How do you manage per env config file using ansible? - ansible

Question

I'm using ansible to install Apache, currently I have multiple httpd.conf files(test/dev/staging/production) in ansible repository, most of the content is same excepts some environment specific settings.
Is it possible to use one httpd.conf template file, and modify the file when send the httpd.conf to remote server?

Answer 1

Yes you can. With jinja2 and group_vars.
So what you do in your templates/ folder create a file like such:
templates/http.conf.j2
Say you have something like this in there:
NameVirtualHost *:80
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName {{ subdomain }}.{{ domain }}
ServerAlias www.{{ subdomain }}.{{ domain }}
</VirtualHost>
Your layout should look like this:
├── group_vars
│   ├── all
│   │   └── config
│   ├── dev
│   │   └── config
│   └── test
│   └── config
├── inventory
│   ├── dev
│   │   └── hosts
│   └── test
│   └── hosts
├── site.yml
└── templates
└── http.conf.j2
In group_vars/all you would have domain: "example.com"
In group_vars/dev you would have subdomain: dev
In group_vars/test you would have subdomain: test
In your task, you'd have your ansible template command i.e.
- hosts: all
tasks:
- name: Copy http conf
template:
dest: /etc/apache2/http.conf
src: templates/http.conf.j2
owner: root
group: root
And run your playbook like this:
ansible-playbook -i inventory/test site.yml
The file should end up on the host looking like this:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName test.example.com
ServerAlias www.test.example.com
</VirtualHost>