nbde_server

Ansible role for configuring Network-Bound Disk Encryption servers (e.g. tang).

This role currently supports tang as a provider and it can set up tang servers.

Supported Distributions

• RHEL-7+, CentOS-7+
• Fedora

Limitations

It is not currently possible to specify a custom port for the NBDE servers configured by this role.

Role Variables

These are the variables that can be passed to the role:

Variable	Default	Description
nbde_server_provider	tang	identifies the provider for nbde_server role. We currently support tang as an nbde_server provider, meaning that the nbde_server role is currently able to provision/deploy tang servers.
nbde_server_service_state	started	indicates the state the nbde_server should be. It can be either started (default) or stopped. started means the server is accepting connections, whereas stopped means it is not accepting connections.
nbde_server_rotate_keys	no	indicates whether we should rotate existing keys -- if any -- , then create new keys. Default behavior (no) is to create new keys, if there are none, and don't touch the keys, if they exist. If set to yes, existing keys will be rotated and new keys will be created.
nbde_server_fetch_keys	no	indicates whether we should fetch keys to the control node, in which case they will be placed in nbde_server_keys_dir. You must set nbde_server_keys_dir to use nbde_server_fetch_keys.
nbde_server_deploy_keys	no	indicates whether we should deploy the keys located in nbde_server_keys_dir directory to the remote hosts. You must set nbde_server_keys_dir to use nbde_server_deploy_keys.
nbde_server_keys_dir		specifies a directory in the control node that contains keys to be deployed to the remote hosts. Keys located in the top level directory will be deployed to every remote host, while keys located within subdirectories named after the remote hosts -- as per the inventory -- will be deployed only to these specific hosts. nbde_server_keys_dir must be an absolute path. You need to set this to use either nbde_server_fetch_keys and/or nbde_server_deploy_keys.

nbde_server_fetch_keys and nbde_server_deploy_keys

To use either of these options, you need to specify nbde_server_keys_dir, a directory, with an absolute path.

The behavior of using these variables is described next:

When nbde_server_fetch_keys is set to yes, the role will fetch keys from the hosts in the following manner:

• if nbde_server_deploy_keys is not set, the keys from every host will be fetched and placed in directories named after the host, inside nbde_server_keys_dir
• if nbde_server_deploy_keys is set, only the keys from the first host in the inventory will be fetched, and it will be placed in the top level directory of nbde_server_keys_dir

nbde_server_deploy_keys is simple: if it is set to yes, it will deploy the keys available in nbde_server_keys_dir, in the following manner:

• the keys located in the top level directory of nbde_server_keys_dir will be deployed to every host
• the keys located within subdirectories named after hosts in the inventory, inside nbde_server_keys_dir, will be deployed to that specific host

Example Playbooks

Example 1: deploy NBDE server to every host in the inventory

---
- hosts: all

  roles:
    - linux-system-roles.nbde_server

Example 2: lift the keys from every NBDE server install in /root/nbde_server/keys

---
- hosts: all

  vars:
    nbde_server_fetch_keys: yes
    nbde_server_keys_dir: /root/nbde_server/keys

  roles:
    - linux-system-roles.nbde_server

After this, you can backup your keys, which will be placed in /root/nbde_server/keys, within subdirectories named after the host they belong to.

Example 3: redeploy keys from a backup taken with Example 2:

To redeploy keys, they must be placed into subdirectories named after the host they are to be deployed to. With /root/nbde_server/keys after Example 2, use the following playbook to redeploy the same keys to the same hosts:

---
- hosts: all

  vars:
    nbde_server_deploy_keys: yes
    nbde_server_keys_dir: /root/nbde_server/keys

  roles:
    - linux-system-roles.nbde_server

Example 4: deploy an NBDE server and use the same keys in every host

NOTE This is not recommended, but it is supported

---
- hosts: all

  vars:
    nbde_server_fetch_keys: yes
    nbde_server_deploy_keys: yes
    nbde_server_keys_dir: /root/nbde_server/keys

  roles:
    - linux-system-roles.nbde_server

License

MIT