RHEL Image Builder Role

Ansible role for building RHEL images with Image Builder.

Quick Usage Example

This role builds custom RHEL images with RHEL Image Builder. The role uses a given image blueprint from a Git repository and either stores results on the build host or fetches them to the local node.

The role allows for first setting up a build host by installing the needed packages and optionally creating a dedicated user (which will be part of the weldr group) for running Image Builder. Then, images can be built either by the superuser or the dedicated user with any given blueprint.

To install this collection from GitHub:

ansible-galaxy collection install git+https://github.com/myllynen/rhel-image,master

Next, in a blueprint repository customize an image blueprint:

vi base-image.toml
git commit -m "Update base-image" base-image.toml
git push

Then, create a playbook to use this role:

---
- name: Build RHEL image with Image Builder
  hosts: all
  become: true
  vars:
    rhel_image_update_host: false
    rhel_image_create_user: false

    rhel_image_git_remote_repo: file:///tmp/rhel-image-blueprints.git
    rhel_image_git_repo_checkout: master
    rhel_image_blueprint: base-image
    rhel_image_output_type: qcow2
    rhel_image_size_kb: 30720
    # Optional image filename to use instead of UUID
    #rhel_image_filename: ci-daily-image.qcow2

    # This is on the build host
    rhel_image_download_dir: /tmp/images
    # Fetch from the build host
    rhel_image_fetch_image: true
    # This is where this playbook runs
    rhel_image_fetch_directory: /tmp
    rhel_image_remote_delete: true
  roles:
    - myllynen.rhel_image.rhel_image

See the role README for all the supported parameters.

Finally, build the image on a build host:

ansible-playbook -i 192.168.122.123, image_builder.yml

On security hardened build hosts /var must not be mounted with the noexec mount option.

Disconnected Environments

By default, RHEL Image Builder attempts to fetch repository data from the Red Hat CDN. To use a local Satellite/Capsule a repository configuration file needs to be created for each distribution version used in blueprints. Each such version must be included in the Satellite Content View (CV) that a build host is attached to. Therefore, using different build hosts for different distribution major versions could be considered.

The following options configure Image Builder to use the same repository source the build host is using:

rhel_image_use_satellite: true
rhel_image_repo_versions:
  - "{{ ansible_facts.distribution_major_version }}"

Custom repository configuration files can also be used with the rhel_image_repo_templates option.

See the role README and this RHKB article for more details how to configure RHEL Image Builder to use a local Satellite.

See Also

See also https://github.com/myllynen/ansible-packer.

See also https://github.com/myllynen/rhel-ansible-roles.

See also https://access.redhat.com/solutions/5773421.

License

GPLv3+