Workshop Exercise - Workflows

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Objective
Guide

Objective

The purpose of a workflow is to link multiple job templates together. These templates may or may not share inventory, playbooks, or permissions. The links can be conditional:

If Job Template A succeeds, Job Template B is executed next.
If it fails, Job Template C runs instead.

Workflows can include not only job templates but also project or inventory updates.

This flexibility allows different teams to collaborate efficiently. For example, a networking team can manage its own repositories and inventories, while an operations team handles other aspects. In this lab, you’ll learn how to set up a workflow.

Guide

Lab scenario

You have two departments in your organization:

Web operations team: developing playbooks in their Git branch webops.
Web developers team: working in their branch webdev.

When a new Node.js server is needed, the following tasks must be performed:

Web operations team tasks

Install httpd, firewalld, and node.js.
Configure SELinux settings, open the firewall, and start httpd and node.js.

Web developers team tasks

Deploy the latest version of the web application and restart node.js.

The web operations team sets up the server, and the developers deploy the application.

Note:
For this example, both teams use branches of the same Git repository. In a real scenario, your source control structure may vary.

Set up projects

First, set up the Git repositories as projects.

Warning:
If logged in as wweb, log out and log in as admin.

Within Automation Execution -> Projects, click Create Project to set up the web operations team’s project:

Parameter	Value
Name	Webops Git Repo
Organization	Default
Execution Environment	Default execution environment
Source control type	Git
Source control URL	`https://github.com/ansible/workshop-examples.git`
Source control branch/tag/commit	`webops`
Options	✓ Clean ✓ Delete ✓ Update Revision on Launch

Click Create project.

create_project

Repeat the process to set up the Webdev Git Repo, using the branch webdev.

Parameter	Value
Name	Webdev Git Repo
Organization	Default
Execution Environment	Default execution environment
Source control type	Git
Source control URL	`https://github.com/ansible/workshop-examples.git`
Source control branch/tag/commit	`webdev`
Options	✓ Clean ✓ Delete ✓ Update Revision on Launch

Set up job templates

Within Automation Execution -> Templates -> Create template -> Create job template, fill out the form with the following values:

Parameter	Value
Name	Web App Deploy
Inventory	Workshop Inventory
Project	Webops Git Repo
Playbook	`rhel/webops/web_infrastructure.yml`
Execution Environment	Default execution environment
Credentials	Workshop Credentials
Options	tasks need to run as root so check Privilege Escalation

create_template_webops

Click Create job template, and then repeat the process for the Node.js Deploy template, changing the project to Webdev Git Repo and the playbook to rhel/webdev/install_node_app.yml.

Set up the workflow

Within Automation Execution -> Templates -> Create template -> Create workflow job template, fill in the details:

Parameter	Value
Name	Deploy Webapp Server

Click Create workflow job template to open the Workflow Visualizer.

add_step

Click the Add Step button and assign the Web App Deploy job template to the first node. Add a second node by clicking the 3 dot sign, selecting the “Add step and link” and assign the Node.js Deploy template with the Run on success status type. Select Next and Finish to complete the workflow.

app_deploy