Ansible As A Source To CMDB

Ansible server contains the valuable data about current state of configuration at the operating system level. In addition, users may configure Ansible to retrieve custom application specific facts.

Ansible Variables

 

Ansible gathers data from the hosts and stores in what is known as Ansible variables. These variable can be loaded into CMDB using Cloudaware integration with Ansible. Cloudaware supports native Ansible variables, custom as well as factor_* and ohai_* variables. 

Benefits Of Ansible Data In CMDB

 

  • Detect instances not connected to Ansible

  • Understand last time Ansible successfully executed on the host

  • Richer CMDB that has OS and application level data

  • Run reports on variables

  • Keep track of changes in variables

  • Execute workflows and approval processes based on values of variables

  • Convert fact to instance attribute

How To Load Ansible Data Into Cloudaware

 

  1. Install Ansible-to-S3 adapter on Ansible Server. Instructions are available here. 

  2. Configure Cloudaware to consume Ansible data From S3 Bucket (read more here). 

List of Ansible Specific Fields In CMDB

Example:

Object

Fields

Object

Fields

AWS EC2 Instance

Last Ansible Fact Update (Date/Time)

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