This repository is an experimental notebook for integrating Ansible, Docker (Docker-in-Docker), and Sysbox.

• Custom CI/CD Runners and Pipelines
• Sandboxed Environment for testing infrastructures
• Sandboxed Environment for learning and experimentations

This process is tested on my Linux Mint Debian Edition 6 with the following details:

• Linux Kernel: 6.1.0-21-amd64
• Sysbox Version: 0.6.3
• Docker Version: 26.1.4
• Ansible Core Version: 2.17.0

Ansible is installed in a venv virtual environment with Python 3.11.7.

docker build -t <image-name> --build-arg THE_USER=<username> 
--build-arg THE_PASSWD=<password> .

Replace <image-name>, <username>, and <password> with your prefered image name, user name, and password, respectively.

Use the following command for testing:

docker run --runtime=sysbox-runc -it --rm -P --hostname=<container-hostname> --name=<container-name> <image-name>

Replace <container-hostname> and <container-name> with your prefered custom container hostname and docker container name, respectively.

As a tip before connecting to system container via SSH, use the following command to get the IP address of a specific container with given container name or id:

docker inspect -f '{{range.NetworkSettings.Networks}}{{.IPAddress}}{{end}}' <container-name>

To SSH to system container:

ssh <username>@$(docker inspect -f '{{range.NetworkSettings.Networks}}{{.IPAddress}}{{end}}' <container-name>) -p 22

Remind that <username> here is the user name you set when you build the image.

We assume that the controller (e.g. localhost) already generated their SSH Private and Public keys using ssh-keygen command.

To copy/transfer the controller's Public Key to System Container, use the following command:

ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub -p 22 <username>@$(docker inspect -f '{{range.NetworkSettings.Networks}}{{.IPAddress}}{{end}}' <container-name>)

# inventory.yml
ungrouped:
  hosts:
  ansible_container:
    ansible_port: <container-port>
    ansible_host: <container-ip>
    ansible_connection: ssh
    ansible_user: <username>

ansible -i inventory.yml all -m ping

Suppose we have the following playbook multi_line_commands.yaml for running multi-line commands:

- name: Run multi-line bash commands
  hosts: ansible_container
  become: 'yes'
  tasks:
    - name: Execute multi-line bash commands
      shell: |
        echo "Hello, this is a multi-line"
        echo "bash script executed by Ansible."
        echo "This script is running on {{ ansible_hostname }}."

        echo "Test: Creating busybox container ..."
        docker run -t -d busybox
      register: command_output
    - name: Display command output
      debug:
        msg: '{{ command_output.stdout_lines }}'

We can use the following command to execute the Ansible Playbook:

ansible-playbook -i inventory.yml multi_line_commands.yaml