Installing packages on multiple Operating Systems

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1

Hi,

I’m wondering if there’s a better way to install packages on multiple operating systems.

TL;DR: I’m looking for a method to abstract the OS differences to avoid duplicating files and templates all over the place.

Here’s what I’m currently doing:

  • name: Install OpenJDK
    apt: pkg={{ item }} state=present

with_items:

  • openjdk-7-jdk

tags:

  • java
    when: ansible_distribution == ‘Ubuntu’
  • name: Install OpenJDK
    yum: name=java-1.7.0-openjdk state=present
    tags:
  • java
    when: ansible_distribution == ‘CentOS’

This works fine when you only have 1 task or 1 role, but I currently have 10 roles with multiple configurations, and each role has its own set of tasks, files, templates, etc.

I considered creating separate directories in each role, for each OS, but then handlers, templates and other files will need to be duplicated.

Is there a “package” module to replace “yum/apt” ? If not, can someone recommend a better approach? So far all the solutions I’ve found are only good as “examples”, but far from ideal in the real world.

Thanks

2

I would recommend using the group_by option, which can be used to group systems based on facts or other variables. So something like this:

  • hosts: all
    tasks:

  • name: group hosts by distribution
    group_by: key=“{{ ansible_distribution }}-{{ ansible_distribution_version }}”

  • hosts: RedHat-6*:CentOS-6*:SL-6*

tasks:

  • name: Install OpenJDK
    yum: name=java-1.7.0-openjdk state=present
    tags:

  • java

  • hosts: Ubuntu-*

tasks:

  • name: Install OpenJDK
    apt: pkg=openjdk-7-jdk state=present

tags:

  • java
3

Dear James,

This is very neat, related to this how do i use varaibles/facts for hosts, i tried the documentation example following in ansible, ansible-playbook but could not get it working

webservers:!{{excluded}}:&{{required}}

where should I define these variables, i tried to define them in the inventory hosts files, or pass them via the “-e” option both did not work for me.

regards

Walid

4

Walid, this question came up the other day and I mentioned that it works correctly when setting the variable with -e. Could you post some samples of your inventory/playbook.

Also, if asking a new question it’s generally best to start a new thread, to avoid confusion and switching topics.

5

you can use the {{ansible_pkg_manager}} variable to try to make it a single task, but then you have the problem of the package names not matching, so James’ solution is the best option.

6

The host selector is there for selecting groups defined in inventory explicitly.

If you want to further pare down hosts, rather than doing the “-e” bits and making it more complex with {{ vars }}, it’s easier to just use --limit

ansible-playbook site.yml --limit pod6

Would run the whole playbook just on machines in pod6.

7

Can this be achieved in a single role, or would multiple roles be required, one for each OS?

8

This would need to be separate roles, since roles can’t contain hosts: entries.

9

You can just use the when statement in this case if you want to keep things in the same role.

when: ansible_os_family == ‘Debian’

etc