Managing Inventories and Credentials
This exercise provides practical experience with managing inventories and credentials in automation controller. You’ll learn how to navigate a preloaded inventory, understand its structure, and set up machine credentials for accessing managed hosts.
Introduction to Inventories
In automation controller, inventories define and organize the hosts your playbooks will target. They can be static (a fixed list of hosts) or dynamic (sourced from external systems).
Exploring the Workshop Inventory
The Workshop Inventory is preloaded in your lab environment, representing a static inventory configuration.
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Accessing the Inventory: Navigate to Automation Execution → Infrastructure → Inventories in the web UI, and select Workshop Inventory.
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Viewing Hosts: Within the Workshop Inventory, open the Hosts tab to see the predefined hosts, similar to those in a traditional Ansible inventory file.
Understanding Machine Credentials
Machine credentials are essential for establishing secure SSH connections to managed hosts.
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Accessing Credentials: Navigate to Automation Execution → Infrastructure → Credentials and select Workshop Credential.
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Credential Details: The 'Workshop Credentials' is configured with:
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Credential Type: Machine (for SSH).
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Username: A predefined user, such as
rhel. -
Password: Encrypted, providing secure access to hosts.
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Additional Credential Types
Automation controller supports over 30 different credential types for various automation tasks. Here are a few common ones:
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Network Credentials: For managing network devices.
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Source Control Credentials: For accessing source control systems.
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Amazon Web Services (AWS) Credentials: For integrating with AWS services.
These credential types enhance the flexibility and security of your automation efforts.