A custom Terraform module to deploy 1x Linux VM for Ansible playbook development in Microsoft Azure.

Get in touch

• Twitter: @coder_au
• LinkedIn: @JesseLoudon
• Web: jloudon.com
• GitHub: @JesseLoudon

• Ansible on Azure Part 1 covers the birds-eye solution overview and introduces you to key components.
• Ansible on Azure Part 2 showcases this Terraform module used to automate deployment of an Ansible control host into Azure.
• Ansible on Azure Part 3 dives into using the Molecule-Azure driver to rapidly develop Ansible playbook tasks on Azure instances.

• Terraform > 0.13.0
• Git
• VSCode
• VSCode (extension) Remote Development
• AzureCLI

• technician_initials via Terraform CLI prompt -- Enter your initials (used as a suffix identifier for key Azure resources)
• module.linux_vm.nsgRule1.source_address_prefix via ./main.tf -- Update with your own public IP address

• module.linux_vm.pip1 - The public IP DNS of the ansible host in azure
• module.linux_vm.tls_private_key- The SSH private key needed to connect to the ansible host in azure
• module.linux_vm.azurerm_resource_group_name - The resource group for the ansible dev environment
• module.linux_vm.azurerm_virtual_network_name- The virtual network name for the ansible dev environment

• 1 - Clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/globalbao/terraform-azurerm-ansible-linux-vm
cd terraform-azurerm-ansible-linux-vm

• 2 - Initialize the module

terraform init

• 3 - Set the value of module.linux_vm.nsgRule1.source_address_prefix to your own Public IP address.
• 4 - Authenticate to Azure via AzCLI

az login
az account set -s subscriptionID

• 5 - Run Terraform to create the module resources.

terraform apply -auto-approve

the TF apply can take ~15mins due to the shell script tasks via VM Extension

At this stage your Ansible control host has been deployed to Azure and is ready for your SSH connection using VSCode.

Remember to take note of the following outputs.

• module.linux_vm.pip1 - the PIP DNS name of your Ansible control host
• module.linux_vm.tls_private_key- the SSH private key needed to connect to your Ansible control host
• module.linux_vm.azurerm_resource_group_name - the RG of your Ansible dev environment
• module.linux_vm.azurerm_virtual_network_name- the VNET name of the Ansible dev environment

Setup/test the SSH authentication.

• 6 - Create a new local file for the private key e.g. C:\Local\vm1key.pem
• 7 - Modify the C:\Local\vm1key.pem file's permissions so only your Windows account has read/write access.
• 8 - Remove all other inherited permissions (e.g. System/Administrator Group) from C:\Local\vm1key.pem.
• 9 - Copy & paste the Terraform output of tls_private_key into this new file.
• 10 - Open VSCode > Remote Explorer > SSH Targets > Add New
• 11 - Copy & paste the Terraform output of pip1 as the SSH target.
• 12 - Select the SSH config file to update e.g. C:\Users\Username\.ssh\config
• 13 - Add the following to SSH config file:User ansibleadmin and IdentityFile C:/Local/vm1key.pem
• 14 - Verify the SSH connection works via VSCode > Remote Explorer > SSH Target > Connect to Host

the above steps 6-14 work on my Win10 machine but if you encounter issues I recommend reviewing the official doco here: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/ssh

• 15 - Work on your Ansible development.
• 16 - Remove the environment.

terraform destroy -auto-approve