ansible/README.md

# data.coop infrastructure

This repository contains the code used to deploy data.coop's services
and websites. We use Ansible to encode our infrastructure setup. Only
the association's administrators have access to deploy the services.

## Deploying

To deploy the services, the included `deploy.sh` script can be used. The
Ansible playbook uses two custom-made roles (in the `roles/` directory).
The script has options to deploy only one of the roles, which are namely
`ubuntu_base` and `docker`, the latter of which is for deploying the
services themselves using Docker containers. Select services only can
also be specified. By default, the script deploys everything.

Here is a summary of the options that can be used with the script:

```shell
$ ./deploy.sh                          # deploy everything
$ ./deploy.sh base                     # deploy the ubuntu_base role only
$ ./deploy.sh services                 # deploy the docker role only
$ ./deploy.sh services SINGLE_SERVICE  # deploy SINGLE_SERVICE Docker service only
```

`SINGLE_SERVICE` should match one of the service names in the `services`
dictionary in `roles/docker/defaults/main.yml` (e.g. `gitea` or
`data_coop_website`).

## Testing

In order for us to be able to test our setup locally, we use Vagrant to
deploy the services in a virtual machine. To do this, Vagrant and
VirtualBox must both be installed on the development machine. Then, the
services can be deployed locally by using the `vagrant` command-line
tool. The working directory needs to be the root of the repository for
this to work properly.

> Note: As our secrets are contained in an Ansible Vault file, only the
> administrators have the ability to run the deployment in Vagrant.
> However, one could replace the vault file for testing purposes.

Here is a summary of the commands that are available with the `vagrant`
command-line tool:

```shell
$ vagrant up         # Create and provision the VM
$ vagrant provision  # Re-provision the VM
$ vagrant ssh        # SSH into the VM
$ vagrant halt       # Power down the VM
$ vagrant destroy    # Power down and delete the VM
```

The `vagrant` command-line tool does not support supplying extra
variables to Ansible on runtime, so to be able to deploy only parts of
the Ansible playbook to Vagrant, the `deploy.sh` script can be used with
the `--vagrant` flag. Here are some examples:

```shell
$ ./deploy.sh --vagrant base                     # deploy the ubuntu_base role only in the Vagrant VM
$ ./deploy.sh --vagrant services SINGLE_SERVICE  # deploy SINGLE_SERVICE Docker service only in the Vagrant VM
```

Note that the `--vagrant` flag should be the first argument when using
the script.

## Nice tools

- [J2Live](https://j2live.ttl255.com/): A live Jinja2 parser, nice to
  test out filters