Ansible Configtree Pattern

Here’s a useful pattern for installing configuration files on your ansible managed hosts.

File: roles/configtree/tasks/main.yml

---
- name: "Check if /roles/configtree/files/ exists"
  local_action: stat path="/roles/configtree/files/"
  register: file
- name: "Copy /roles/configtree/files/"
  copy:
    src: ""
    dest: /
    force: true
  become: true
  when: file.stat.exists

File: myplaybook.yml

---
- hosts: _blog
  roles:
    - {role: install-nginx }
    - {role: configtree, CONFIGTREE_PATH: "{{inventory_dir | basename}}/_blog/" }
    - {role: configtree, CONFIGTREE_PATH: "{{inventory_dir | basename}}/{{ansible_hostname}}/" }
  post_tasks:
    - name: restart nginx
      systemd:
        name: nginx
        state: restarted
        enabled: yes
      become: yes

Now in the files directory of the configtree role I have a sparse copy of the filesystem for certain host profiles.

For example, I store the https nginx config for my blog in this path:

roles/configtree/files/prod/_blog/etc/nginx/sites-enabled/https

and host specific config, like the hosts file, can go in this path:

roles/configtree/files/prod/nyc1-4gb-public/etc/hosts

where nyc1-4gb-public is the hostname of the machine.

Note in both of these paths I am using the prod inventory, I might have different config for dev or I might share config between the two environments by using a role and matching path like this:

- {role: configtree, CONFIGTREE_PATH: "_prod_and_dev_config/" }