Hello All, just wanted to share my latest Ansible playbook i use for deploying agent-updates after updating/upgrading the CMK server on a RAW edition.
As the RAW edition does not offer a mechanism to update agents (and plugins) i had to devise a way to still be able to facilitate a large number of hosts via Ansible.
I know that there is a very fine and functional Ansible collection for CheckMK deployment, however for the cases where one is not able to install/use this for any reason i have created this alternative.
In the past i have created a playbook which would only work if it were run over the whole inventory.
This new playbook offers modularity, as it no longer depends on having the monitoring host as part of a/the playbook.
Instead it queries the CMK-Server over the API for details, and then takes it from there.
Additional Information:
This playbook creates/manipulates a path of /usr/local/install/packages as a/the source for installation.
The last task in the playbook is aimed solely for when the agent is only allowed to communicate over SSH, as it disables the xinetd service → disable/comment this task if this is not the case.
This playbook will update plugins which were previously placed on the monitoring host when installed (and available on the server, referenced under Setup → Agents → Linux).
The playbook:
---
# this playbook does not work on SLES 12.x hosts, it complains about the zypper module
# still investigating as to what is causing this.
- hosts: all
vars:
monitor_host: 'My_CheckMK_Server'
monitor_site: 'My_CheckMK_Site'
download_path: '/usr/local/install/packages'
plugin_path: '/usr/lib/check_mk_agent/plugins'
api_user: 'My_Automation_user'
api_password: 'My_automation_user_password'
tasks:
- name: Cleanup packages directory before installing (if it exists)
ansible.builtin.file:
path: "{{ download_path }}"
state: absent
- name: Create default directories for installing
ansible.builtin.file:
path: "{{ download_path }}"
recurse: true
state: directory
owner: root
group: root
mode: 0775
- name: Query monitoring server for running version
ansible.builtin.uri:
url: "https://{{ monitor_host }}//{{ monitor_site }}/check_mk/api/1.0/version"
headers:
Content-Type: "application/json"
Accept: "*/*"
Authorization: "Bearer {{ api_user }} {{ api_password }}"
method: GET
return_content: true
register: cmk_version
- name: Download and install current agent version for APT-based hosts
block:
- name: Copy agent file to APT-based hosts
ansible.builtin.get_url:
url: "https://{{ monitor_host }}/{{ monitor_site }}/check_mk/agents/check-mk-agent_{{ cmk_version.json.versions.checkmk[:-4] }}-1_all.deb"
dest: "/usr/local/install/packages/check-mk-agent_{{ cmk_version.json.versions.checkmk[:-4] }}-1_all.deb"
mode: "0760"
- name: Install Agent package for APT-based hosts
ansible.builtin.apt:
deb: "{{ download_path }}/check-mk-agent_{{ cmk_version.json.versions.checkmk[:-4] }}-1_all.deb"
allow_downgrade: yes
become: yes
when:
- ansible_pkg_mgr == "apt"
- name: Download and install current agent version for YUM-based hosts
block:
- name: Copy agent file to YUM-based hosts
ansible.builtin.get_url:
url: "https://{{ monitor_host }}/{{ monitor_site }}/check_mk/agents/check-mk-agent-{{ cmk_version.json.versions.checkmk[:-4] }}-1.noarch.rpm"
dest: "/usr/local/install/packages/check-mk-agent_{{ cmk_version.json.versions.checkmk[:-4] }}-1.noarch.rpm"
mode: "0760"
- name: Install Agent package for YUM-based hosts
ansible.builtin.yum:
name: "{{ download_path }}/check-mk-agent_{{ cmk_version.json.versions.checkmk[:-4] }}-1.noarch.rpm"
allow_downgrade: true
state: present
disable_gpg_check: yes
when:
- ansible_pkg_mgr == "yum"
- name: Download and install current agent version for DNF-based hosts
block:
- name: Copy agent file to DNF-based hosts
ansible.builtin.get_url:
url: "https://{{ monitor_host }}/{{ monitor_site }}/check_mk/agents/check-mk-agent-{{ cmk_version.json.versions.checkmk[:-4] }}-1.noarch.rpm"
dest: "/usr/local/install/packages/check-mk-agent_{{ cmk_version.json.versions.checkmk[:-4]}}-1.noarch.rpm"
mode: "0760"
- name: Install Agent package for DNF-based hosts
ansible.builtin.dnf:
name: "{{ download_path }}//check-mk-agent_{{ cmk_version.json.versions.checkmk[:-4] }}-1.noarch.rpm"
allow_downgrade: true
state: present
disable_gpg_check: yes
when:
- ansible_pkg_mgr == "dnf"
- name: Download and install current agent version for ZYPPER-based hosts
block:
- name: Copy agent file to ZYPPER-based hosts
ansible.builtin.get_url:
url: "https://{{ monitor_host }}/{{ monitor_site }}/check_mk/agents/check-mk-agent-{{ cmk_version.json.versions.checkmk[:-4] }}-1.noarch.rpm"
dest: "/usr/local/install/packages/check-mk-agent_{{ cmk_version.json.versions.checkmk[:-4] }}-1.noarch.rpm"
mode: "0760"
- name: Install Agent package for ZYPPER-based hosts
community.general.zypper:
name: "{{ download_path }}//check-mk-agent_{{ cmk_version.json.versions.checkmk[:-4] }}-1.noarch.rpm"
force: true
state: present
disable_gpg_check: yes
environment:
ZYPP_LOCK_TIMEOUT: 30
when:
- ansible_pkg_mgr == "zypper"
- name: find installed plugins in main plugins directory
ansible.builtin.find:
paths: "{{ plugin_path }}"
file_type: file
recurse: yes
register: plugins_main
- name: Set paths of found plugins as fact
ansible.builtin.set_fact:
plugins_main_found: "{{ plugins_main | json_query('files[*].path') }}"
- name: Update found plugins with versions from monitoring host
ansible.builtin.get_url:
url: "https://{{ monitor_host }}/{{ monitor_site }}/check_mk/agents/plugins/{{ item | basename }}"
dest: "{{ item }}"
force: true
with_items:
- "{{ plugins_main_found }}"
ignore_errors: true
- name: Adapt plugin settings on APT-based hosts
block:
- name: Check presense of mk_apt
ansible.builtin.stat:
path: /usr/lib/check_mk_agent/plugins/3600/mk_apt
register: apt_plugin
- name: update setting in mk_apt script to use dist-upgrade
ansible.builtin.lineinfile:
path: /usr/lib/check_mk_agent/plugins/3600/mk_apt
regexp: '^UPGRADE=.*'
line: UPGRADE=dist-upgrade
when:
- apt_plugin.stat.exists
when:
- ansible_pkg_mgr == "apt"
- name: Disable Unwanted CheckMK Services
ansible.builtin.systemd:
name: cmk-agent-ctl-daemon
masked: yes
I hope by sharing this you can take advantage of automating your deployment of agents/existing plugins if you are unable to use the checkmk collection.
If however you are able to utilize the checkmk collection offered i urge you to make use of it, as there is a lot more/broader support for it.
Just a little Update/revelation i had:
The workings of the playbook depend on the python-version.
For SLES 12.x, or OES18.x SuSE it is required to specify the python2.7 interpreter to make it work.
For some reason SuSE made a jump to python 3.4, and 3.4m, but never went to 3.6 in their old OS’es
Ansible requires either python 2.7 or 3.6 ( the latter is neither on SLES12.x or OES18 available)
So in your hosts (or hosts.yml) you will need to specify this version: