Ansible Development Environment Setup

This Ansible playbook automates the setup of development environments across multiple machines.

🏗️ Architecture

Host Groups

• dev: Development machines (devVM, bottom, debianDesktopVM)
• gitea: Gitea server
• portainer: Portainer container management
• homepage: Homepage dashboard
• ansible: Ansible control node

Roles

Core Roles

• maintenance: System updates, package cleanup, and reboots
• base: Core system packages, security tools, and system hardening
• development: Development tools (git, nodejs, build-essential, python3)
• shell: Shell configuration (zsh + oh-my-zsh + powerlevel10k)
• docker: Docker CE installation and user configuration
• ssh: SSH server and firewall configuration
• user: User management

Application Roles

• applications: Desktop applications (Brave, LibreOffice, Redshift, Evince)
• snap: Snap daemon and snap applications (VSCode, Cursor)

🚀 Usage

Prerequisites

# Install required collections
ansible-galaxy collection install -r collections/requirements.yml

Vault Password Setup

Host variables are encrypted with Ansible Vault. You have two options:

Option 1: Vault Password File (Recommended)

Create a vault password file:

# Create the vault password file
echo "your_vault_password" > ~/.ansible-vault-pass
chmod 600 ~/.ansible-vault-pass

Option 2: Interactive Password Prompt

Use --ask-vault-pass with each command to be prompted for the vault password.

Basic Setup

# Run on all development machines (with vault password file)
ansible-playbook dev-playbook.yml

# Run on all development machines (interactive vault password)
ansible-playbook dev-playbook.yml --ask-vault-pass

# Run on specific host
ansible-playbook dev-playbook.yml --limit devVM

# Skip reboots for specific host
ansible-playbook dev-playbook.yml --limit bottom

Selective Execution with Tags

# Security-related roles only
ansible-playbook dev-playbook.yml --tags security

# Development tools only
ansible-playbook dev-playbook.yml --tags development,docker

# Applications only
ansible-playbook dev-playbook.yml --tags apps

# Skip maintenance
ansible-playbook dev-playbook.yml --skip-tags maintenance

Skip Reboots

Add skip_reboot=true to host variables:

[dev]
bottom ansible_host=10.0.10.156 ansible_user=beast skip_reboot=true

Debug Output

Control debug information display with the ansible_debug_output variable:

# Default: No debug output (clean, production-ready output)
ansible-playbook dev-playbook.yml --limit devVM

# Enable debug output (shows detailed status information)
ansible-playbook dev-playbook.yml --limit devVM -e "ansible_debug_output=true"

# Set permanently in group_vars/all.yml
ansible_debug_output: true

Dry Run

# Check what would be changed
ansible-playbook dev-playbook.yml --check

# Verbose output
ansible-playbook dev-playbook.yml -v

🔧 Configuration

Global Variables (group_vars/all.yml)

• timezone: System timezone (default: UTC)
• locale: System locale (default: en_US.UTF-8)
• ansible_debug_output: Show debug information (default: false)
• fail2ban_bantime: Ban duration in seconds
• fail2ban_findtime: Time window for failures
• fail2ban_maxretry: Max failures before ban

Host Variables (host_vars/)

• skip_reboot: Skip automatic reboots
• Encrypted variables for sensitive data

🛡️ Security Features

Fail2ban Configuration

• SSH brute force protection
• Configurable ban times and retry limits
• Email notifications (configured in template)

UFW Firewall

• Deny-by-default policy
• SSH access allowed
• Automatic enablement

System Hardening

• Timezone and locale configuration
• Security package installation
• Monitoring tools (htop, iotop, nethogs, logwatch)

📦 Installed Packages

Base System

• htop, curl, wget, unzip, xclip
• net-tools, ufw, fail2ban
• iotop, nethogs, logwatch

Development Tools

• git, nodejs, npm
• build-essential, python3, python3-pip

Applications

• brave-browser, libreoffice, evince, redshift
• code (VSCode), cursor (via snap)

Docker

• Docker CE with all components
• Docker Compose
• User added to docker group

🔄 Maintenance

Automatic Updates

The maintenance role handles:

• Package updates (apt upgrade)
• Unused package removal (apt autoremove)
• Cache cleanup (apt autoclean)
• Conditional reboots

Manual Maintenance

# Update only maintenance role
ansible-playbook dev-playbook.yml --tags maintenance

# Skip maintenance
ansible-playbook dev-playbook.yml --skip-tags maintenance

🐛 Troubleshooting

Common Issues

1. SSH Connection Issues

   • Check ansible.cfg SSH settings
   • Verify host keys and user permissions

2. Package Installation Failures

   • Run with -v for verbose output
   • Check internet connectivity on target hosts

3. Reboot Issues

   • Use skip_reboot=true for problematic hosts
   • Check maintenance role handlers

Debug Commands

# Test connectivity
ansible dev -m ping

# Check facts
ansible dev -m setup

# Run specific role
ansible-playbook dev-playbook.yml --tags base

📝 File Structure

ansible/
├── ansible.cfg              # Ansible configuration
├── hosts                    # Inventory file
├── dev-playbook.yml         # Main development playbook
├── group_vars/
│   └── all.yml             # Global variables
├── host_vars/              # Host-specific variables
└── roles/
    ├── maintenance/         # System maintenance
    ├── base/               # Core system setup
    ├── development/        # Development tools
    ├── shell/              # Shell configuration
    ├── docker/             # Docker installation
    ├── ssh/                # SSH configuration
    ├── user/               # User management
    ├── applications/       # Desktop applications
    └── snap/               # Snap applications

🤝 Contributing

1. Test changes with --check first
2. Update documentation for new roles/tasks
3. Use proper handlers for service restarts
4. Follow existing naming conventions