Start and enable services on boot on Linux remote hosts - Ansible module service_facts, service

How to list the available Linux services and automate the start and enable service on boot process with Ansible playbook. Included code and demo with chronyd.service NTP server on a RedHat Enterprise Linux 8.

November 30, 2021

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#ansible #service #module #linux #rhel #centos #fedora #loop #daemon

How to enable services on boot on remote hosts with Ansible?

I’m going to show you a live demo with some simple Ansible code. I’m Luca Berton and welcome to today’s episode of Ansible Pilot.

Ansible enable services on boot on remote hosts

ansible.builtin.service_facts
Return service state information as fact data
ansible.builtin.service
Manage services

Today we’re talking about Ansible modules service_facts and service. First, you need to acquire the information of the services on the target machine. This task is performed by the Ansible module service_facts. You can’t enable a service that doesn’t exist, can you? The effective actions are performed by the Ansible module service. The full name is ansible.builtin.service which means that both these modules are part of the collection of modules “builtin” with Ansible and shipped with it. This module is pretty stable and out for years and its purpose is to manage services on remote hosts. For Windows targets, use the ansible.windows.win_service module instead.

Parameters

name path - name of the service
state string - started / stopped / restarted / reloaded
enabled boolean - no/yes
arguments/args string - extra args

The parameter list is pretty wide but I’ll summarize the most useful. The only required parameter is “name” that specifies the name of the service. At least one between the “state” and “enabled” parameters is mandatory. The “state” parameter defines the action that we are going to take. It has four alternative options: “started” and “stopped” options allow you to run or stop the service. “restarted” is a combination of stop and start - you could also customize the number of seconds between using the “sleep” parameter The “reloaded” option is useful if the service needs to reload the configuration file. The “enable” parameter allows you to decide if the service should start on boot or not. The “arguments or args” parameter allows you to specify some additional arguments provided on the command line.

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demo

Enable services on boot and start on remote hosts with Ansible Playbook. Included code and demo with chronyd.service NTP server on a RedHat Enterprise Linux 8.

code

service_enable_on_boot.yml

---
- name: service module demo
  hosts: all
  become: true
  vars:
    services_on_boot:
      - "chronyd.service"
  tasks:
    - name: populate service facts
      ansible.builtin.service_facts:
    - name: enable services on boot
      ansible.builtin.service:
        name: "{{ item }}"
        enabled: true
        state: started
      when: "item in services"
      with_items: '{{ services_on_boot }}'

execution

$ ansible-playbook -i virtualmachines/demo/inventory enable\ services\ on\ boot/service.yml
PLAY [service module demo] ************************************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] ****************************************************************************
ok: [demo.example.com]
TASK [populate service facts] *********************************************************************
ok: [demo.example.com]
TASK [enable services on boot] ************************************************************************
changed: [demo.example.com] => (item=chronyd.service)
PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************
demo.example.com           : ok=3    changed=1    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0

before execution

$ ssh [email protected]
[devops@demo ~]$ sudo su
[root@demo devops]# cat /etc/redhat-release 
Red Hat Enterprise Linux release 8.4 (Ootpa)
[root@demo devops]# rpm -qa | grep chrony
chrony-3.5-2.el8.x86_64
[root@demo devops]# systemctl status chronyd.service
● chronyd.service - NTP client/server
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/chronyd.service; disabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: inactive (dead)
     Docs: man:chronyd(8)
           man:chrony.conf(5)
[root@demo devops]#

after execution

$ ssh [email protected]
[devops@demo ~]$ sudo su
[root@demo devops]# systemctl status chronyd.service
● chronyd.service - NTP client/server
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/chronyd.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Mon 2021-11-29 11:29:53 UTC; 49s ago
     Docs: man:chronyd(8)
           man:chrony.conf(5)
  Process: 1729 ExecStartPost=/usr/libexec/chrony-helper update-daemon (code=exited, status=0/SUCC>
  Process: 1725 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/chronyd $OPTIONS (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 1727 (chronyd)
    Tasks: 1 (limit: 4943)
   Memory: 844.0K
   CGroup: /system.slice/chronyd.service
           └─1727 /usr/sbin/chronyd
Nov 29 11:29:53 demo.example.com systemd[1]: Starting NTP client/server...
Nov 29 11:29:53 demo.example.com chronyd[1727]: chronyd version 3.5 starting (+CMDMON +NTP +REFCLO>
Nov 29 11:29:53 demo.example.com chronyd[1727]: Frequency -491.773 +/- 29.501 ppm read from /var/l>
Nov 29 11:29:53 demo.example.com chronyd[1727]: Using right/UTC timezone to obtain leap second data
Nov 29 11:29:53 demo.example.com systemd[1]: Started NTP client/server.
Nov 29 11:29:59 demo.example.com chronyd[1727]: Selected source 81.25.28.124
Nov 29 11:29:59 demo.example.com chronyd[1727]: System clock TAI offset set to 37 seconds
Nov 29 11:29:59 demo.example.com chronyd[1727]: System clock wrong by 1.840437 seconds, adjustment>
Nov 29 11:30:00 demo.example.com chronyd[1727]: System clock was stepped by 1.840437 seconds
[root@demo devops]# reboot
Connection to demo.example.com closed by remote host.
Connection to demo.example.com closed.
ansible-pilot $ ssh [email protected]
[devops@demo ~]$ sudo su
[root@demo devops]# systemctl status chronyd.service
● chronyd.service - NTP client/server
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/chronyd.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Mon 2021-11-29 11:31:32 UTC; 28s ago
     Docs: man:chronyd(8)
           man:chrony.conf(5)
  Process: 825 ExecStartPost=/usr/libexec/chrony-helper update-daemon (code=exited, status=0/SUCCE>
  Process: 811 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/chronyd $OPTIONS (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 820 (chronyd)
    Tasks: 1 (limit: 4943)
   Memory: 1.5M
   CGroup: /system.slice/chronyd.service
           └─820 /usr/sbin/chronyd
Nov 29 11:31:32 demo.example.com systemd[1]: Starting NTP client/server...
Nov 29 11:31:32 demo.example.com chronyd[820]: chronyd version 3.5 starting (+CMDMON +NTP +REFCLOC>
Nov 29 11:31:32 demo.example.com chronyd[820]: Frequency -389.145 +/- 224.519 ppm read from /var/l>
Nov 29 11:31:32 demo.example.com chronyd[820]: Using right/UTC timezone to obtain leap second data
Nov 29 11:31:32 demo.example.com systemd[1]: Started NTP client/server.
Nov 29 11:31:39 demo.example.com chronyd[820]: Selected source 81.25.28.124
Nov 29 11:31:39 demo.example.com chronyd[820]: System clock TAI offset set to 37 seconds
Nov 29 11:31:39 demo.example.com chronyd[820]: System clock wrong by 2.026567 seconds, adjustment >
Nov 29 11:31:41 demo.example.com chronyd[820]: System clock was stepped by 2.026567 seconds
Nov 29 11:31:43 demo.example.com chronyd[820]: Selected source 89.221.210.188
[root@demo devops]#

code with ❤️ in GitHub

Recap

Now you know how to start and enable services on boot on Linux remote hosts with Ansible. Subscribe to the YouTube channel, Medium, and Website, X (formerly Twitter) to not miss the next episode of the Ansible Pilot.