Ansible on RHEL 9 Automation Complete Guide

By Luca Berton · Published 2024-01-01 · Category: installation

Automate Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 (Plow) with Ansible: dnf, subscription-manager, SELinux, firewalld, podman, kernel live patching, Insights, and AAP.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 (Plow) released in May 2022 and ships kernel 5.14, Python 3.9, OpenSSH 8.7, systemd 252, and Podman 4/5. RHEL 9 is in Full Support through May 2027 and Maintenance Support through May 2032, with ELS extending to May 2035. This is the master Ansible guide for RHEL 9 production fleets — including AAP 2.6 integration.

RHEL 9 release facts

Item	Value
Code name	Plow
GA	2022-05-17
Latest minor	9.6
Full Support end	2027-05-31
Maintenance Support end	2032-05-31
Default kernel	5.14
Default Python	3.9 (3.11/3.12 modules)
Default container engine	Podman

Ansible-core compatibility

RHEL 9 includes ansible-core 2.14+ in AppStream; for current control nodes use ansible-core 2.18 LTS with ansible_python_interpreter=/usr/libexec/platform-python or /usr/bin/python3.

Inventory

[rhel9]
rhel9-app-01.corp.example.com
rhel9-app-02.corp.example.com

[rhel9:vars]
ansible_user=ec2-user
ansible_python_interpreter=/usr/bin/python3

Subscription registration

- name: Register RHEL 9 with subscription-manager
  hosts: rhel9
  become: true
  tasks:
    - name: Register and attach
      community.general.redhat_subscription:
        state: present
        username: "{{ rhsm_user }}"
        password: "{{ rhsm_password }}"
        auto_attach: true

    - name: Enable required repos
      community.general.rhsm_repository:
        name:
          - rhel-9-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms
          - rhel-9-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms
          - codeready-builder-for-rhel-9-x86_64-rpms
        state: enabled

Baseline playbook

- name: RHEL 9 baseline
  hosts: rhel9
  become: true
  tasks:
    - name: Update all packages
      ansible.builtin.dnf:
        name: "*"
        state: latest
        update_cache: true

    - name: Install baseline tools
      ansible.builtin.dnf:
        name:
          - vim-enhanced
          - bash-completion
          - chrony
          - firewalld
          - policycoreutils-python-utils
          - podman
          - cockpit
          - insights-client
        state: present

    - name: Enable services
      ansible.builtin.service:
        name: "{{ item }}"
        enabled: true
        state: started
      loop: [chronyd, firewalld, cockpit.socket]

SELinux enforcement

- name: Ensure SELinux enforcing on RHEL 9
  hosts: rhel9
  become: true
  tasks:
    - name: Set SELinux enforcing
      ansible.posix.selinux:
        policy: targeted
        state: enforcing

    - name: Allow httpd to connect to network DB
      ansible.posix.seboolean:
        name: httpd_can_network_connect_db
        state: true
        persistent: true

firewalld

- name: Configure firewalld
  hosts: rhel9
  become: true
  tasks:
    - name: Open HTTPS
      ansible.posix.firewalld:
        service: https
        permanent: true
        state: enabled
        immediate: true

    - name: Default zone public
      ansible.posix.firewalld:
        zone: public
        target: default
        state: enabled
        permanent: true

Kernel live patching with kpatch

- name: Live-patch RHEL 9
  hosts: rhel9
  become: true
  tasks:
    - name: Install kpatch
      ansible.builtin.dnf:
        name: [kpatch, kpatch-dnf]
        state: present

    - name: Subscribe to live kernel patches
      ansible.builtin.command: dnf kpatch auto
      register: kp
      changed_when: "'Installed' in kp.stdout"

Insights onboarding

- name: Onboard Insights client
  hosts: rhel9
  become: true
  tasks:
    - name: Register Insights
      ansible.builtin.command: insights-client --register
      register: ins
      changed_when: "'Successfully' in ins.stdout"

AAP 2.6 integration

Use the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.6 Execution Environment for RHEL 9 nodes:

# requirements.yml
collections:
  - name: ansible.posix
    version: ">=1.5.4"
  - name: community.general
    version: ">=8.0.0"
  - name: redhat.satellite
    version: ">=4.0.0"

Best practices

Use dnf module not yum; the latter is a compat shim.
Pin to AAP-supported collections; avoid mixing community and Red Hat-supported versions for the same namespace in production.
Enable Insights to feed compliance and CVE data into AAP dashboards.
Use ansible.posix.selinux and ansible.posix.seboolean for SELinux changes.

Conclusion

RHEL 9 is the enterprise-grade Ansible target for 2022–2032 deployments. Combine subscription-manager, SELinux enforcement, firewalld, Podman, and Insights with ansible-core 2.18 and AAP 2.6 to deliver fully governed RHEL 9 fleets.

Category: installation

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