NGINX Controller Example

Requirements

• Ansible 2.7+
• Python boto3 library
• AWS CLI
• A default Access Key configured in aws cli
• Python python-pexpect package

The whats: Deploying Controller

note: all playbooks tested with Ubuntu 18.04 minimum AMI image

demo-vpc.json | Cloud Formation template to create a VPC with 2 public and 2 private subnets.

ansible-playbook controller_environment_deploy_aws.yaml

• Deploys the machines to the vpc
• uses controller_aws_vars.yaml
• writes individual inventory files in playbook_dir

ansible-playbook nginx_controller_postgresql_install.yaml -i dbserver

• installs PostgreSQL, naas user, naas database
• for some reason unclear to me at this time, this needs to be run a second time to overcome a failure

ansible-playbook nginx_install_controller.yaml -i controller -e "su_password='<your controller installation password here>'"

• installs Controller
• reads dbserver inventory file
• sets root password for su task (Ubuntu 18.04)
• requires nginx_install_controller_vars.yaml

ansible-playbook nginx_controller_embedded_install.yaml -i controller -e "su_password='<your controller installation password here>'"

• installs nginx Controller with embedded DB
• sets root password for su task of selected FQDN/IP machine
• requires a inventory file with name 'controller' in same location
• requires NGINX controller ansible galaxy installed (You can install by looking at collection folder requirements yaml file)
• requires nginx_controller_embedded_install_vars.yaml

nginx_installer_controller_vars.yaml | your Controller settings nginx_install_controller.yaml | installs nginx controller and pre-requisites

ansible-playbook nginx_controller_license.yaml -e "controller_fqdn=<your controller fqdn here>"

• installs the Controller license
• requires a base64 file representing Controller license to be placed in license/controller_license.base64.txt

ansible-playbook nginx_plus.yaml -i loadbalancers --private-key=<path to ssh key>

• installs NGINX+ on the loadbalancers
• requires the NGINX+ repository certificate file to be placed at /license/nginx-repo.key
• requires the NGINX+ repository key file to be placed at /license/nginx-repo.key

nginx_controller_agent_2x.yaml | installs the nginx Controller agent on an nginx plus instance (see [my nginx samples] (https://github.com/brianehlert/ansible-nginx-examples) ) ansible-playbook nginx_controller_agent_2x.yaml -i loadbalancers

• for NGINX Controller 2.x family
• reads controller inventory file
• requires controller_user_email, controller_password

nginx_controller_agent_3x.yaml | same as the 2.x version but handles the difference in Controller authenticataion return ansible-playbook nginx_controller_agent_3x.yaml -i loadbalancers -e "controller_fqdn=<controller fqdn here>" --private-key=<path to ssh key>

• for NGINX Controller 3.x family
• reads controller inventory file
• requires controller_user_email, controller_password

The whats part deaux: Configuring Controller

• Create an environment in Controller (out of scope)

ansible-playbook nginx_controller_certificate.yaml -e "@nginx_install_controller_vars.yaml" -e "controller_fqdn=<your controller fqdn here>"

• Creates a Certificate to later attach to a gateway

ansible-playbook nginx_controller_gateway.yaml -e "@nginx_install_controller_vars.yaml" -e "controller_fqdn=<your controller fqdn here>"

• Creates a gateway

• Create an app (out of scope)

ansible-playbook nginx_controller_component.yaml -e "@nginx_install_controller_vars.yaml" -e "controller_fqdn=<your controller fqdn here>"

• Creates a component

Supplemental: What are these files for?

nginx-plus-api.conf and stub_status.conf | these fully enable all nginx metrics in Controller for the instance

docker-daemon.json | this sets the Docker daemon behavior according to Docker recommendations (cgroup driver) and sets up log rotation to prevent filling the partition, and the storage driver for Kubernetes. So everyone is happy.