Workstation Configuration

Configuration of workstations via Ansible.

Playbooks

The following playbooks have been created:

• md-desktop-backup.yml - install backup dependencies for m-d;
• md-desktop-core.yml - install core dependencies for m-d;
• thor-backup.yml - install backup dependencies for thor;
• thor-core.yml - install core dependencies for thor;
• thor-restore.yml - install minimal dependencies in order to bootstrap a restore of thor;
• titan-backup.yml - install backup dependencies for titan;
• titan-core.yml - install core dependencies for titan;
• titan-restore.yml - install minimal dependencies in order to bootstrap a restore of titan;
• vagrant.yml - run through all the roles on a Linux Mint instance using Vagrant.

Testing

To test the Ansible provisioning using Vagrant run vagrant up. If Ansible hangs and it is necessary to kill the process then the lock file for dpkg may remain. This can be removed using sudo rm /var/lib/dpkg/lock. If the Vagrant machine, called workstation_vagrant, is running then re-provisioning can be performed with vagrant provision.

Run Role

To run a single role:

export DOPPLER_PROJECT=workstation
export DOPPLER_CONFIG=$(hostname)
doppler run -- ansible --ask-become -m include_role -a name=<role_name> --extra-vars "<variable_name1>=<variable_value1> <variable_name2>=<variable_value2>" <host_name>

If the role does not use secrets then doppler run can be omitted.

If the role requires a number of parameters to be passed to it, then it may be easier to run the playbook but filter the roles using tags.

Run Playbook

A playbook can be run locally using

export DOPPLER_PROJECT=workstation
export DOPPLER_CONFIG=$(hostname)
doppler run -- ansible-playbook --ask-become-pass playbooks/<name>.yml

If the playbook does not use secrets then doppler run. The scripts run-ansible-core-update.sh and run-ansible-backup-update.sh can also be used. These pull the latest version of the playbooks from Github.

To run selected roles from a playbook, add tags to roles using the syntax: tags: tagname and append the ansible-playbook command with --tags "tagname".

Clean Install

A bootstrapping script bootstrap.sh can be downloaded by running wget -q -O bootstrap.sh https://github.com/aps831/workstation/raw/master/bootstrap.sh && chmod +x bootstrap.sh. This script will install the dependencies needed to run Ansible.

After migrating files and folders as per the instructions in migration, the restore, core and backup playbooks should be run. The following steps are then required:

• logout and back in again to pick up group membership defined the Docker and Virtualbox roles;
• configure Timeshift;
• configure printers (see below).

Printer

The printer may be installed automatically for a local install but may need to be done manually for a network install. hp-setup -i can be run for a full install, or hp-plugin -i to install just the driver for the printer. To share the printer, go to the start menu and then Printers -> Servers -> Settings -> Publish Shared Printer.

If running hp-setup -i or hp-plugin -i results in an problem downloading the plugin, then it can be done manually:

wget https://developers.hp.com/sites/default/files/hplip-3.20.11-plugin.run
hp-plugin -i -p .

MEGA

mega.io file syncing is not installed automatically. The downloads are available from https://mega.io/desktop and the Chrome store. The following are required:

• desktop app;
• nemo integration;
• Chrome extension.

Specified Versions

The following roles have version numbers defined within the role:

• ansible
• aws
• backup
• chezmoi
• ddlog
• docker
• duplicacy
• elm
• git
• github
• haskell
• intellij
• javascript
• kubernetes
• nvchecker
• owaspzap
• python
• semgrep
• terraform
• vagrant
• virtualbox
• web

New versions are tracked using newreleases.io except for the following:

• golang
• intellij
• node
• virtualbox

Version numbers are also defined centrally in inventory/group_vars/all/vars.yaml. These take precedence over the default values in the roles.

A check for new versions can be performed by running new-version-check.