{"id":1221,"date":"2024-03-23T07:55:03","date_gmt":"2024-03-23T07:55:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shijuvarghese.com\/?p=1221"},"modified":"2024-03-23T08:20:52","modified_gmt":"2024-03-23T08:20:52","slug":"ansible-the-fetch-module-to-retrieve-files","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/shijuvarghese.com\/?p=1221","title":{"rendered":"Ansible – The fetch module to retrieve files"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the\u00a0copy<\/strong> module helps to copy a file from the controller node to managed nodes, the fetch module helps to retrieve files from a managed node to controller node.<\/p>\n

In the below example we will write a playbook to fetch the\u00a0secure<\/strong><\/em> log file from the managed node to the controller node. Pay close attention to the\u00a0flat<\/strong> parameter used by the\u00a0fetch<\/em> module.<\/p>\n

Let us ensure that there is NO folder named\u00a0secure-backups<\/strong> in the present working directory<\/p>\n

[root@centos9vm ~]#<\/strong> ls -l | grep secure-backups<\/p>\n

Create a playbook that will copy the\u00a0\/var\/log\/secure<\/em> file from the managed node to the control node and\u00a0preserver<\/em> the folder structure. Pay attention to the flat<\/em> parameter.<\/p>\n

[root@centos9vm ~]#<\/strong> cat secure_log_backups.yml<\/p>\n

====== ====
\n– – –
\n– name: Use the fetch module to retrieve secure log file
\n    hosts: 192.168.48.129
\n    remote_user: root
\n    tasks:
\n        – name: Fetch secure log files
\n            ansible.builtin.fetch:
\n                src: \/var\/log\/secure
\n                dest: secure-backups
\n                flat: no<\/p>\n

===== === ==<\/p>\n

[root@centos9vm ~]#<\/strong> ansible-navigator run -m stdout secure_log_backups.yml<\/p>\n

===== ===<\/p>\n

PLAY [Use the fetch module to retrieve secure log file] ************************<\/em><\/p>\n

TASK [Gathering Facts] *********************************************************<\/em>
\nok: [192.168.48.129]<\/em><\/p>\n

TASK [Fetch secure log files] **************************************************<\/em>
\nchanged: [192.168.48.129]<\/em><\/p>\n

PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************<\/em>
\n192.168.48.129 : ok=2 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0<\/em>
\n==== ====<\/p>\n

Let us see if the\u00a0secure-backups<\/strong> folder for created automatically.<\/p>\n

[root@centos9vm ~]#<\/strong> ls -ld secure-backups
\n===== === ==
\ndrwxr-xr-x. 3 root root 28 Mar 23 13:31 secure-backups
\n===== === ==
\nNow let us see if the\u00a0secure<\/em> file got copied to the controller node, preserving the folder structure<\/p>\n

[root@centos9vm ~]#<\/strong> ls -l secure-backups\/192.168.48.129\/var\/log\/secure
\n===== === ==
\n-rw——-. 1 root root 11791 Mar 23 13:31 secure-backups\/192.168.48.129\/var\/log\/secure
\n===== === ==<\/p>\n

As you can see above, the\u00a0secure-backups<\/em> folder got created, a folder named with managed node’s name and also sub-folders that matches the place where the file is stored in the managed node.<\/p>\n

Let us delete the secure-backups<\/em> folder and also tweak the playbook a bit and change the value of\u00a0flat<\/strong><\/em> parameter.<\/p>\n

[root@centos9vm ~]#<\/strong> rm -rf secure-backups
\n[root@centos9vm ~]#<\/strong> ls -ld secure-backups
\nls: cannot access ‘secure-backups’: No such file or directory<\/p>\n

[root@centos9vm ~]#<\/strong> cat secure_log_backups.yml<\/p>\n

====== ==
\n– – –
\n– name: Use the fetch module to retrieve secure log file
\n    hosts: 192.168.48.129
\n    remote_user: root
\n    tasks:
\n        – name: Fetch secure log files
\n            ansible.builtin.fetch:
\n                src: \/var\/log\/secure
\n                dest: secure-backups
\n                flat: yes<\/span>
\n==== ===<\/p>\n

Now let us run the playbook<\/p>\n

[root@centos9vm ~]#<\/strong> ansible-navigator run -m stdout secure_log_backups.yml<\/p>\n

====== =<\/p>\n

PLAY [Use the fetch module to retrieve secure log file] ************************<\/em><\/p>\n

TASK [Gathering Facts] *********************************************************<\/em>
\nok: [192.168.48.129]<\/em><\/p>\n

TASK [Fetch secure log files] **************************************************<\/em>
\nchanged: [192.168.48.129]<\/em><\/p>\n

PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************<\/em>
\n192.168.48.129 : ok=2 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0<\/em>
\n====== ===<\/p>\n

Now if we check we will find that the log file\u00a0secure <\/em>got written to a\u00a0file<\/strong> named\u00a0secure-backups<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

[root@centos9vm ~]#<\/strong> ls -ld secure-backups
\n-rw——-. 1 root root 12158 Mar 23 13:39 secure-backups<\/p>\n

[root@centos9vm ~]#<\/strong> wc -l secure-backups
\n104 secure-backups<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While the\u00a0copy module helps to copy a file from the controller node to managed nodes, the fetch module helps to retrieve files from a managed […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,21,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ansible","category-devops","category-linux"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/shijuvarghese.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/shijuvarghese.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/shijuvarghese.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shijuvarghese.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shijuvarghese.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1221"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/shijuvarghese.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1232,"href":"http:\/\/shijuvarghese.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1221\/revisions\/1232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/shijuvarghese.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shijuvarghese.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shijuvarghese.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}