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Migrate from manual to Ansible-based setup

This guide provide instructions for migration of manually-installed MiaRec software to Ansible-based setup.

Why migrate?

  • It simplifies future updates. Ansible-based installation/update is a lot simpler. Basically, you can update software in one command.
  • Manual installation is deprecated. New features will be supported in Ansible-based setup only as it is easier to maintain various distributives (Centos/RedHat/Ubuntu) and their versions using a single Ansible playbook. Manual installation is also error-prone as it requires manual copy/paste of many commands.

Note, this guide assumes all-in-one setup of MiaRec, i.e. all components (database, recorder, web server) are installed on the same host. Ansible playbooks will be run from the same host (although it is possible to run playbook from a remote host).

Installation overview

  1. Install Python 2.7 (required for Centos 6)
  2. Install Ansible
  3. Download the MiaRec ansible playbooks
  4. Check existing versions of PostgreSQL and Python
  5. Create inventory file (hosts)
  6. Run setup-miarec.yml playbook to update MiaRec software

1. Install Python 2.7 (required for Centos 6 only)

This step is required for Centos 6 only as it has old version of Python 2.6. Skip this step if you are using Centos 7 or Ubuntu Server.

Verify if Python 2.7 is available on the server using the following commands:

$ which python2.7
/usr/local/bin/python2.7

$ python2.7 --version
Python 2.7.12

If Python 2.7 is installed (as shown above), then skip this step. Otherwise, install Python 2.7.

Centos 6 comes pre-installed with older version of Python (2.6). Ansible doesn't work on such old version.

We are not going to replace the older version of Python with newer. Instead, the newer version will be installed in parallel. A system-default Python will remain the same (if you call python --version, you still see version 2.6), but new version will be available by calling the exact name python2.7 --version.

Install the required packages for building python:

yum install zlib-devel bzip2-devel xz-devel openssl-devel sqlite-devel expat-devel

Download the latest stable Python 2.7 source code files from https://www.python.org/downloads/source/:

wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.7.14/Python-2.7.14.tgz

Extract source code:

tar -xzvf Python-2.7.14.tgz

Build Python binaries:

cd Python-2.7.14
./configure --prefix=/usr/local --enable-shared LDFLAGS="-Wl,-rpath /usr/local/lib"
make

Install Python using alternative installation option (altinstall). Normally, one would use “make install”; however, in order not to override system defaults - replacing the Python already used by the system - we will use make altinstall.

make altinstall

This will install python into /usr/local/bin with name, which contains version, like /usr/local/bin/python2.7.

2. Install Ansible on Centos 6/7

Download PIP installer script and run it (PIP is a tool for installing Python packages. Ansible is written in Python):

wget https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py
python2.7 get-pip.py

Install Ansible using PIP:

pip2.7 install ansible

Verify Ansible version:

ansible --version

The output should be something like:

$ ansible --version
ansible 2.3.1.0
  config file = 
  configured module search path = Default w/o overrides
  python version = 2.7.14 (default, Nov 19 2016, 06:48:10) [GCC 5.4.0 20160609]

Verify that ansible version is 2.2+ or higher and python version is 2.7. If the python version shows 3.x then the installation of Ansible is not correct. Contact the MiaRec representative for support.

3. Install Ansible on Ubuntu

Update package source lists:

sudo apt-get update

Install PIP (a tool for installing Python packages. Ansible is written in Python):

sudo apt-get install python-dev python-pip

Install Ansible using PIP:

sudo pip install ansible

Verify Ansible version:

ansible --version

The output should be something like:

$ ansible --version
ansible 2.3.1.0
  config file = 
  configured module search path = Default w/o overrides
  python version = 2.7.12 (default, Nov 19 2016, 06:48:10) [GCC 5.4.0 20160609]

Verify that ansible version is 2.2+ or higher and python version is 2.7. If the python version shows 3.x then the installation of Ansible is not correct. Contact the MiaRec representative for support.

4. Download the MiaRec ansible playbooks

Clone the latest stable release of the MiaRec-Ansible Git repository in the /opt/ansible-miarec directory:

yum install git

git clone --recursive https://github.com/miarec/ansible-miarec /opt/ansible-miarec

If you receive HTTP failed error, then run yum install nss to update the root SSL certificates on your server.

5. Check existing versions of PostgreSQL and Python

Navigate in MiaRec web interface to Administration -> Maintenance -> Version and notice the versions of PostreSQL database and Python. In our example, PostgreSQL version is 9.4.8 and Python is 3.4.3.

Check PostgreSQL Version

Alternatively, you can execute the following commands in console:

$ psql --version
psql (PostgreSQL) 9.4.8


$ python3.4 --version
Python 3.4.3

Most likely, Python 3.4.3 has been installed manually on this server. Note, this Python version (3.4.3) is different from the Python version 2.7 discussed above for Ansible. MiaRec software requires 3.4+, but Ansible requires 2.7. It is ok to have multiple version of Python on the same machine as long as they are installed into different directories using make altinstall command.

6. Create inventory file (hosts)

The Ansible inventory file is an INI-formatted file that defines the hosts and groups of hosts upon which commands, modules, and tasks in playbooks operate (the Inventory File is highly configurable, see the Ansible documentation for more information). This guide assumes that there is only one host (all-in-one setup).

First, check the latest release information by contacting your MiaRec representative and edit the following variables in the hosts file (discussed later):

  • miarec\_version
  • miarecweb\_version
  • miarec\_screen\_version

Create /opt/ansible-miarec/hosts file:

vim /opt/ansible-miarec/hosts

Copy/paste the following content for the hosts file. Make sure postgresql_version and python_version variables are set to the previously identified versions. Note, the PostgreSQL version should be specified in short format x.x, but Python should be specified in full format x.x.x.

[all]
; ---------------------------------
; All-in-one host
; Parameters:
;   - private_ip_address => ip address to access the host from other components
; (for example, web application needs to connecto to database)
; ---------------------------------

miarec ansible_connection=local private_ip_address=127.0.0.1


[all:vars]
; -------------------------------
; Version of installed packages
; -------------------------------
miarecweb_version   = 6.0.0.xxx
miarec_version      = 6.0.0.xxx
miarec_screen_version = 1.1.0.xxx
postgresql_version  = 9.4
python_version      = 3.4.3


[recorder]
miarec

[screen]
miarec

[db]
miarec

[redis]
miarec

[web]
miarec

[celery]
miarec

[celerybeat]
miarec

7. Run setup-miarec.yml playbook to update MiaRec software

The playbook setup-miarec.yml will install/update the MiaRec software components (recorder, web portal and screen recorder).

cd /opt/ansible-miarec

ansible-playbook setup-miarec.yml

Confirm satisfactory completion with zero items unreachable or failed:

PLAY RECAP ********************************************************************
...
miarec                :  ok=38   changed=25   unreachable=0    failed=0

Verify MiaRec operation

Verify MiaRec after update