Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
77 lines (46 loc) · 3.44 KB

AnsibleVault.md

File metadata and controls

77 lines (46 loc) · 3.44 KB

Ansible Vault: Deep Dive

Introduction

Ansible Vault is a feature of Ansible that allows you to encrypt sensitive information in your Ansible playbooks or files. It provides a secure way to store and manage confidential data such as passwords, API keys, or any other secret information. This deep dive will explore the concept of Ansible Vault, its usage, and how it enhances the security of Ansible automation.

What is Ansible Vault?

Ansible Vault is a tool within the Ansible framework that enables the encryption of sensitive data. It ensures that confidential information remains secure by encrypting it at rest in files, preventing unauthorized access to critical credentials or variables. Vault seamlessly integrates with Ansible, allowing you to work with encrypted files transparently during playbook execution.

Encrypting Variables or Files with Ansible Vault

Encrypting Files

To encrypt a file using Ansible Vault, you can use the ansible-vault create command:

ansible-vault create filename.yml

This command prompts you to set a password for the vault and opens the file in the default text editor. Once saved and closed, the file is encrypted.

Encrypting Specific Variables

You can also encrypt specific variables within a file using the ansible-vault encrypt_string command:

ansible-vault encrypt_string 'your_secret_variable' --name 'your_variable_name'

This command encrypts the given variable and prints the encrypted string, which you can then include in your playbook.

Viewing and Editing Encrypted Files

To view the contents of an encrypted file without editing it, you can use the ansible-vault view command:

ansible-vault view filename.yml

To edit an encrypted file in place, use the ansible-vault edit command:

ansible-vault edit filename.yml

This command decrypts the file, opens it in the default text editor, and re-encrypts it upon saving and closing.

Using Ansible Vault in Playbooks

When working with encrypted files in playbooks, Ansible requires you to provide the vault password during execution. You can do this by adding the --ask-vault-pass option to the ansible-playbook command:

ansible-playbook your_playbook.yml --ask-vault-pass

This prompts you for the vault password before running the playbook.

Best Practices

  1. Use Separate Vault Files:

    • Consider creating separate vault-encrypted files for sensitive data.
    • Prefix variable names in the vault with a recognizable string (e.g., vault_) to indicate encrypted variables.

  2. Vault Password Files:

    • Instead of typing the vault password every time, you can use a vault password file.
    • Use --vault-password-file option with ansible-playbook to specify the path to the vault password file.

Conclusion

Ansible Vault is a powerful tool that enhances the security of Ansible playbooks by allowing the encryption of sensitive data. This deep dive provided an overview of how to encrypt files and variables, view and edit encrypted content, and use Ansible Vault in playbooks. Implementing Ansible Vault best practices ensures the secure management of confidential information in your automation workflows.

For more details, refer to the Ansible Vault Documentation.

Note: This Markdown file serves as a deep dive into Ansible Vault. You can use this content to create a detailed GitHub page for reference.