Pi-er

It's pronounced pi-er!

A Raspberry Pi provisioning helper utility.

Requirements

There are no specific requirements for using pi-er.

Role Variables

pi_er_sd_device - The SD card device to use

pi_er_sd_ptuuid - (OPTIONAL) The disk identifier (PTUUID) of the target SD card.

pi_er_image_file - The image to write to the SD card

pi_er_pub_key - The SSH public key that can be used to connect to the Pi after provisioning.

pi_er_netconf - (OPTIONAL) The static IP configuration.

Dependencies

This role has no dependencies on any other roles.

Example Playbook

A simple example can be found below, which shows the general idea of how pi-er can be used.

- hosts: all
  gather_facts: no
  serial: 1
  connection: local
  become: yes
  tasks:
    - name: provision sd cards
      include_role:
        name: 'pi-er'
      vars:
        pi_er_sd_device: /dev/mmcblk0
        pi_er_image_file: /home/dp0/images/2019-09-26-raspbian-buster-lite.img
        pi_er_pub_key: /home/dp0/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

You most likely don't want to hardcode your pi_er_sd_device value, and probably want to specify this at runtime.

- hosts: all
  gather_facts: no
  serial: 1
  connection: local
  become: yes
  tasks:
    - name: provision sd cards
      include_role:
        name: 'pi-er'
      var:
        pi_er_image_file: /home/dp0/images/2019-09-26-raspbian-buster-lite.img
        pi_er_pub_key: /home/dp0/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

And it can be run (for host rpihost1 with an innvocation like:

$ ansible-playbook -K -l rpihost1 -e 'pi_er_sd_device=/dev/mmcblk0' sd.yaml

You may also wish to consider enforcing a per-host PTUUID as well, and this can be achieved by passing a pi_er_sd_ptuuid value.

PTUUID Example

If you wish to use PTUUID checking, you will need to ensure your SD card has a unique PTUUID. If you have ever copied a disk image to your SD card, you may find that it has also copied the PTUUID from the image, so you may need to generate a new PTUUID.

Generate a new PTUUID by creating a new MBR/MSDOS partition table:

$ sudo fdisk /dev/your_sd_card_device

Command (m for help): o
Created a new DOS disklabel with disk identifier 0x9cbe0348.

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered.
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Synching disks.

The PTUUID generated (in the above case, it is 9cbe0348, can now be passed using pi_er_sd_ptuuid, and writing to the pi_er_sd_device will be rejected unless the PTUUID matches.

If you want to retrieve the PTUUID of a device, you can use fdisk again:

$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdc | grep identifier
Disk identifier: 0x9cbe0348

Static IP Example

Where you want a static IP, you can simply use pi_er_netconf, which is a dictionary where keys are network interfaces, and values map to dchpcd configuration options.

An example of a pi_er_netconf setting is:

pi_er_netconf:
  eth0:
    ip: 192.168.0.123/24
    routers:
      - 192.168.0.1
    dns:
      - 1.1.1.1
      - 1.0.0.1

Hint: the ip6 option is also available for setting a static IPv6 address.

License

BSD 3-Clause