This Ansible role performs basic Consul installation, including filesystem structure, and example configuration.
It can also bootstrap a minimal development or evaluation cluster of 3 server agents running in a Vagrant and VirtualBox based environment. See README_VAGRANT.md and the associated Vagrantfile for more details about the developer mode setup.
This role requires a Debian or RHEL based Linux distribution. It might work with other software versions, but does work with the following specific software and versions:
- Ansible: 2.2.0.0
- Consul: 0.7.0
- Debian: 8
- CentOS: 7
The role defines variables in defaults/main.yml
and in the hosts
inventory file (see below):
Name | Default Value | Description |
---|---|---|
consul_version |
0.7.0 | Version to install |
consul_zip_url |
https://releases.hashicorp.com/consul/{{ consul_version }}/consul_{{ consul_version }}_linux_amd64.zip |
Download URL |
consul_zip_sha256 |
SHA256 SUM | Archive SHA256 summary |
consul_bin_path |
/usr/local/bin |
Binary installation path |
consul_config_path |
/etc/consul.d |
Configuration file path |
consul_data_path |
/var/consul |
Data path |
consul_log_path |
/var/log/consul |
Log path |
consul_user |
consul |
OS user |
consul_group |
bin |
OS group |
consul_group_name |
cluster_nodes | Inventory group name |
consul_datacenter |
dc1 | Datacenter label |
consul_domain |
consul |
Consul domain name |
consul_log_level |
INFO |
Log level |
consul_syslog_enable |
true | Log to syslog |
consul_iface |
eth1 |
Consul network interface |
consul_bind_address |
127.0.0.1 | Bind address |
consul_bootstrap_address |
{{ hostvars[groups[consul_group_name][0]]['ansible_'+consul_iface]['ipv4']['address'] }} |
The server interface that additional server nodes will join to for bootstrapping |
consul_dns_bind_address |
127.0.0.1 | DNS API bind address |
consul_http_bind_address |
0.0.0.0 | HTTP API bind address |
consul_https_bind_address |
0.0.0.0 | HTTPS API bind address |
consul_rpc_bind_address |
0.0.0.0 | RPC bind address |
consul_node_name |
{{ inventory_hostname_short }} |
Node name (should not include dots) |
consul_recursors |
Empty list | List of upstream DNS servers โ see recursors |
consul_bind_address |
dynamic from hosts inventory | The interface address to bind to |
consul_dnsmasq_enable |
false | Whether to install and configure DNS API forwarding on port 53 using dnsmasq |
consul_iptables_enable |
false | Whether to enable iptables rules for Consul |
consul_acl_enable |
false | Enable ACLs |
consul_acl_datacenter |
dc1 | ACL authoritative datacenter name |
consul_acl_default_policy |
allow | Default ACL policy |
consul_acl_down_policy |
allow | Default ACL down policy |
consul_acl_master_token |
UUID | ACL master token |
consul_acl_master_token_display |
false | Display generated ACL Master Token |
consul_acl_replication_token |
UUID | ACL replication token |
consul_atlas_enable |
false | Enable Atlas support |
consul_atlas_infrastructure |
Environment variable | Atlas infrastructure name |
consul_atlas_token |
Environment variable | Atlas token |
This role also uses a host inventory variable to define the server's role
when forming a cluster. One server should be designated as the bootstrap
server that uses the bootstrap_expect
configuration directive, and the other
servers will connect to this server. You can also specify client as the
role, and Consul will be configured as a client agent instead of a server.
Name | Default Value | Description |
---|---|---|
consul_node_role |
NONE | Consul server role, one of: bootstrap, server, or client |
Here is an example of how the hosts inventory could be defined for a simple cluster of 3 servers:
consul1.local consul_node_role=bootstrap
consul2.local consul_node_role=server
consul3.local consul_node_role=server
The consul
binary works on most Linux platforms and is not distribution
specific. However, some distributions require installation of specific OS
packages with different package names.
Name | Default Value | Description |
---|---|---|
consul_centos_pkg |
{{ consul_version }}_linux_amd64.zip |
Consul package filename |
consul_centos_url |
{{ consul_zip_url }} |
Consul package download URL |
consul_centos_sha256 |
SHA256 SUM | Consul download SHA256 summary |
consul_centos_os_packages |
list | List of OS packages to install |
consul_debian_pkg |
{{ consul_version }}_linux_amd64.zip |
Consul package filename |
consul_debian_url |
{{ consul_zip_url }} |
Consul package download URL |
consul_debian_sha256 |
SHA256 SUM | Consul download SHA256 summary |
consul_debian_os_packages |
list | List of OS packages to install |
consul_redhat_pkg |
{{ consul_version }}_linux_amd64.zip |
Consul package filename |
consul_redhat_url |
{{ consul_zip_url }} |
Consul package download URL |
consul_redhat_sha256 |
SHA256 SUM | Consul download SHA256 summary |
consul_redhat_os_packages |
list | List of OS packages to install |
consul_ubuntu_pkg |
{{ consul_version }}_linux_amd64.zip |
Consul package filename |
consul_ubuntu_url |
{{ consul_zip_url }} |
Consul package download URL |
consul_ubuntu_sha256 |
SHA256 SUM | Consul download SHA256 summary |
consul_ubuntu_os_packages |
list | List of OS packages to install |
Ansible requires GNU tar and this role performs some local use of the
unarchive module, so ensure that your system has gtar
installed and
in the PATH.
If you're on system with a different (i.e. BSD) tar
, like macOS and you
see odd errors during unarchive tasks, you could be missing gtar
.
Basic installation is possible using the included site.yml
playbook:
ansible-playbook -i hosts site.yml
You can also pass variables in using the --extra-vars
option to the
ansible-playbook
command:
ansible-playbook -i hosts site.yml --extra-vars "consul_datacenter=maui"
Be aware that for clustering, the included site.yml
does the following:
- Executes consul role (installs Consul and bootstraps cluster)
- Reconfigures bootstrap node to run without bootstrap-expect setting
- Restarts bootstrap node
Basic support for ACLs is included in the role. You can set the environment
variables CONSUL_ACL_ENABLE
to true, and also set the
CONSUL_ACL_DATACENTER
environment variable to its correct value for your
environment prior to executing your playbook; for example:
CONSUL_ACL_ENABLE=true CONSUL_ACL_DATACENTER=maui \
CONSUL_ACL_MASTER_TOKEN_DISPLAY=true ansible-playbook -i uat_hosts aloha.yml
If you want the automatically generated ACL Master Token value emitted to
standard out during the play, set the environment variable
CONSUL_ACL_MASTER_TOKEN_DISPLAY
to true as in the above example.
There are a number of Ansible ACL variables you can override to further refine
your initial ACL setup. They are not all currently picked up from environment
variables, but do have some sensible defaults. Check defaults/main.yml
to
see how some of he defaults (i.e. tokens) are automatically generated.
Basic support for Atlas is included in the role. You can set the environment
variables CONSUL_ATLAS_ENABLE
to true, and also set the
CONSUL_ATLAS_INFRASTRUCTURE
and CONSUL_ATLAS_TOKEN
environment variables
to their correct values for your environment prior to executing your
playbook; for example:
CONSUL_ATLAS_ENABLE=true CONSUL_ATLAS_INFRASTRUCTURE=brianshumate/example \
CONSUL_ATLAS_TOKEN=00000000-000000000-000000000000-0000 \
ansible-playbook -i uat_hosts site.yml
The role now includes support for DNS forwarding with Dnsmasq.
Enable like this:
ansible-playbook -i hosts site.yml --extra-vars "consul_dnsmasq_enable=true"
Then, you can query any of the agents via DNS directly via port 53, for example:
dig @consul1.local consul3.node.consul
; <<>> DiG 9.8.3-P1 <<>> @consul1.local consul3.node.consul
; (1 server found)
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 29196
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;consul3.node.consul. IN A
;; ANSWER SECTION:
consul3.node.consul. 0 IN A 10.1.42.230
;; Query time: 42 msec
;; SERVER: 10.1.42.210#53(10.1.42.210)
;; WHEN: Sun Aug 7 18:06:32 2016
;;
See examples/README_VAGRANT.md
for details on quick Vagrant deployments
under VirtualBox for testing, etc.
BSD
Special thanks to the folks listed in CONTRIBUTORS.md for their contributions to this project.