Troubleshooting the rulebook using CURL.

What’s in this break-fix section?

In this section, you will explore the basic artifacts of Event-Driven Ansible(Automation Decisions), troubleshoot an error encountered while executing the ansible-rulebook command, and verify its functionality after resolving the issue.

What is ansible-rulebook? The ansible-rulebook command is similar to ansible-playbook, but more oriented to "if-then" scenarios.

A rulebook is comprised of three main components:

  • Sources define which event source we will use. These sources come from source plugins which have been built to accommodate common use cases. With time, more and more sources will be available. There are some source plugins that are available already, including: webhooks, Kafka, Azure service bus, file changes, and alertmanager.

  • Rules define conditionals we will try to match from the event source. Should the condition be met, then we can trigger an action.

  • Actions trigger what you need to happen should a condition be met. Some of the current actions are: run_playbook, run_module, set_fact, post_event, debug.

Follow the below steps to proceed with the activity:

  1. From bastion, access the node1 instance via SSH.

    ssh node1
    Output
    [lab-user@bastion ~]$ ssh node1
Last login: Fri Nov 29 06:30:21 2024 from 192.168.0.33
[ec2-user@node1 ~]$

  2. Navigate to the 01-lab directory.

    cd 01-lab
ls
    Output
    [ec2-user@node1 ~]$ cd 01-lab/
[ec2-user@node1 01-lab]$ ls
hello-rh1.yml  inventory.yml  webhook-example.yml
[ec2-user@node1 01-lab]$

  3. Check the rulebook, playbook, and inventory files in the lab directory and try to understand their purpose.

    less webhook-example.yml
less hello-rh1.yml
less inventory.yml

  4. From the lab’s directory in the terminal, run the ansible-rulebook command as shown below.

    ansible-rulebook --rulebook webhook-example.yml -i inventory.yml --verbose  --print-events
    Output
    [ec2-user@node1 01-lab]$ ansible-rulebook --rulebook webhook-example.yml -i inventory.yml --verbose  --print-events
2024-11-29 09:10:42,817 - ansible_rulebook.app - INFO - Starting sources
2024-11-29 09:10:42,818 - ansible_rulebook.app - INFO - Starting rules

. . .

2024-11-29 09:10:44,543 - ansible_rulebook.engine - ERROR - Source error Could not find source plugin for ansible.eda.webhook
2024-11-29 09:10:44,543 - ansible_rulebook.engine - ERROR - Shutting down source: ansible.eda.webhook error : Could not find source plugin for ansible.eda.webhook
2024-11-29 09:10:44,546 - ansible_rulebook.engine - INFO - Waiting for all ruleset tasks to end

. . .

2024-11-29 09:10:44,646 - ansible_rulebook.engine - INFO - Cancelling all ruleset tasks
2024-11-29 09:10:44,646 - ansible_rulebook.app - INFO - Cancelling event source tasks
2024-11-29 09:10:44,653 - ansible_rulebook.app - ERROR - Could not find source plugin for ansible.eda.webhook
2024-11-29 09:10:44,653 - ansible_rulebook.app - INFO - Main complete
2024-11-29 09:10:44,655 - ansible_rulebook.cli - ERROR - Terminating One of the source plugins failed
[ec2-user@node1 01-lab]$
    This is your first troubleshooting task: "ERROR - Terminating One of the source plugins failed." Please resolve this issue before proceeding to the next step.
    If the ansible-rulebook command is still running, press ctrl+c in the node1 terminal and stop it.

  5. After fixing the above issue, please run the ansible-rulebook command again to verify the fix.

    ansible-rulebook --rulebook webhook-example.yml -i inventory.yml --verbose  --print-events
    Output
    . . .
2024-12-16 11:08:32,462 - ansible_rulebook.engine - INFO - Waiting for all ruleset tasks to end
2024-12-16 11:08:32,463 - ansible_rulebook.rule_set_runner - INFO - Waiting for actions on events from Listen for events on a webhook
2024-12-16 11:08:32,463 - ansible_rulebook.rule_set_runner - INFO - Waiting for events, ruleset: Listen for events on a webhook

  6. With the ansible-rulebook running on the node1 terminal, access the second terminal and run the curl command from bastion host to proceed.

    curl -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"event_name:" "Hello" }' node1:5000/endpoint
    Output
    Invalid JSON payload
    Attempt to fix the error generated by the curl command.
    If you encounter the error "curl: (7) Failed to connect to node1 port 5000: Connection refused", this means that the ansible-rulebook command is not running on node1.

This concludes your first troubleshooting activity. Please press Ctrl-C to exit the ansible-rulebook on node1 and proceed to the next activity.

PAUSE

Before moving ahead

Please take a moment to solve the challenge on your own.

The real value of this activity lies in your effort to troubleshoot independently.

Once you have tried, continue to the next section for guided steps to verify your approach or learn an alternate solution.

CONTINUE

Guided solution

  1. Note the errors related to the Ansible EDA plugin in the output generated by the ansible-rulebook command.

    Output
    ERROR - Could not find source plugin for ansible.eda.webhook
...
ERROR - Terminating One of the source plugins failed

  2. Install the Ansible Galaxy collection ansible.eda.

    ansible-galaxy collection install ansible.eda
    Output
    [ec2-user@node1 01-lab]$ ansible-galaxy collection install ansible.eda
Starting galaxy collection install process
Process install dependency map
Starting collection install process
Downloading https://galaxy.ansible.com/api/v3/plugin/ansible/content/published/collections/artifacts/ansible-eda-2.2.0.tar.gz to /home/ec2-user/.ansible/tmp/ansible-local-31890ne19swmy/tmp9ok98ogw/ansible-eda-2.2.0-r410por3
Installing 'ansible.eda:2.2.0' to '/home/ec2-user/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections/ansible/eda'
ansible.eda:2.2.0 was installed successfully
[ec2-user@node1 01-lab]$

  3. Run the ansible-rulebook command again.

    ansible-rulebook --rulebook webhook-example.yml -i inventory.yml --verbose  --print-events
    Output
    [ec2-user@node1 01-lab]$ ansible-rulebook --rulebook webhook-example.yml -i inventory.yml --verbose  --print-events
2024-11-29 09:18:25,916 - ansible_rulebook.app - INFO - Starting sources
2024-11-29 09:18:25,916 - ansible_rulebook.app - INFO - Starting rules
2024-11-29 09:18:25,917 - drools.ruleset - INFO - Using jar: /usr/lib/python3.9/site-packages/drools/jars/drools-ansible-rulebook-integration-runtime-1.0.6.Final-redhat-00001.jar
2024-11-29 09:18:27 088 [main] INFO org.drools.ansible.rulebook.integration.api.rulesengine.AbstractRulesEvaluator - Start automatic pseudo clock with a tick every 100 milliseconds
2024-11-29 09:18:27,116 - ansible_rulebook.engine - INFO - load source ansible.eda.webhook
2024-11-29 09:18:27,863 - ansible_rulebook.engine - INFO - loading source filter eda.builtin.insert_meta_info
2024-11-29 09:18:28,601 - ansible_rulebook.engine - INFO - Waiting for all ruleset tasks to end
2024-11-29 09:18:28 601 [drools-async-evaluator-thread] INFO org.drools.ansible.rulebook.integration.api.io.RuleExecutorChannel - Async channel connected
2024-11-29 09:18:28,602 - ansible_rulebook.rule_set_runner - INFO - Waiting for actions on events from Listen for events on a webhook
2024-11-29 09:18:28,602 - ansible_rulebook.rule_set_runner - INFO - Waiting for events, ruleset: Listen for events on a webhook

    Note that the command does not error out and waits to listen for events on the webhook.

  4. In another terminal, run the curl command from the bastion host.

    curl -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"event_name": "Hello" }' node1:5000/endpoint
    Notice how the semicolon was originally on the inside of the double quote, but in the command above it is on the outside of it.

  5. Go back to the terminal where the ansible-rulebook command was running and observe the output generated.

    Output
    . . .

** 2024-11-29 09:22:07.667842 [received event] ******************************************************************************************************
Ruleset: Listen for events on a webhook
Event:
{'meta': {'endpoint': 'endpoint',
          'headers': {'Accept': '*/*',
                      'Content-Length': '24',
                      'Content-Type': 'application/json',
                      'Host': 'node1:5000',
                      'User-Agent': 'curl/7.76.1'},
          'received_at': '2024-11-29T09:22:07.666975Z',
          'source': {'name': 'ansible.eda.webhook',
                     'type': 'ansible.eda.webhook'},
          'uuid': '5a9303b6-4863-4be7-b0da-7367afc21d6f'},
 'payload': {'event_name': 'Hello'}}
*****************************************************************************************************************************************************
2024-11-29 09:22:07 672 [main] INFO org.drools.ansible.rulebook.integration.api.rulesengine.MemoryMonitorUtil - Memory occupation threshold set to 90%
2024-11-29 09:22:07 672 [main] INFO org.drools.ansible.rulebook.integration.api.rulesengine.MemoryMonitorUtil - Memory check event count threshold set to 64
2024-11-29 09:22:07 672 [main] INFO org.drools.ansible.rulebook.integration.api.rulesengine.MemoryMonitorUtil - Exit above memory occupation threshold set to false

PLAY [localhost] ***************************************************************

TASK [Gathering Facts] *********************************************************
ok: [localhost]

TASK [debug] *******************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
    "msg": "Hello RH1"
}

PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=2    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0
2024-11-29 09:22:11,026 - ansible_rulebook.action.runner - INFO - Ansible runner Queue task cancelled
2024-11-29 09:22:11,027 - ansible_rulebook.action.run_playbook - INFO - Ansible runner rc: 0, status: successful

    Observe that EDA captured the Hello event as mentioned in the rulebook and executed the playbook to print the Hello RH1 message.

Press Ctrl-C to exit the ansible-rulebook on node1.