Configuring Raspberry Pi OS with Ansible

Overview

• Ansible playbook to perform General OS configuration settings on a Raspberry Pi 3/4.
• Playbook not intented to run as a CI/CD pipeline. But can be integrated to a Github Workflow if needed.
• CI Testing for Ansible roles are configured with Github Actions.
• This work is done as part of a Hobby project on setting up an IoT Stack in a Home network.
• The playbooks are configured to use SSH Keys instead of username/password to connect to Raspberry Pi.
• Pre-requisites:
  • Add the SSH public key id_rsa.pub to /home/pi/.ssh/authorized_keys in Raspberry Pi.
  • Find IP addresses of Raspberry Pis in home network.

    $ nmap -sn -p 22 <home_network_cidr> | grep pi
    $ nmap -sV -p 22 192.168.0.0/24 –open | grep pi

Ansible Roles

1. ping:
   • This role is used to test connectivity to Raspberry Pi.
2. docker:
   • Install Docker and Docker Compose in Armv7 or Arm64 architectures.
3. os-setup:
   • Disable power saving mode
   • Check WiFi: Detect WiFi connection loss and restart the network service.

Run Ansible playbooks

1. Generate an Ansible inventory file named hosts.ini using the template file hosts_example.ini. Update the inventory group rpi with Raspberry Pi host information.

   $ mv hosts_example.ini hosts.ini
   $ cat hosts.ini
   [vagrant]
   localhost    ansible_user=vagrant   ansible_port=2222
   
   [rpi]
   192.168.10.100    ansible_user=pi   ansible_port=22

2. Run Ansible ping

   $ ansible-playbook -i hosts.ini ansible_ping.yml -l rpi

3. Run Ansible playbook to configure Raspberry Pi OS.

   $ ansible-playbook -i hosts.ini playbook.yml -l rpi

4. [Optional] Get System info of Servers Raspberry Pi OS.

   $ ansible-playbook -i hosts.ini system_info.yml

Notes:

• CI testing for docker role using Github Actions cannot be run directly. Because of Docker-in-Docker scenario.
  • User can always run the Molecule testing locally to test and verify the role.

References

• Ansible Molecule Testing
• geerlingguy.ansible-role-docker_arm
• Installing Docker and Docker Compose on the Raspberry Pi in 5 Simple Steps
• Installing Docker on the Raspberry Pi
• dockerpi
• Does Your Raspberry Pi 3 Lose WiFi Connections After a While
• Rebooting the Raspberry Pi when it loses wireless connection
• Ansible Playbook for Get Hosts Information