Simple Ansible Connection Plugin

A simple Ansible connection plugin that uses gRPC. This project includes both client and server implementations.

Features

• gRPC-based connection plugin for Ansible
• SSH key-based authentication
• Dynamic SSH key reloading
• Support for user-specific environment variables
• Systemd service configuration for gRPC server

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/HZ89/simple-ansible-connection-plugin.git
   cd simple-ansible-connection-plugin
   

2. Build the project:

   make
   

3. Ensure the required Python packages are installed:

   pip install paramiko grpcio
   

Configuration

Dockerfile

• The Dockerfile uses the golang:1.22-buster base image. If this image is not accessible, replace it with any suitable Golang image from Docker Hub.

gRPC Plugin Enhancements

• The plugin now includes improved SSH key handling and error management.
• The grpc_plugin.py script fetches SSH keys and handles multiple keys dynamically.
• The SSHAuthenticator class in ssh_key.go uses fsnotify to monitor changes in the authorized keys file and reload keys automatically.
• The main server code has been updated to parse structured metadata for authentication and support user-specific environment variables during command execution.
• Home directory tilde expansion is implemented for file paths in PutFile and FetchFile methods.

Systemd Service

• A systemd service file ansible-grpc-connection-server.service is added to manage the gRPC server as a systemd service.

Usage

1. Start the gRPC server:

   ./target/ansible-grpc-connection-server --v 3 -l ":60051"
   

2. Configure the client to connect to the gRPC server by setting the appropriate connection parameters in your Ansible playbook.

Systemd Service Setup

1. Copy the systemd service file to /etc/systemd/system/:

   cp utils/ansible-grpc-connection-server.service /etc/systemd/system/
   

2. Reload systemd manager configuration:

   systemctl daemon-reload
   

3. Enable and start the service:

   systemctl enable ansible-grpc-connection-server
   systemctl start ansible-grpc-connection-server
   

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please fork the repository and submit a pull request for any improvements or bug fixes.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.