Use PostgreSQL as Ansible Config Inventory CMDB

You can use PostgreSQL as a configuration source for Pigsty, replacing the static YAML configuration file.

There are some advantages to using CMDB as a dynamic inventory: metadata is presented in a highly structured way in the form of data tables, and consistency is ensured through database constraints. At the same time, using CMDB allows you to use third-party tools to edit and manage Pigsty metadata, making it easier to integrate with external systems.

Ansible Inventory

Pigsty’s default configuration file path is specified in ansible.cfg as inventory = pigsty.yml.

Changing this parameter will change the default configuration file path used by Ansible. If you point it to an executable script file, Ansible will use the dynamic inventory mechanism, execute the script, and expect the script to return a configuration file.

Using CMDB is implemented by editing the ansible.cfg in the Pigsty directory:

---
inventory = pigsty.yml
+++
inventory = inventory.sh

And the inventory.sh is a simple script that generates equivalent YAML/JSON configuration files from the records in the PostgreSQL CMDB.

You can use bin/inventory_cmdb to switch to CMDB inventory, and use bin/inventory_conf to switch back to the local YAML configuration file.

You may also need bin/inventory_load to load the YAML configuration file into the CMDB.

Load Configuration

Pigsty will init a CMDB (optional) on the default pg-meta cluster’s meta database, under pigsty schema.

the CMDB is available only after infra.yml is fully executed on the admin node.

You can load YAML config file into CMDB with bin/inventory_load:

usage: inventory_load [-h] [-p PATH] [-d CMDB_URL]

load config arguments

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit„
  -p PATH, --path PATH  config path, ${PIGSTY_HOME}/pigsty.yml by default
  -d DATA, --data DATA  postgres cmdb pgurl, ${METADB_URL} by default

If you run bin/inventory_load without any arguments, it will load the default pigsty.yml into the default CMDB.

bin/inventory_load
bin/inventory_load -p conf/demo.yml
bin/inventory_load -p conf/prod.yml -d postgresql://dbuser_meta:DBUser.Meta@10.10.10.10:5432/meta

You can switch to dynamic CMDB inventory with:

bin/inventory_cmdb

To switch back to local YAML config file:

bin/inventory_conf