This repository is for automating the management of the configuration of, and the provisioning of software for, my virtual private servers using Ansible. It's main purpose is to spin up the VPSs, create initial users and groups, import SSH or GPG keys, lock down SSH accessor harden SSH, and then install and configure packages available to the given package manager of the operating system. The bootstrap role in here serves to abstract some of these tasks for our main playbook files.

Variable Names and Their Scopes

To be able to make use of the Ansible playbooks, it is necessary to specify some variables in or at relevant scopes, though some may have some defaults. The relevant scopes variables are defined in, for our purposes, are:

Ansible inventory scope: corresponds to variables inside per-hostname files in group_vars or host_vars directories, or the inventory file itself, i.e. hosts.ini or hosts.yml. The inventory file has some enforced naming conventions to be covered later or elsewhere.
Ansible role scope: corresponds to variables found in files inside the defaults / vars directory in a role directory, or variables found in files inside subdirectory main in either defaults or vars directory of that role directory. There are favored conventional directory structure within which these variables are specified in the aforementioned directories, to be covered later or elsewhere.

Inventory Scope

Herein are listed the relevant variables at or in the inventory scope. These must be specified for a specific inventory host or group, typically in their corresponding files under group_vars or host_vars. Some variables must take in a dictionary type to be valid. To save space, there will be more detail on what keys are required or optional for such dictionaries elsewhere and not here.

name	type	value validity rule	default value	required?
`fqdn`	`\<str\>`	fully qualified domain name	none	true
`vps_service`	`\<dict{\<str\>:<str\|bool\|list\>}\>`	valid fields providing data for spinning up new VPS	none	true
`groups`	`\<dict{$group_name:\<dict\>}\>`	fields/keys that are group names with data configuring that group	none	true
`users`	`\<dict{$user_name:\<dict\>}\>`	fields/keys that are user names with data configuring that user	none	true
`keywords`	`\<list[\<str\>]\>`	strings that describe the VPS, useful for applying tags if allowed by API	none	false
`custom_vars`	`\<dict{\<str\>:\<any\>}\>`	your own custom variables, though there are some reserved variable names for this namespace	none	true (hence the reserved variable names)

Role Scope

Herein are listed the relevant variables at or in the role scope. These must be specified for a set of role tasks expected to run in a playbook for the host specified for its play. Some variables must take in a dictionary type to be valid. To save space, there will be more detail on what keys are required or optional for such dictionaries elsewhere and not here.

name	type	value validity rule	default value	required?
`software`	`\<dict{\<str\>:\<dict\>}\>`	valid fields providing data for software installations	none	false
`config`	`\<dict{$software_name:\<dict\>}\>`	software name fields providing data for configuring that software	none	false

TBC This README is yet unfinished and unverified. Check back later.