CHANGELOG.md

Changelog

0.4.2 (October 28, 2021)

BUG FIXES:

• Dictionaries are a sequence per Jinja2 contrary to Python's defaults (dictionaries are not a sequence in Python). The template conditionals assumed the latter.
• NAP DoS monitor directive would fail if some variables were commented out.
• NGINX listen so_keepalive parameter was not working as intended when setting specific values.
• Make sure all template objects are properly transformed into strings before doing Jinja2 operations.
• Remove unnecessary parentheses.

0.4.1 (October 25, 2021)

BUG FIXES:

• Fix issue where your deployment_location directory would not be properly created due to an outdated variable.
• Remove duplicated brace in http/auth.j2.

0.4.0 (October 19, 2021)

This is a very big release which fundamentally refactors the whole NGINX configuration templating engine. Almost all of the templates have undergone some breaking changes. Please take extra caution when upgrading your environment to this release and make sure you test any required changes before using the role in any potential production environments.

Efforts have been made to thoroughly test all these changes and make sure they work as intended, but due to the magnitude of the refactoring work, there will be some bugs that have escaped our tests. If you find any, please open an issue or PR through the usual channels.

DEPRECATION WARNINGS:

The nginx_config_main_upload_*, nginx_config_upload_html_*, and nginx_config_stream_upload_* parameters have been deprecated in favor of a newly introduced parameter, nginx_config_upload_* (previously nginx_config_snippet_upload_*). The new parameter provides greater flexibility in configuring your upload settings in addition to simplifying the upload Ansible tasks. The deprecated parameters will be removed in the next major release (0.5.0), due December 2021.

BREAKING CHANGES:

General updates:

• Rename upload related variables:
  • Rename the nginx_config_snippet_upload_* parameters to nginx_config_upload_* (check defaults/main/upload.yml for an example).
  • Rename the nginx_config_html_upload_* parameters to nginx_config_upload_html_*.
  • Rename the nginx_config_ssl_upload_* parameters to nginx_config_upload_ssl_*.
• Tweak the nginx_config_html_upload and nginx_config_ssl_upload parameters to use a list instead of a single src and dest value (check defaults/main/upload.yml for an example).

Template engine updates:

• Refactor all the Jinja2 templates!:

  • Each NGINX module is now contained within its own templating file. Macros are then used, in turn, to import each respective module template into a top level template file.

  • This avoids confusing and unnecessary code duplication, as well as hard to maintain code.

  • You will notice that the overall structure of your NGINX config now follows a very simple dictionary structure where each top level key corresponds to an NGINX module. Top level lists are used when dealing with servers and locations:

    core:
      root: /usr/share/nginx/html
    proxy:
      set_header: []
    servers:
      - core: {}
        proxy: {}
        locations:
          - core: {}
            proxy: {}

  • Check defaults/main/template.yml and molecule/default/converge.yml for examples!

• Refactor the base config templates to simplify the creation of templates as well as development and maintenance moving forward:

  • Modify servers, servers.listen, server.locations, upstream and upstream.servers from nested dictionaries in the http and stream configuration templates to lists.
  • Remove/merge the web_server and reverse_proxy nested dictionary keys from the HTTP templates. These often lead to confusing and unnecessary code duplication and hard to maintain code. To update your templates, remove both keys and adjust your spacing accordingly.
  • Replaced conf_file_name and conf_file_location with a single variable, deployment_location.
  • All config related parameters now live under the config key in both the core/main and HTTP templates.
  • Modify the nginx_config_html_demo_template variable from a nested dictionary to a list.

• Refactor the nginx_config_main_template to now include all the respective core and events directives. The following variables have changed:

  • http_enable no longer exists, neither does http_settings. You can still use http.include to include files within the http context.
  • stream_enable no longer exists, neither does stream_settings. You can still use stream.include to include files within the stream context.

• Refactor the upstream HTTP config template into its own separate file. All the upstream module directives are now included. The following variables have changed:

  • port is no longer supported. Instead, include the port as part of your address.
  • lb_method is no longer supported. Instead, you will have to specifically set the method you want to use.
  • zone_name and zone_size have been modified into a dictionary.
  • sticky_cookie is no longer supported as is. You will now have to configure the respective sticky_cookie values.
  • The health_check parameter within the server dictionary is no longer supported. Instead, manually set max_fails and fail_timeout.

• Refactor various individual variables into the core HTTP config template. All the core module directives are now included. The following variables are now included in the core dictionary:

  • alias, client_max_body_size, error_log, error_page, include, index, keepalive_timeout, listen, root, send_file, server_name, server_names_hash_bucket_size, server_names_hash_max_size, server_tokens, tcp_nodelay, tcp_nopush, try_files
  • listen.port is now listen.address, and listen.opts no longer exists (there are now individual keys for each listen parameter).

• Refactor the ssl HTTP config template into its own separate file. All the ssl module directives are now included. Almost all variables have changed:

  • All ssl variables still live within an ssl dictionary, but the names have changed to reflect the official NGINX directive names.
  • ssl configs are now supported within both the http and server contexts.

• Refactor both the app_protect_waf and app_protect_dos modules into a single file:

  • The app_protect dictionary now has the app_protect_waf key.
  • app_protect_global directives are now found inside the app_protect_waf dictionary too.

• Refactor the proxy HTTP config template into its own separate file. All the proxy module directives are now included. All variables have changed:

  • All proxy_* related variables now live under the proxy dictionary key. You can specify the proxy dictionary key inside the http, server, and location contexts.

  • Removed the nginx_config_main_template.http_settings.cache dictionary variable. Use nginx_config_http_template.*.proxy.cache_path instead.

  • Removed the location.websocket variable. Use location.proxy.set_header instead:

    proxy:
      set_header:
        - field: Upgrade
          value: $http_upgrade
        - field: Connection
          value: Upgrade

• Combine the grpc_global directives with the grpc directives.

• Refactor the auth HTTP config template into its own separate auth modules file. All the various auth related module directives including all auth_jwt directives are now available. All variables have changed:

  • All the various auth variables now live within their respective auth dictionaries.
  • auth configs are now supported within the http, server, and location contexts.

• Refactor the autoindex HTTP config template into its own separate file modules file and added missing autoindex module directives. All variables have changed:

  • The autoindex directives now live within the autoindex dictionary.
  • The autoindex dictionary now lives in the HTTP template config instead of the Main template config.

• Refactor the add_headers dictionary into a headers dictionary that now includes all the headers HTTP config directives:

  • The add_headers directive now lives within the headers dictionary.

• Refactor the keyval directives into its own template config that now includes all the keyval HTTP module directives:

  • Both keyval directives now live within the keyval dictionary.
  • The keyval dictionary now lives in the HTTP template config instead of the Main template config.

• Refactor server.health_check_plus into its own dictionary that now includes all the health_check module directives (check defaults/main/template.yml for examples).

• Refactor the limit_req directive into its own dictionary:

  • The limit_req directives now live within the limit_req dictionary.
  • The limit_req dictionary now lives in the HTTP template config instead of the Main template config.

• Refactor the access_log and log_format directives into a log dictionary that now includes all the log module directives:

  • An access and format directive now lives within the log dictionary.
  • The log dictionary HTTP context now lives in the HTTP template config instead of the Main template config.

• Refactor the return and rewrite directives into their own dictionary that now includes all the rewrite HTTP module directives:

  • The rewrites directive has transitioned from a list of one liners

    rewrites:
      - (.*).html(.*) $1$2

    to

    rewrites:
      - regex: (.*).html(.*)
        replacement: $1$2

  • The return directive has transitioned from a slightly complex dictionary structure (wherein the location variable didn't necessarily have any effect)

    returns:
      return301:
        location: ^~ /old-path
        code: 301
        value: http://$host/new-path

    to a slightly less complicated structure

    return:  # 200 -- Alternatively you could also include a code here instead of fleshing out the dictionary.
      code: 200
      text: nginx

• Refactor the sub_filter directives into their own sub_filter dictionary that includes all the sub_filter HTTP module directives:

  • The only major difference is that one liners under the sub_filters dictionary key have changed from

    sub_filters:
      - sub_filter 'server_hostname' '$hostname';

    to

    sub_filters:
      - string: server_hostname
        replacement: $hostname

  • Removed the server.http_demo_conf dictionary. Use server.sub_filters instead:

    sub_filter:
      sub_filters:
        - string: server_hostname
          replacement: $hostname
        - string: server_address
          replacement: $server_addr:$server_port
        - string: server_url
          replacement: $request_uri
        - string: remote_addr
          replacement: '$remote_addr:$remote_port'
        - string: server_date
          replacement: $time_local
        - string: client_browser
          replacement: $http_user_agent
        - string: request_id
          replacement: $request_id
        - string: nginx_version
          replacement: $nginx_version
        - string: document_root
          replacement: $document_root
        - string: proxied_for_ip
          replacement: $http_x_forwarded_for

  • The sub_filter dictionary HTTP context now lives in the HTTP template config instead of the Main template config.

• Rename some NGINX template config parameters to align with NGINX directive names:

  • Rename html_file_location to root.
  • Rename html_file_name to index.

• NGINX App Protect 3.2 supports multiple log destinations per scope. Changing the security_log variable from a dictionary to a list of objects in order to support this.

• NGINX App Protect 3.5 supports a new timeout directive which allows the user to configure the period of time between reconnect retries of the module to the web application firewall (WAF) engine. Added this as a supported directive.

FEATURES:

• Replace Ansible community distribution with Ansible base and add the necessary extra collections as a dependency requirement. For reference, these are:

  ---
  collections:
    - name: community.general
      version: 3.8.0
    - name: ansible.posix
      version: 1.3.0
    - name: community.docker  # This collection is only used as part of the Molecule testing suite
      version: 1.10.0

• Explicitly list Jinja2 2.11.3 as a requirement, as well as detail the minimum supported version (2.11.x).

• Implement Release Drafter.

• Add support for configuring NGINX App Protect DoS (Denial of Service) module and directives.

• Add support for configuring the NGINX Rest API module and the NGINX stub status module.

ENHANCEMENTS:

• Move the gzip HTTP config template into the modules file. It's a small module and did not warrant being in its own individual file.
• Update Ansible Lint to 5.1.3, Molecule to 3.4.0, yamllint to 1.26.3 and Docker Python SDK to 5.0.2.
• Consolidate Molecule testing scenarios to address changes introduced in Ansible Lint 5.*.
• Specify GitHub actions Ubuntu release.
• Minor GitHub template tweaks, including the creation of a SECURITY doc.
• Replace Molecule tests using Debian stretch with Debian buster (stretch has reached its EoL), and update list of supported platforms.
• Replace Ansible base with Ansible core. Ansible core will be the "core" Ansible release moving forward from Ansible 2.11.
• Update GitHub actions to add a workflow dispatch option.
• Update GitHub actions if conditionals to use the contains function instead of checking for exact names.
• Remove Debian Buster from the plus Molecule scenario since it often fails in the GitHub Actions CI/CD pipeline.
• Replace "yes"/"no" boolean values with "true"/"false" to comply with YAML spec 1.2.
• Ensure the default values for the nginx.conf template match the default values found on a fresh NGINX installation.
• Change Dependabot frequency from daily to weekly.
• Minor touch-up of GitHub actions workflows.

BUG FIXES:

• Add state parameter to package module in Molecule verification tests.
• In NGINX App Protect environments on SELinux enforced systems, the nginx -t handler fails when run from a directory that the NGINX process' user does not have access to.
• Fix missing GRPC boolean check in GRPC template.
• Fix nginx_config_cleanup_paths not working as intended.
• Fix issue with the app_protect.j2 template that was causing the default values for nginx.conf to fail.

0.3.3 (January 28, 2021)

FEATURES:

• Add support for configuration snippets (use the nginx_config_snippet_upload_* parameters to configure it).
• Add support for Dependabot.

ENHANCEMENTS:

• Add support for NGINX GRPC directives.
• Add support for NGINX GZIP directives.
• Add support for upstream server backup parameter in http and stream template.
• Only run GitHub actions Galaxy CI/CD workflow when a new release is published.
• Update list of supported platforms.
• Update Ansible base to 2.10.5 and Ansible to 2.10.6.

BUG FIXES:

• Address inconsistent types within Jinja templates.
• Add Jinja2 checks to all config template parameters to ensure that they are only included when appropriately defined.
• Fix edge case where proxy_pass is still required when using grpc_pass.

0.3.2 (January 11, 2021)

ENHANCEMENTS:

• The GitHub actions Molecule CI/CD workflow is no longer run on a new release (this is not necessary since it already runs on every push).
• The GitHub actions Molecule CI/CD workflow should now correctly avoid running 'Plus' related tests on external PRs.
• The cleanup-config.yml playbook has been slightly refactored and simplified.
• Update Ansible base to 2.10.4, Ansible to 2.10.5, Molecule to 3.2.2 and Docker Python SDK to 4.4.1.
• Update copyright notice.

0.3.1 (December 22, 2020)

ENHANCEMENTS:

• Update Molecule to 3.2.1 and Docker Python SDK to 4.4.0.
• Replace TravisCI with GitHub actions.

BUG FIXES:

• Switch to explicit boolean values in sub_filter defaults for last_modified and since in nginx_config_main_template. "on" and "off" values are treated as true instead of true/false when surrounded by double quotes. By always resorting to true/false we avoid unaccounted edge cases.
• Fix issue whereas SELinux state would not be correctly set back to enforcing when nginx_config_selinux: true.

0.3.0 (November 17, 2020)

BREAKING CHANGES:

• The default port of the status and REST API config is now 8080 and matches the CI Molecule test which already uses it. You can set nginx_config_status_port to another value if desired.
• The allow/deny directives for nginx_config_status and nginx_config_rest_api now take a list instead of a single value.
• The default nginx_config_*_log values have changed to nginx_config_*_access_log and no longer have a default value of off. Set the respective variables to false to preserve the previous behaviour.

ENHANCEMENTS:

• Add survey to README.
• Improve README structure and use tables where relevant.
• Update Ansible (now Ansible base) to 2.10.3, Ansible (now Ansible Community Distribution) to 2.10.3, Ansible Lint to 4.3.7, Molecule to 3.1.5, and yamllint to 1.25.0.
• Improve templating of stub status and REST API config.

BUG FIXES:

• Prevent TravisCI from trying to build (and failing) NGINX Plus images on external PRs.
• Fix naming for SELinux facts dictionary.
• Correctly import app_protect global directives in template.
• Role now runs correctly when using Ansible's check mode.
• Fix issue with access log in stub status and REST API config template not being properly parsed.

0.2.0 (September 24, 2020)

BREAKING CHANGES:

The process to configure modules has changed. Instead of manually setting the modules you want to install to true or false, you will now have to use either:

• A newly introduced top level list variable, nginx_config_modules.
• A newly introduced list variable within your main NGINX config template, nginx_config_main_template.modules.

Make sure you only use one variable or the other, since they will overwrite each other. This change will simplify adding future supported modules to this role, and allows you to include any external modules you may wish in your NGINX config.

FEATURES:

• Support for all NGINX App Protect directives has been added. You can find details on the supported directives on defaults/main/template.yml. This is the first module to be included using J2 macros. Expect to slowly see a refactor of various modules to use macros where possible.
• Add Alpine 3.12 to the list of supported platforms.
• Remove Alpine 3.8 from the list of supported platforms .
• Add NGINX Plus tests to TravisCI

ENHANCEMENTS:

• Added handlers to check for NGINX syntax validity and fail if any errors are detected.
• Switch to using ansible_facts wherever possible.
• Improved tasks naming conventions.
• Update Ansible to 2.9.13 and Ansible Lint to 4.3.5.
• Explicitly defined mode in relevant tasks.
• Improve configuration templating capabilities:
  • Allow setting access_log/access_log_location to off.
  • Add IP restriction for web servers

BUG FIXES:

An empty nginx_config_cleanup_files will no longer cause nginx_config_cleanup related tasks to fail.

0.1.0 (August 19, 2020)

Initial release of the NGINX Config role. Contains all NGINX Config related features previously available on the NGINX Ansible role.