The document provides an overview of using Ansible for managing MySQL, presented by Ben Mildren, a technical lead at Percona. It covers installation, configuration, and practical examples, emphasizing the benefits of Ansible such as simplicity, declarative syntax, and agentless architecture. The presentation includes discussions on playbooks, modules, password management, performance, and a live demo to illustrate Ansible's capabilities with MySQL.

1. MANAGING MYSQL
WITH ANSIBLE
Ben Mildren
04/11/14

2. About me – Ben Mildren
• rDBA Technical Lead, Percona
– Percona Managed Services
• Around 15 years RDBMS experience
• Previous roles include:
– Team Technical Lead, Pythian
– Senior Database Administrator, Nokia
Email: ben.mildren@percona.com
LinkedIn: benmildren
Twitter: @productiondba
Slideshare: benmildren
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3. What will we be covering today?
1 What?
What is
Ansible?
2 How?
Usage and
concepts
3 Demo!
Practical
Examples
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4. What problem are we looking to solve?
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Provisioning?
Configuration Management?
Application Deployment?
Orchestration?
Automation?
www.ansible.com/blog/2013/11/29/ansibles-architecture-beyond-configuration-management

5. Software solutions
• Puppet: Apache license, www.puppetlabs.com
– Ruby, Manifests (Puppet language)
• Chef: Apache license, www.getchef.com
– Ruby/Erlang, Cookbooks (Ruby)
• Salt: Apache license, www.saltstack.com
– Python, States (YAML/Jinja2 (default renderer))
• Ansible: GPL v3 license, www.ansible.com
– Python, Playbooks (YAML/Jinja2)
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_open-source_configuration_management_software

6. Why did we choose Ansible?
• Simple, Readable
• Declaritive, Idempotent
• Uses SSH
• Agentless
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7. Installation Requirements
• Python 2.X
– 2.6+ Control Machine
● Required dependencies including;
PyYAML, Jinja2, pycrypto, paramiko.
– 2.4+ Managed Node
● python-simplejson (if 2.5 or below)
● libselinux-python (if selinux enabled)
(and using copy/file/template functions)
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http://docs.ansible.com/intro_installation.html

8. Installation
• Package Manager
– yum (via epel)
– apt
• pip
• Source (https://github.com/ansible/ansible)
https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/devel/CHANGELOG.md
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http://docs.ansible.com/intro_installation.html

9. Configuration
• Config file
ANSIBLE_CONFIG > ./ansible.cfg >
~/.ansible.cfg > /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
(settings are not merged)
• Inventory file
– /etc/ansible/hosts (default)
– or can use dynamic inventory script
https://github.com/ansible/ansible/tree/devel/plugins/inventory
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10. Inventory File
• INI format
– Hosts / Groups
– Groups of Groups
– Host and Group variables
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11. Inventory File
• Example:
[fra_cluster]
mysql01
mysql02
[deu_cluster]
mysql03
mysql04
[euro_clusters:children]
fra_cluster
deu_cluster
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12. Ad-Hoc Commands
• ansible <host-pattern> [options]
<host-pattern> → inventory file
/etc/ansible/hosts (default)
-i PATH, --inventory=PATH
[options]
typically module (-m) & arguments (-a)
also connectivity, logging, etc
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13. Modules
• ad-hoc default == command module
• ansible-doc
-l, --list
-s, --snippet [module]
[module]
• can develop custom modules
– Potentially any language, JSON output
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http://docs.ansible.com/modules_by_category.html

14. Working with MySQL
• MySQL Specific Modules
– mysql_db
– mysql_user
– mysql_replication
– mysql_variables
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15. Working with MySQL
• Other useful modules
– package manager (yum / apt)
– service
– file
– template
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16. Templates
• jinja2 formatted
– variables, conditionals, loops, etc..
[mysqld]
### General options
user = mysql
pid-file = {{ mysql_run_dir }}/mysqld.pid
socket = {{ mysql_run_dir }}/mysqld.sock
datadir = {{ mysql_data_dir }}
tmpdir = {{ mysql_tmp_dir }}
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http://jinja.pocoo.org/docs/dev/templates/

17. Enter the playbook!
• Written in YAML
• Consists of one or more “plays”
– Target section
– Variable section
– Task section
– Handlers section
• Executed using ansible-playbook
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18. Enter the playbook!
• conditionals
• loops
• async / poll
• tags
• error handling
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19. Facts
• setup
• will also run ohai and/or facter if installed
• can be disabled for performance if not
required
• set_fact module
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20. Running playbooks
• ansible-playbook playbook.yml
– similar connectivity options to ad-hoc ansible
command
– Has additional options specific to running
playbooks, e.g:
--list-hosts, --list-tasks
--syntax-check, --check (-C), --diff (-D)
--step, --start-at-task
--tags (-t), --skip-tags
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21. Role play
• Include files
• Directory Structure
• Dependencies & Defaults
• ansible-galaxy
– init
– install, list, info, remove
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22. Logging
• cowsay or nocows=1
• verbose & verboser
• ansible log
• callback plugins
– Notification (email, campfire, hipchat, etc)
– improved logging (ELK anybody?)
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https://github.com/ansible/ansible/tree/devel/plugins/callbacks

23. Password Management
• lookup passwords
• ansible-vault
– create/edit/encrypt/decrypt/rekey
– aes256 encryption
ansible-playbook --ask-vault-pass
ansible-playbook --vault-password-file
(file or script)
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24. Performance
• Connectivity
– fireball (deprecated)
– accelerated mode
– pipelining
• forking
• ansible-pull?
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25. How can ansible help with MySQL?
• Installation / Upgrades
• Managing configuration (mysql & host)
• User Administration
• Managing cronjobs
• Deployments
• Provisioning new nodes in a cluster
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26. Demo & Questions
• Pray to the demo gods....
• Questions?
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