Day 66 of 90 Days of DevOps Challenge: OS-specific Tasks, Error Handling & AWS S3 Automation

On Day 65, I explored Ansible Playbooks in detail, focusing on multi-task playbooks, using variables, and introducing basic conditional logic. This laid the groundwork for writing more advanced, dynamic automation scripts tailored to varied environments.

Today, I expanded my Ansible knowledge with practical implementations, covering:

1. OS-Specific Package Installation

2. Error Handling in Playbooks

3. Checking & Installing Maven Conditionally

4. Automating AWS S3 Bucket Creation via Ansible

Installing Java Based on OS Family

When managing a heterogeneous infrastructure, installing the same package on different OS families requires conditional execution. Here’s a playbook that installs Java on both Red Hat (e.g., Amazon Linux) and Debian-based (e.g., Ubuntu) systems:

---
- hosts: all
  gather_facts: yes
  tasks:
  - name: install java in Red Hat family
    yum:
     name: java
     state: latest
    when: ansible_os_family == 'RedHat'

  - name: install java in Debian family
    apt:
     name: java
     state: latest
    when: ansible_os_family == 'Debian'

This ensures platform-specific package managers are used without manual intervention.

Error Handling in Playbooks

By default, Ansible playbooks halt when a task fails. However, in many scenarios, we want the playbook to continue executing subsequent tasks even if an error occurs. This is where ignore_errors: yes comes into play.

Example Playbook for Error Handling:

---
- hosts: all
  tasks:
  - name: This is the first task
    command: dates
    register: dates_output
    ignore_errors: yes

  - name: This is the second task
    debug: 
     msg: "Second task executed..."    
    when: dates_output.rc == 0

  - name: This is the third task
    debug:
     var: dates_output

Here, even if the dates command fails, the playbook continues executing the subsequent tasks gracefully.

Check and Install Maven on Control Node

A practical requirement is to verify if Maven is installed on the control node and install it if absent. Below is the approach:

---
- hosts: localhost
  become: true
  tasks:
  - name: Check Maven version
    command: mvn --version
    register: output
    ignore_errors: yes

  - name: Print Maven check output
    debug:
     var: output

  - name: Install Maven if not present
    yum:
     name: maven
     state: latest
    when: output.failed

This conditional installation ensures that Maven is only installed when it is missing.

Automating S3 Bucket Creation Using Ansible

Automating AWS infrastructure components with Ansible is a powerful capability. Here's how to create an S3 bucket step-by-step:

Step 1: Install the required Ansible collection

ansible-galaxy collection install amazon.aws --force

Step 2: Install the boto3 Python package on the control node

ansible localhost -m pip -a "name=boto3 state=present" --become

Step 3: Export AWS credentials

export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID='your-access-key-id'
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY='your-secret-access-key'
export AWS_DEFAULT_REGION='ap-south-1'

Step 4: Create and run the playbook and Verify the bucket in the AWS console.

---
- hosts: localhost
  tasks:
  - name: Create S3 bucket
    amazon.aws.s3_bucket: 
     name: your-unique-bucket-name
     state: present
     region: ap-south-1
    register: s3_bucket_info

  - name: Print S3 bucket info
    debug:
     var: s3_bucket_info

Final Thoughts

Today’s session highlighted how Ansible can be used not just for configuration management but also for dynamic, conditional automation based on OS families and system state. Additionally, integrating AWS resource provisioning, such as S3 bucket creation, directly into Ansible playbooks expands its utility in cloud automation.

Moving forward, mastering these playbook patterns will be essential in scaling infrastructure automation and enhancing DevOps workflows.