Ansible Role: iSCSI Devices

An Ansible Galaxy role for configuring iSCSI devices. Includes scanning for iSCSI targets, configuring multipath and udev rules, creating raw character device nodes, and optionally creating filesystems.

Warning

There may be a risk of data loss when using this role against previously provisioned hosts. For additional safety, this role creates a lock file in /etc and will refuse to execute again so long as the lock file exists. See Reprovisioning Hosts for more information should this role need to be applied to hosts that contain existing data.

Table of contents

• iSCSI Devices
  • Raw Character Device Configuration
  • Filesystem Configuration
• Reprovisioning Hosts
• Example Requirements File
• Example Playbook
• License

iSCSI Devices

iSCSI devices are configured using a combination of the iscsi_devices_config group/host variable and external configuration stored in Hashicorp Vault (internally known by the host fact named iscsi_devices_vault_config).

---

The iscsi_devices_config variable should be defined as a list of dictionaries, each of which supports the following parameters:

Name	Default	Description
alias		A unique alias for the storage device.
multipath		A boolean value indicating whether this device uses multipath I/O. Configuration for each multipath device will be added to the file /etc/multipath.conf. No configuration will be added for non-multipath devices.
raw_character_device		Optional. A dictionary specifying raw character device configuration. See Raw Character Device Configuration for more information.
filesystem		Optional. A dictionary specifying filesystem configuration. See Filesystem Configuration for more information.

Note

One of filesystem or raw_character_device must be provided for each item in the iscsi_devices_config list, but not both.

---

The internal host fact iscsi_devices_vault_config is set during execution of this role, and its value is retrieved from Hashicorp Vault using the path specified by the mandatory role variable iscsi_devices_vault_path. This configuration takes the form of a JSON object with the following attributes:

{
  "<ansible-inventory-host>": {
    "iscsi_device_wwids": {
      "<alias>": "<wwid>"
    }
    "iscsi_initiator_name": "<iscsi-initiator-name>",
    "iscsi_portal_ips": [
      "<ip-address>"
    ]
  }
}

Raw Character Device Configuration

If defined, the optional raw_character_device parameter requires the following:

Name	Default	Description
group		The group to be used for ownership of the raw character device node.
owner		The user to be used for ownership of the raw character device node.
path		The path to the raw character device node. This should take the form /dev/raw/raw<N> where <N> is a non-negative integer value (e.g. /dev/raw/raw1, /dev/raw/raw2 and so on). See raw(8) for more information.

Note

Each raw character device node is created via a udev rule and bound to the WWID of the iSCSI device. The multipath setting for each device influences how this udev rule behaves:

• Multipath devices are assumed to be managed by Device Mapper and have a corresponding /dev/mapper device node assigned to them. This device node is used in combination with the DM_UUID device property value to determine the device's WWID value.
• Non-multipath devices are assumed to have kernel names matching /dev/sd*[!0-9] (i.e. they are unpartitioned) and scsi_id is used to determine the device's WWID value.

Furthermore, a symbolic link will be created in /dev for each device that includes a raw_character_device parameter. The name of the symbolic link will match that of the alias in the device configuration and will point to the raw character device node. These symbolic links can be used in configuration files to distinguish different raw character devices (e.g. the symbolic link /dev/scud in place of /dev/raw/raw1).

Filesystem Configuration

If defined, the optional filesystem parameter requires the following:

Name	Default	Description
group		The group to be used for ownership of the filesystem mount path.
mode		The mode to be used for permissions fo the filesystem mount path.
owner		The user to be used for ownership of the filesystem mount path.
path		The path where the filesystem will be mounted. This path will be created if it does not already exist.
type		The filesystem type to be created. Refer to the Ansible filesystem module documentation for valid options.

Reprovisioning Hosts

Warning

There is a risk of data loss if the role is executed against hosts that have previously been provisioned. A lock file is created in /etc by this role to provide a basic level of protection against this. The role will refuse to execute again until manual intervention is taken.

To provision a remote host with this role a second time, accepting the potential risk of data loss:

• Stop any active processes on the remote host(s) that may be using the storage device(s)
• Remove the corresponding lock file from remote host(s) (refer to role variable iscsi_devices_role_lock_file_path for the absolute path)
• Rerun this role against the same host(s)

Example Requirements File

- src: https://github.com/companieshouse/ansible-role-iscsi-devices
  name: iscsi-devices
  version: "n.n.n"

Example Playbook

    - hosts: servers
      roles:
        - role: iscsi-devices
          vars:
            iscsi_devices_vault_path: /example/path/iscsi

License

This project is subject to the terms of the MIT License.