For the Year 2022: Ansible Integration Enhancements for the Dell Infrastructure Solutions Portfolio
Mon, 29 Apr 2024 19:20:40 -0000
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The Dell infrastructure portfolio spans the entire hybrid cloud, from storage to compute to networking, and all the software functionality to deploy, manage, and monitor different application stacks from traditional databases to containerized applications deployed on Kubernetes. When it comes to integrating the infrastructure portfolio with 3rd party IT Operations platforms, Ansible is at the top of the list in terms of expanding the scope and depth of integration.
Here is a summary of the enhancements we made to the various Ansible modules across the Dell portfolio in 2022:
- Ansible plugin for PowerStore had four different releases (1.5,1.6,1.7, and 1.8) with the following capabilities:
- New modules:
- dellemc.powerstore.ldap_account – To manage LDAP account on Dell PowerStore
- dellemc.powerstore.ldap_domain - To manage LDAP domain on Dell PowerStore
- dellemc.powerstore.dns - To manage DNS on Dell PowerStore
- dellemc.powerstore.email - To manage email on Dell PowerStore
- dellemc.powerstore.ntp - To manage NTP on Dell PowerStore
- dellemc.powerstore.remote_support – To manage remote support to get the details, modify the attributes, verify the connection. and send a test alert
- dellemc.powerstore.remote_support_contact – To manage remote support contact on Dell PowerStore
- dellemc.powerstore.smtp_config – To manage SMTP config
- Added support for the host connectivity option to host and host group
- Added support for cluster creation and validating cluster creation attributes
- Data operations:
- Added support to clone, refresh, and restore a volume
- Added support to configure/remove the metro relationship for a volume
- Added support to modify the role of replication sessions
- Added support to clone, refresh, and restore a volume group
- File system:
- Added support to associate/disassociate a protection policy to/from a NAS server
- Added support to handle filesystem and NAS server replication sessions
- Ansible execution:
- Added an execution environment manifest file to support building an execution environment with Ansible Builder
- Enabled check_mode support for Info modules
- Updated modules to adhere to Ansible community guidelines
- The Info module is enhanced to list DNS servers, email notification destinations, NTP servers, remote support configuration, remote support contacts and SMTP configuration, LDAP domain, and LDAP accounts.
- Visit this GitHub page to go through release history: https://github.com/dell/ansible-powerstore/blob/main/CHANGELOG.rst
- New modules:
- Ansible plugin for PowerFlex had four different releases (1.2, 1.3, 1.4, and 1.5) with the following capabilities:
- New modules:
- dellemc.powerflex.replication_consistency_group – To manage replication consistency groups on Dell PowerFlex
- dellemc.powerflex.mdm_cluster – To manage a MDM cluster on Dell PowerFlex
- dellemc.powerflex.protection_domain – To manage a Protection Domain on Dell PowerFlex
- The info module is enhanced to support listing the replication consistency groups, volumes, and storage pools with the statistics data.
- Storage management:
- The storage pool module is enhanced to get the details with the statistics data.
- The volume module is enhanced to get the details with the statistics data.
- Ansible execution:
- Added an execution environment manifest file to support building an execution environment with Ansible Builder
- Enabled check_mode support for the Info module
- Updated modules to adhere to Ansible community guidelines
- Visit this GitHub page to go through release history: https://github.com/dell/ansible-powerflex/blob/main/CHANGELOG.rst
- New modules:
- The Ansible plugin for PowerMax had four different releases (1.7, 1.8, 2.0 and 2.1) with the following capabilities:
- New module: dellemc.powermax.initiator – To manage initiators
- Host operations:
- Added support of case insensitivity of the host WWN to the host, and to the masking view module.
- Enhanced the host module to add or remove initiators to or from the host using an alias.
- Data operations:
- Enhanced storage group module to support
- Moving volumes to destination storage groups.
- Making volume name an optional parameter while adding a new volume to a storage group.
- Setting host I/O limits for existing storage groups and added the ability to force move devices between storage groups with SRDF protection.
- Enhanced volume module to support
- A cylinders option to specify size while creating a LUN, and added the ability to create volumes with identifier_name and volume_id.
- Renaming volumes that were created without a name.
- Enhanced the RDF group module to get volume pair information for an SRDF group.
- Enhanced storage group module to support
- Added an execution environment manifest file to support building an execution environment with Ansible Builder
- Added rotating file handler for log files
- Enhanced the info module to list the initiators, get volume details and masking view connection information
- Enhanced the verifycert parameter in all modules to support file paths for custom certificate location.
- Some things renamed:
- Names of previously released modules have been changed from dellemc_powermax_<module name> to <module name>
- The Gatherfacts module is renamed to Info
- Renamed metro DR module input parameters
- Visit this GitHub page to go through release history: https://github.com/dell/ansible-powermax/blob/main/CHANGELOG.rst
- Ansible plugin for PowerScale had four different releases (1.5,1.6,1.7 and 1.8) with the following capabilities:
- New modules:
- dellemc.powerscale.nfs_alias – To manage NFS aliases on a PowerScale
- dellemc.powerscale.filepoolpolicy – To manage the file pool policy on PowerScale
- dellemc.powerscale.storagepooltier – To manage storage pool tiers on PowerScale
- dellemc.powerscale.networksettings – To manage Network settings on PowerScale
- dellemc.powerscale.smartpoolsettings – To manage Smartpool settings on PowerScale
- Security support:
- Support for security flavors while creating and modifying NFS export.
- Access Zone, SMB, SmartQuota, User and Group modules are enhanced to support the NIS authentication provider.
- The Filesystem module is enhanced to support ACL and container parameters.
- The ADS module is enhanced to support the machine_account and organizational_unit parameters while creating an ADS provider.
- File management:
- The Info module is enhanced to support the listing of NFS aliases.
- Support to create and modify additional parameters of an SMB share in the SMB module.
- Support for recursive force deletion of filesystem directories.
- Ansible execution
- Added an execution environment manifest file to support building an execution environment with Ansible Builder.
- Check mode is supported for the Info, Filepool Policy, and Storagepool Tier modules.
- Added rotating file handlers for log files.
- Removal of the dellemc_powerscale prefix from all module names.
- Other module enhancements:
- The SyncIQ Policy module is enhanced to support accelerated_failback and restrict_target_network of a policy.
- The Info module is enhanced to support NodePools and Storagepool Tiers Subsets.
- The SmartQuota module is enhanced to support container parameter and float values for Quota Parameters.
- Visit this GitHub page to go through release history: https://github.com/dell/ansible- powerscale/blob/main/CHANGELOG.rst
- New modules:
- The Ansible plugin for Dell OpenManage had 13 releases this year, some of which were major releases. Here is a brief summary:
- v7.1: Support for retrieving smart fabric and smart fabric uplink information, support for IPv6 addresses for OMSDK dependent iDRAC modules, and OpenManage Enterprise inventory plugin.
- v7.0: Rebranded from Dell EMC to Dell, enhanced the idrac_firmware module to support proxy, and added support to retrieve iDRAC local user details.
- v6.3: Support for the LockVirtualDisk operation and to configure Remote File Share settings using the idrac_virtual_media module.
- v6.2: Added clear pending BIOS attributes, reset BIOS to default settings, and configured BIOS attributes using Redfish enhancements for idrac_bios.
- v6.1: Support for device-specific operations on OpenManage Enterprise and configuring boot settings on iDRAC.
- v6.0: Added collection metadata for creating execution environments, deprecation of share parameters, and support for configuring iDRAC attributes using the idrac_attributes module.
- v5.5: Support to generate certificate signing request, import, and export certificates on iDRAC.
- v5.4: Enhanced the idrac_server_config_profile module to support export, import, and preview of the SCP configuration using Redfish and added support for check mode.
- v5.3: Added check mode support for redfish_storage_volume, idempotency for the ome_smart_fabric_uplink module, and support for debug logs added to ome_diagnostics
- V5.2: Support to configure console preferences on OpenManage Enterprise.
- V5.1: Support for OpenManage Enterprise Modular server interface management.
- V5.0.1: Support to provide custom or organizational CA signed certificates for SSL validation from the environment variable.
- 5.0: HTTPS SSL support for all modules and quick deploy settings.
- Visit this GitHub page to go through release history: https://github.com/dell/dellemc-openmanage-ansible-modules/releases.
For all Ansible projects you can track the progress, contribute, or report issues on individual repositories.
You can also join our DevOps and Automation community at: https://www.dell.com/community/Automation/bd-p/Automation.
Happy New Year and happy upgrades!
Authors: Parasar Kodati and Florian Coulombel