mex-docs

Using Ansible with the MeX API

This document provides a high level overview of using ansible to communication with the MobiledgeX API.

Note: This is a very rough example that illustrates logging in, generating a JWT, and using that token to access the API. Additional work could be done to add logic to parse the JSON returned from the calls and to take additional steps based on that data.

Prerequisites:

ansible 2.9 is installed
git
You have a MeX Account
You know your Organization Name and User Name

Ansible Hosts File

Since these commands are designed to run against an API and not a host we will just run the commands against localhost. Note that the default all host grouping does not include localhost so you will need to directly specify your local host in the YAML file.

Alternatively, you can setup a host file and use that as part of the workflow, just be aware that if you have multiple hosts that match the playbook these steps will be run once for each host.

Ansible Playbook

The playbook is rather simple and begins with us setting the hostname and turning off the automatic fact gathering:

- hosts: localhost
  gather_facts: false

Next we break down our tasks; the first task is to log into the API and retrieve our JWT. To do this, we use the uri module. In order to be able to parse the JWT, we register the output as thereturn.

    - name: Log into the server
      uri:
        url: https://console.mobiledgex.net/api/v1/login
        user: demo
        password: helloworld
        method: POST
        body: '{"username": "someuser", "password":"somepass"}'
        body_format: json
      register: thereturn

Our next step is to pull the token from the returned JSON. We do this by invoking set_fact and using the json_query filter to parse out the token. Following this step we can use thetoken in our subsequent calls.

    - name: Pull the token
      set_fact:
        thetoken: ""

Now we can use the JWT to authenticate against the api and check our running instances. Once again, we will take the output and register it to a variable so that we can utilize it later in our processing.

    - name: Check running Instances
      uri:
        url: https://console.mobiledgex.net/api/v1/auth/ctrl/ShowAppInst
        method: POST
        body: '{"region": "EU"}'
        body_format: json
        return_content: yes
        headers:
          Authorization: "Bearer "
      register: theresult

Finally, we print out the content of the results from the earlier call using the debug module.

    - name: Print Out Our Results
      debug:
        var: theresult.content

Important Notes

Spacing and indentation matter with YAML, so it is important to always ensure you are following the language guidelines.
Ansible is more designed for running commands on a remote system than communicating with an API, so your mileage may vary using this.

Full Config

The full YAML file is provided here for completeness.

- hosts: localhost
  remote_user: root
  gather_facts: false

  tasks:
    - name: Log into the server
      uri:
        url: https://console.mobiledgex.net/api/v1/login
        user: demo
        password: helloworld
        method: POST
        body: '{"username": "someuser", "password":"somepass"}'
        body_format: json
      register: thereturn
    - name: Pull the token
      set_fact:
        thetoken: ""
    - name: Check running Instances
      uri:
        url: https://console.mobiledgex.net/api/v1/auth/ctrl/ShowAppInst
        method: POST
        body: '{"region": "EU"}'
        body_format: json
        return_content: yes
        headers:
          Authorization: "Bearer "
      register: theresult
    - name: Print Out Our Results
      debug:
        var: theresult.content

Sample Output

$ ansible-playbook ./ansible-test.yaml
[WARNING]: No inventory was parsed, only implicit localhost is available
[WARNING]: provided hosts list is empty, only localhost is available. Note that the implicit localhost does not match 'all'

PLAY [localhost] ***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

TASK [Log into the server] *************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]

TASK [Pull the token] ******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]

TASK [Check running Instances] *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]

TASK [Print Out Our Results] ***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "theresult.content": "{\"data\":{\"key\":{\"app_key\":{\"developer_key\":{\"name\":\"demoorg\"},\"name\":\"mobiledgexsdkdemo20\",\"version\":\"2020-3-26\"},\"cluster_inst_key\":{\"cluster_key\":{\"name\":\"sdkdemocluster\"},\"cloudlet_key\":{\"operator_key\":{\"name\":\"Orange-Spain\"},\"name\":\"madrid-coslada\"},\"developer\":\"demoorg\"}},\"cloudlet_loc\":{\"latitude\":40.4168,\"longitude\":-3.7038},\"uri\":\"sdkdemocluster.madrid-coslada.orange-spain.mobiledgex.net\",\"liveness\":1,\"mapped_ports\":[{\"proto\":1,\"internal_port\":8008,\"public_port\":8008,\"fqdn_prefix\":\"mobiledgexsdkdemo20-tcp.\"},{\"proto\":1,\"internal_port\":8011,\"public_port\":8011,\"fqdn_prefix\":\"mobiledgexsdkdemo20-tcp.\"}],\"flavor\":{\"name\":\"x1.medium\"},\"state\":5,\"runtime_info\":{\"container_ids\":[\"mobiledgexsdkdemo20-deployment-759fd4cf79-qjd6k\"]},\"created_at\":{\"seconds\":1586474845,\"nanos\":683125749},\"status\":{}}}\n{\"data\":{\"key\":{\"app_key\":{\"developer_key\":{\"name\":\"demoorg\"},\"name\":\"vmtwo\",\"version\":\"1.0\"},\"cluster_inst_key\":{\"cluster_key\":{\"name\":\"DefaultVMCluster\"},\"cloudlet_key\":{\"operator_key\":{\"name\":\"TDG\"},\"name\":\"munich-main\"},\"developer\":\"demoorg\"}},\"cloudlet_loc\":{\"latitude\":48.1351,\"longitude\":11.582},\"uri\":\"demoorgvmtwo10.munich-main.tdg.mobiledgex.net\",\"liveness\":1,\"mapped_ports\":[{\"proto\":1,\"internal_port\":22,\"public_port\":22}],\"flavor\":{\"name\":\"m4.small\"},\"state\":5,\"runtime_info\":{},\"created_at\":{\"seconds\":1586902891,\"nanos\":716712765},\"status\":{},\"power_state\":3}}\n"
}

PLAY RECAP *****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=4    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0