Run Ansible Playbooks from GitHub

This section includes procedures to help you run Ansible Playbooks from GitHub by using either the console or the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI).

Before you begin

If you plan to run a script stored in a private GitHub repository, create an AWS Systems Manager SecureString parameter for your GitHub security access token. You can't access a script in a private GitHub repository by manually passing your token over SSH. The access token must be passed as a Systems Manager SecureString parameter. For more information about creating a SecureString parameter, see Creating Systems Manager parameters.

Run an Ansible Playbook from GitHub (console)

Run an Ansible Playbook from GitHub

1. Open the AWS Systems Manager console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/.

2. In the navigation pane, choose Run Command.

   -or-

   If the AWS Systems Manager home page opens first, choose the menu icon ( ) to open the navigation pane, and then choose Run Command.

3. Choose Run command.

4. In the Command document list, choose AWS-RunRemoteScript.

5. In Command parameters, do the following:

   • In Source Type, select GitHub.

   • In the Source Info box, enter the required information to access the source in the following format.

     {
       "owner": "owner_name",
       "repository": "repository_name", 
       "getOptions": "branch:branch_name",
       "path": "path_to_scripts_or_directory",
       "tokenInfo": "{{ssm-secure:SecureString_parameter_name}}" 
     }

     This example downloads a file named webserver.yml.

     {
         "owner": "TestUser1",
         "repository": "GitHubPrivateTest",
         "getOptions": "branch:myBranch",
         "path": "scripts/webserver.yml",
         "tokenInfo": "{{ssm-secure:mySecureStringParameter}}"
     }

     Note

     "branch" is required only if your SSM document is stored in a branch other than master.

     To use the version of your scripts that are in a particular commit in your repository, use commitID with getOptions instead of branch. For example:

     "getOptions": "commitID:bbc1ddb94...b76d3bEXAMPLE",

   • In the Command Line field, enter parameters for the script execution. Here is an example.

     ansible-playbook -i “localhost,” --check -c local webserver.yml

   • (Optional) In the Working Directory field, enter the name of a directory on the node where you want to download and run the script.

   • (Optional) In Execution Timeout, specify the number of seconds for the system to wait before failing the script command execution.

6. In the Targets section, choose the managed nodes on which you want to run this operation by specifying tags, selecting instances or edge devices manually, or specifying a resource group.

   Tip

   If a managed node you expect to see isn't listed, see Troubleshooting managed node availability for troubleshooting tips.

7. For Other parameters:

   • For Comment, enter information about this command.

   • For Timeout (seconds), specify the number of seconds for the system to wait before failing the overall command execution.

8. For Rate control:

   • For Concurrency, specify either a number or a percentage of managed nodes on which to run the command at the same time.

     Note

     If you selected targets by specifying tags applied to managed nodes or by specifying AWS resource groups, and you aren't certain how many managed nodes are targeted, then restrict the number of targets that can run the document at the same time by specifying a percentage.

   • For Error threshold, specify when to stop running the command on other managed nodes after it fails on either a number or a percentage of nodes. For example, if you specify three errors, then Systems Manager stops sending the command when the fourth error is received. Managed nodes still processing the command might also send errors.

9. (Optional) For Output options, to save the command output to a file, select the Write command output to an S3 bucket box. Enter the bucket and prefix (folder) names in the boxes.

   Note

   The S3 permissions that grant the ability to write the data to an S3 bucket are those of the instance profile (for EC2 instances) or IAM service role (hybrid-activated machines) assigned to the instance, not those of the IAM user performing this task. For more information, see Configure instance permissions for Systems Manager or Create an IAM service role for a hybrid environment. In addition, if the specified S3 bucket is in a different AWS account, make sure that the instance profile or IAM service role associated with the managed node has the necessary permissions to write to that bucket.

10. In the SNS notifications section, if you want notifications sent about the status of the command execution, select the Enable SNS notifications check box.

    For more information about configuring Amazon SNS notifications for Run Command, see Monitoring Systems Manager status changes using Amazon SNS notifications.

11. Choose Run.

Run an Ansible Playbook from GitHub by using the AWS CLI

1. Install and configure the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI), if you haven't already.

   For information, see Installing or updating the latest version of the AWS CLI.

2. Run the following command to download and run a script from GitHub.

   aws ssm send-command \
       --document-name "AWS-RunRemoteScript" \
       --instance-ids "instance-IDs"\
       --parameters '{"sourceType":["GitHub"],"sourceInfo":["{\"owner\":\"owner_name\", \"repository\": \"repository_name\", \"path\": \"path_to_file_or_directory\", \"tokenInfo\":\"{{ssm-secure:name_of_your_SecureString_parameter}}\" }"],"commandLine":["commands_to_run"]}'

   Here is an example command to run on a local Linux machine.

   aws ssm send-command \    
       --document-name "AWS-RunRemoteScript" \
       --instance-ids "i-02573cafcfEXAMPLE" \
       --parameters '{"sourceType":["GitHub"],"sourceInfo":["{\"owner\":\"TestUser1\", \"repository\": \"GitHubPrivateTest\", \"path\": \"scripts/webserver.yml\", \"tokenInfo\":\"{{ssm-secure:mySecureStringParameter}}\" }"],"commandLine":["ansible-playbook -i “localhost,” --check -c local webserver.yml"]}'