Ansible LDAP Inventory Plugin

This plugin was designed to query active directory and get a list of machines to use as an inventory. Groups are auto generated off of OU structure and optionally group membership. So for example cn=computer1,ou=servers,ou=windows,dc=mycompany,dc=local would create the following inventory :

    "all": {
        "children": [
            "windows"
        ]
    },
    "windows": {
        "children": [
            "windows_servers"
        ]
    },
    "windows_servers": {
        "hosts": [
            "computer1"
        ]
    }

Prerequisites

The ldap inventory works with python2 and python3.

The following package is required :

• python-ldap

It can be installed in one of the following ways :

pip install -r requirements.txt

or

pip install python-ldap

Configuration Example

Place the file ldap_inventory.py into your base folder under .\plugins\inventory\

Create a file that ends with ldap_inventory.yaml in your base directory. It is recommended you vault the entire file if storing passwords in plaintext(until ansible supports vaulted strings in config files) ansible-vault edit ldap_inventory.yaml

LDAP_USER, LDAP_PASS and SEARCH_OU environmental variables can be used instead of including them in the configuration file. This is helpful if using the plugin in Ansible Tower/AWX.

Example ldap_inventory.yaml :

---
plugin: ldap_inventory
domain: 'ldaps://adserver.domain.local:636'
username: user@domain.local
password: "password"
search_ou: "OU=Servers,OU=Windows,DC=domain,DC=local"

Parameters

account_age

LDAP attribute filter for the lastLogonTimestamp field. This value is generally updated every 14 days. Timestamps older indicate inactive computer accounts. Setting to 0 disables check. Value is in days.

• default: 0

auth_type

Defines the type of authentication used when connecting to Active Directory (LDAP). When using simple, the username and password parameters must be set. When using gssapi, run kinit before running Ansible to get a valid Kerberos ticket.

• allowed values: simple, gssapi
• default: simple

domain

The domain to search in to retrieve inventory. This could either be a Windows domain name visible to the Ansible controller from DNS or a specific domain controller FQDN. Supports either just the domain/host name or an explicit LDAP URI with the domain/host already filled in. If the URI is set, port and scheme are ignored.

• required: true

examples:

domain: "local.com"

domain: "dc1.local.com"

domain: "ldaps://dc1.local.com:636"

domain: "ldap://dc1.local.com"

group_membership

Enables parsing the ldap groups that the computer account is a memberOf. Groups are returned lower case.

• default: "False"

example:

group_membership: True

group_membership_filter

When we query for Group membership of the computer object, this allows you to only include names that match the pattern provided.

• default: ""

example:

group_membership: "security-*"

exclude_groups

Exclude a list of groups from being included in the inventory. This will match substrings.

• default: ""

example:

exclude_groups: "windows_group1,windows_group2"

exclude_hosts

Exclude a list of hosts from being included in the inventory. This will match substrings.

• default: ""

example:

exclude_hosts: "hostname1,hostname2"

extra_groups

Add a list of groups to the inventory under the top-level all group and place all hosts into these groups. This is useful in an AWX/Tower scenario where hosts need to be put into a named group to pick up variable values specific to that. AWX/Tower performs this variable assignment at inventory sync time and not playbook execution time.

• default: []

example:

extra_groups:
  - foo
  - bar
  - baz

fqdn_format

Specifies if we should use FQDN instead of shortname for hosts.

• Allow Values: True, False
• Default: False

ldap_filter

LDAP filter used to find objects. You should not usually need to change this.

• Allowed Values: RFC 4515
• Default: "(objectClass=Computer)"

online_only

Performs a ping check of the machine before adding to inventory. Note: Does not work under bubblewrap (Tower/AWX) due to setuid flag of ping.

• Allow Values: True, False
• Default: False

password

Password used to authenticate LDAP user when auth_type is set to simple. Can use environmental variable LDAP_PASSWORD instead of setting in config.

• required: true

example:

password: "Password123!"

port

Port used to connect to Domain Controller. If domain URI contains ldap or ldaps this is ignored.

• Default: 389 for ldap, 636 for ldaps

scheme

The ldap scheme to use. When using ldap, it is recommended to set auth=gssapi, or start_tls=yes, otherwise traffic will be in plaintext. This parameter is not required and can be determined from the domain URI or port.

• Allowed Values: ldap, ldaps
• Default: ldap

search_ou

LDAP path to search for computer objects. Can use environmental variable SEARCH_OU instead of setting in config.

• required: true

example:

search_ou: "CN=Computers,DC=local,DC=com"

username

LDAP user account used to bind LDAP search when auth_type is set to simple. Can use environmental variable LDAP_USER instead of setting in config.

• required: true

examples:

username: "username@local.com"

username: "domain\\\\username"

validate_certs

Controls if verfication is done of SSL certificates for secure (ldaps://) connections.

• Allow Values: True, False
• Default: True

Testing

ansible-inventory -i ldap_inventory --list

ansible-inventory -i ldap_inventory --list --vault-id=@prompt (when vaulted)

** Running a playbook **

ansible-playbook -i ldap_inventory.yaml adhoc.yaml --vault-id@prompt