{"id":1486,"date":"2024-06-23T21:52:22","date_gmt":"2024-06-23T21:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shijuvarghese.com\/?p=1486"},"modified":"2025-05-23T18:45:28","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T18:45:28","slug":"ansible-roles-and-modules-from-content-collections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/shijuvarghese.com\/?p=1486","title":{"rendered":"Ansible: Roles and Modules from Content Collections"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Content Collection is a set<\/strong> of related roles, supplementary modules, and other content. This can be obtained from an Ansible\u00a0Content Collection and can be used in playbook.<\/p>\n

The default path where collections are usually\u00a0<\/em>downloaded by defaults is: ~\/.ansible\/collections:\/usr\/share\/ansible\/collections<\/p>\n

A collection available in Ansible Galaxy can be downloaded to a specific folder, in this case the\u00a0collections<\/em> folder in root folder by the below command:<\/p>\n

[root@centos9vm ~]#<\/strong>\u00a0mkdir pre-exam\/collections
\n[root@centos9vm ~]#<\/strong>\u00a0ansible-galaxy collection install community.crypto -p pre-exam\/collections\/<\/p>\n

We can install collections from tar files too<\/p>\n

[root@centos9vm ~]#<\/strong>\u00a0 ansible-galaxy collection install \/mnt\/community-dns-1.2.0.tar.gz -p collections<\/p>\n

As for installing\u00a0roles<\/em>, we can install collections too using requirements.yml file<\/p>\n

[root@centos9vm ~]#<\/strong>\u00a0 cat requirements.yml<\/p>\n

===== ==<\/em>
\n– – –<\/em>
\ncollections:<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0– name: community.crypto<\/em>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>– name: ansible.posix<\/em>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>version: 1.2.0<\/em>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>– name: \/tmp\/community-dns-1.1.0.tar.gz<\/em>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>– name: http:\/\/www.example.com\/redhat-insights-1.0.1.tar.gz<\/em>
\n===== ==<\/em><\/p>\n

[root@centos9vm ~]#<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0ansible-galaxy collection install -r requirements.yml -p collections<\/p>\n

At times, it may be good to use your own private repository too to download\u00a0collections<\/em> before searching the specific collection in Ansible Galaxy. This can be achieved by editing the\u00a0ansible.cfg<\/strong><\/em> configuration file and adding the private repositories too under\u00a0galaxy<\/strong><\/em>. An example of the configuration file is:<\/p>\n

===== ===<\/em>
\n[galaxy]<\/em>
\nserver_list = my_automation_hub, galaxy<\/em><\/p>\n

[galaxy_server.my_automation_hub]<\/em>
\nurl=https:\/\/console.redhat.com\/api\/automation-hub\/<\/em>
\nauth_url=https:\/\/sso.redhat.com\/auth\/realms\/redhat-external\/protocol\/openidconnect\/<\/em>
\ntoken<\/em>
\ntoken=eyJh…Jf0o<\/em><\/p>\n

[galaxy_server.galaxy]<\/em>
\nurl=https:\/\/galaxy.ansible.com\/<\/em>
\n===== ===<\/em><\/p>\n

We can list all collections<\/em> deployed and browse through the roles using the following command.<\/p>\n

[root@centos9vm ~]#<\/strong> ansible-navigator collections<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Installing role from external source<\/strong><\/span>
\n =======******======<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Let us install a role installable downloaded from external source and stored as\u00a0ansible-role-java-2.5.0.tar.gz<\/em><\/p>\n

[root@centos9vm pre-ex]#<\/strong> ansible-galaxy role install ansible-role-java-2.5.0.tar.gz -p roles
\nStarting galaxy role install process
\n– extracting ansible-role-java-2.5.0.tar.gz to \/root\/pre-exam\/roles\/ansible-role-java-2.5.0.tar.gz
\n– ansible-role-java-2.5.0.tar.gz was installed successfully<\/p>\n

[root@centos9vm pre-exam]#<\/strong> ls roles\/ansible-role-java-2.5.0.tar.gz\/
\ndefaults LICENSE meta molecule README.md tasks templates vars<\/p>\n

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

Let us remove the installed role:<\/p>\n

[root@centos9vm pre-exam]#<\/strong> ansible-galaxy role remove<\/em> ansible-role-java-2.5.0.tar.gz
\n– successfully removed ansible-role-java-2.5.0.tar.gz<\/em>
\n=======<\/em><\/p>\n

We can install the same role in tar format using\u00a0requirement.yml<\/em> file too<\/p>\n

[root@centos9vm pre-exam]#<\/strong> cat requirements.yml<\/p>\n

===== ===<\/em>
\n– – –<\/em>
\nroles:<\/em>
\n – ansible-role-java-2.5.0.tar.gz<\/em>
\n===== ===<\/em>
\n[root@centos9vm pre-exam]#<\/strong> ansible-galaxy role install -r requirements.yml -p roles
\nStarting galaxy role install process
\n– extracting ansible-role-java-2.5.0.tar.gz to \/root\/pre-exam\/roles\/ansible-role-java-2.5.0.tar.gz
\n– ansible-role-java-2.5.0.tar.gz was installed successfully<\/p>\n

[root@centos9vm pre-exam]#<\/strong> ls roles\/ansible-role-java-2.5.0.tar.gz\/
\ndefaults LICENSE meta molecule README.md tasks templates vars<\/p>\n

Let us remove the installed role<\/p>\n

[root@centos9vm pre-exam]#<\/strong> ansible-galaxy role list
\n# \/root\/pre-exam\/roles
\n– linux-system-roles.selinux, 1.7.6
\n– ansible-role-java-2.5.0.tar.gz, (unknown version)
\n[root@centos9vm pre-exam]#<\/strong> ansible-galaxy role remove ansible-role-java-2.5.0.tar.gz
\n– successfully removed ansible-role-java-2.5.0.tar.gz
\n[root@centos9vm pre-exam]#<\/strong> ls roles\/
\nlinux-system-roles.selinux ..<\/span> requirements.yml<\/em>
\n===== ====<\/em><\/p>\n

Let us play around a bit with multiple role files and see how they work<\/p>\n

[root@centos9vm pre-exam]#<\/strong> cp ansible-role-java-2.5.0.tar.gz<\/em> ansible-SHIJU-java-2.5.0.tar.gz
\n[root@centos9vm pre-exam]#<\/strong>\u00a0cat requirements.yml<\/p>\n

====== ==<\/em>
\n– – –<\/em>
\nroles:<\/em>
\n – ansible-role-java-2.5.0.tar.gz<\/em>
\n – ansible-SHIJU-java-2.5.0.tar.gz<\/em>
\n====== ==<\/em><\/p>\n

[root@centos9vm pre-exam]#<\/strong> ansible-galaxy role install -r requirements.yml -p roles
\nStarting galaxy role install process<\/em>
\n– extracting ansible-role-java-2.5.0.tar.gz to \/root\/pre-exam\/roles\/ansible-role-java-2.5.0.tar.gz<\/em>
\n– ansible-role-java-2.5.0.tar.gz was installed successfully<\/em>
\n– extracting ansible-SHIJU-java-2.5.0.tar.gz to \/root\/pre-exam\/roles\/ansible-SHIJU-java-2.5.0.tar.gz<\/em>
\n– ansible-SHIJU-java-2.5.0.tar.gz was installed successfully<\/em><\/p>\n

[root@centos9vm pre-exam]#<\/strong> ls -l roles\/
\ntotal 16<\/em>
\ndrwxr-xr-x. 9 root root 4096 Jul 3 05:26 ansible-role-java-2.5.0.tar.gz<\/em>
\ndrwxr-xr-x. 9 root root 4096 Jul 3 05:26 ansible-SHIJU-java-2.5.0.tar.gz<\/em>
\ndrwxr-xr-x. 13 root root 4096 Jun 24 12:36 linux-system-roles.selinux<\/em>
\n-rw-r–r–. 1 root root 38 Jun 23 17:23 requirements.yml<\/em>
\n=======<\/em><\/p>\n

[root@centos9vm pre-exam]#<\/strong> ansible-galaxy role remove ansible-role-java-2.5.0.tar.gz
\n– successfully removed ansible-role-java-2.5.0.tar.gz
\n[root@centos9vm pre-exam]#<\/strong> ansible-galaxy role remove ansible-SHIJU-java-2.5.0.tar.gz
\n– successfully removed ansible-SHIJU-java-2.5.0.tar.gz<\/p>\n

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

Let is see if we can change the name of one of the role<\/p>\n

[root@centos9vm pre-exam]#<\/strong> cat requirements.yml<\/p>\n

===== ==<\/em>
\n– – –<\/em>
\nroles:<\/em>
\n – ansible-role-java-2.5.0.tar.gz<\/em>
\n – src: ansible-SHIJU-java-2.5.0.tar.gz<\/em>
\n name: SHIJU_ROLE<\/em>
\n====== ==<\/em><\/p>\n

[root@centos9vm pre-exam]#<\/strong> ansible-galaxy role install -r requirements.yml -p roles
\nStarting galaxy role install process
\n– extracting ansible-role-java-2.5.0.tar.gz to \/root\/pre-exam\/roles\/ansible-role-java-2.5.0.tar.gz
\n– ansible-role-java-2.5.0.tar.gz was installed successfully
\n– extracting SHIJU_ROLE to \/root\/pre-exam\/roles\/SHIJU_ROLE
\n– SHIJU_ROLE was installed successfully<\/p>\n

[root@centos9vm pre-exam]#<\/strong> ls -l roles\/
\ntotal 16<\/em>
\n drwxr-xr-x. 9 root root 4096 Jul 3 05:39 ansible-role-java-2.5.0.tar.gz<\/strong><\/em>
\n drwxr-xr-x. 13 root root 4096 Jun 24 12:36 linux-system-roles.selinux<\/em>
\n -rw-r–r–. 1 root root 38 Jun 23 17:23 requirements.yml<\/em>
\n drwxr-xr-x. 9 root root 4096 Jul 3 05:39 SHIJU_ROLE<\/strong><\/em>
\n[root@centos9vm pre-exam]#<\/strong> ls -l roles\/SHIJU_ROLE\/tasks\/
\ntotal 20
\n-rw-r–r–. 1 root root 1710 Apr 25 14:01 main.yml
\n-rw-r–r–. 1 root root 100 Apr 25 14:01 setup-Amazon.yml
\n-rw-r–r–. 1 root root 451 Apr 25 14:01 setup-Debian.yml
\n-rw-r–r–. 1 root root 347 Apr 25 14:01 setup-FreeBSD.yml
\n-rw-r–r–. 1 root root 100 Apr 25 14:01 setup-RedHat.yml
\n=========<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Content Collection is a set of related roles, supplementary modules, and other content. This can be obtained from an Ansible\u00a0Content Collection and can be […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1792,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,21,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ansible","category-devops","category-linux"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/shijuvarghese.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1486","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=1486"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"http:\/\/shijuvarghese.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1559,"href":"http:\/\/shijuvarghese.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1486\/revisions\/1559"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shijuvarghese.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/shijuvarghese.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shijuvarghese.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shijuvarghese.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}