Lab Guide: Automating OS Patching on Azure VMs

A guide to creating a Job Template to perform and report on OS patching for virtual machines in Microsoft Azure.

Estimated time to complete: 15 minutes

Lab Overview

In this challenge, you will create a Job Template to automate the patching of a Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) server running on Azure. You will also configure the job to generate an HTML report that can be viewed from a web browser.

1. Task 1: Create and Run the Patching Job Template

You will start by creating a job template, adding a survey to make it interactive, and then running it to patch the Linux host.

  1. Navigate to the Ansible Automation Platform UI.

    Click on the Ansible Automation Platform tab at the top of your lab window.

  2. Log in with the provided credentials.

    Parameter

    Value

    Username

    admin

    Password

    ansible123!

  3. Navigate to the Templates page.

    Expand the Automation Execution menu on the left. Automation Execution → Templates.

  4. Initiate the creation of a new job template.

    Click the + Create Template then scroll down and click Create job template

  5. Enter the job template details.

    Fill out the form with the following information:

    Parameter

    Value

    Name

    Linux Patching

    Job Type

    RUN

    Inventory

    Azure Inventory

    Project

    Product Demos Project

    Playbook

    linux/patching.yml

    Execution Environment

    Default execution environment

    Credentials

    RHEL on Azure
    To select the credential, click in the text field or on the drop down icon, then select the RHEL on Azure credential.

  6. Save the job template.

    Scroll to the bottom, click Create job template.

  7. Add the first survey question.

    Navigate to the Survey tab and click the blue Create survey question button. Configure the first question as follows:

    Parameter

    Value

    Question

    Enter the Linux Host you want to patch

    Answer variable name

    _hosts

    Answer type

    Text

    Default answer

    RHEL-ansible

    Click Create survey question.

  8. Add the second survey question.

    On the survey page, click the blue Create survey question button. Configure the second question as follows:

    Parameter

    Value

    Question

    Where should the RHEL Patching report be generated?

    Answer variable name

    report_server

    Answer type

    Text

    Default answer

    reportserver

    Click Create survey question.

  9. Enable the survey.

    You must enable the survey by clicking the toggle switch at the top of the survey page. The text will change from SURVEY Disabled to SURVEY enabled.

  10. Launch the template.

    Navigate back to the Templates page. Find the Linux Patching template and click 🚀 Launch template icon.

  11. Complete the survey and run the job.

    You will be prompted with the survey questions. Accept the default answers by clicking Next, then click Finish to run the job.

  12. Observe the output.

    The job will run and apply any available patches to the RHEL-ansible host. The output will contain URLs for the reports, which you will view in the next task.

2. Task 2: View the Patching Report

The automation job generates HTML reports detailing the available patches and what actions were taken.

  1. Locate the report URLs in the job output.

    The output from the Linux Patching job will contain URLs for the generated reports. They will look similar to this:

  2. View the reports.

    Copy and paste each URL into a new browser tab to view them. The linuxpatch.html report provides a detailed list of all package updates that were installed or removed.

  3. Re-run the job and observe the changes.

    Launch the Linux Patching job a second time. Once it completes, refresh the report URLs in your browser. You will see that the report has been updated with the latest information, confirming that no new patches were needed.

While this challenge focuses on Linux, Ansible Automation Platform can be used to perform Windows patching with similar workflows.

3. Next Steps

You have successfully completed this challenge. Press the Next button in your lab environment to proceed to the next challenge.