install pywinrm[kerberos]; \
    pip3 install pywinrm; \
    pip3 install jmspath; \
    pip3 install requests; \
    python3 -m pip install ansible; \
    ansible-galaxy collection install azure.azcollection; \
    pip3 install -r ~/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections/azure/azcollection/requirements-azure.txt

Build the Ansible Docker image

Run docker build to build the Docker image used to run Ansible.

docker build . -t ansible

Start the Ansible container

Run the docker run to start the Ansible container.
```
docker run -it ansible
```
Key points:
- By default, Docker containers start detached from the terminal, running in the background.
- The -it option stands for interactive terminal allowing you to run commands inside the Docker container.
To confirm Ansible was installed in the container, run the Ansible command to print its version.
```
ansible --version
```

Connect to Azure from the Ansible container

Assign the following environment variables to connect to Azure:

export AZURE_TENANT="<azure_tenant_id>"
export AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID="<azure_subscription_id>"
export AZURE_CLIENT_ID="<service_principal_app_id>"
export AZURE_SECRET="<service_principal_password>"

Create an Azure resource group

Run the following Ansible command to create a resource group:

ansible localhost -m azure_rm_resourcegroup -a 'name=myResourceGroup location=eastus'

Key points:

Upon completion, the command displays whether it was successful in creating the resource group.

Clean up resources

Run the following Ansible command to delete the resource group.

ansible localhost -m azure_rm_resourcegroup -a 'name=myResourceGroup location=eastus state=absent'