Patch Management

Ansible play to manage patching Linux servers (and eventually windows too)

Instructions

Command Line Useage

From the command line you need to specify the value of hosts as an extra_vars entry:

ansible-playbook PatchSystems.yaml -e "hosts=<valid hosts input>"

The playbook defaults to rebooting servers after patching. Override the reboot var to change this.

ansible-playbook PatchSystems.yaml -e "hosts=<valid hosts input> reboot=false"

You may opt to specify what tags to act on. The two tags allow you to only run parts of the plays.

• Options:
  • pin - Performs only the package pinning or versionlock part of the role
  • patch - Performs patching only i.e. skips pinning

This example would perform package pinning:

ansible-playbook PatchSystems.yaml -e "hosts=tag_site_example_com" --tags "pin"

Updating Compatible Kernel Versions

We currently pin Kernel packages so that we don't break support for a host agent that loads a kernel module:

1. Update the appropriate vars file with the new most current kernel version for the distribution

i.e vars/ubuntu_12.yaml

---
supported_kernel_version: "3.2.0.70*"

Contribution Instructions

• Every YAML file must follow this format:

---
   
# Location <PATH TO FILE>
# <PURPOSE/DESCRIPTIVE STATEMENT>

<content>

Additionally, all contributions must adhere to the same standards found here