Working with Bridges & Links

When working with bridges and links, the Ansible playbook needs to configure both sides of the bridge or link. For example, when configuring a bridge between two brokers broker_a and broker_b the sequence is as follows:

client username:: for the bridge to use to connect to the remote broker
queue:: the queue for the bridge
queue subscription:: the subscription to events going into the queue
bridge:: the bridge
bridge remote vpn:: the remote broker connection
bridge remote subscription:: the subscription to events going across the bridge

The key here is that the above sequence needs to be run on broker_a AND broker_b whilst having access to the remote broker’s facts.

Let’s use the following inventory file:

defines two brokers: broker_a and broker_b
on each broker, defines the bridge remote counterpart: broker_a==>broker_b and broker_b==>broker_a

---
all:
  hosts:
    broker_a:
      # ansible-solace module configuration
      broker_type: local
      ansible_connection: local
      sempv2_host: broker_a_vm.messaging.acme.com
      sempv2_port: 8080
      sempv2_is_secure_connection: false
      sempv2_username: admin
      sempv2_password: admin
      sempv2_timeout: '60'
      vpn: broker_a_vpn
      virtual_router: primary
      # bridge remote counterpart configuration
      bridge_1:
        remote_host: broker_b
        remote_vpn: broker_b_vpn
    broker_b:
      # ansible-solace module configuration
      broker_type: local
      ansible_connection: local
      sempv2_host: broker_b_vm.messaging.acme.com
      sempv2_port: 8080
      sempv2_is_secure_connection: false
      sempv2_username: admin
      sempv2_password: admin
      sempv2_timeout: '60'
      vpn: broker_b_vpn
      virtual_router: primary
      # bridge remote counterpart configuration
      bridge_1:
        remote_host: broker_a
        remote_vpn: broker_a_vpn

Let’s take this cut down playbook:

tasks:
  - solace_gather_facts:

  - solace_client_username:
    name: bridge_1
    settings:
      enabled: true
      password: bridge_1_password
    state: present

  # ... create queue, subscription

  - solace_bridge:
    name: bridge_1
    settings:
      enabled: false
      remoteAuthenticationBasicClientUsername: bridge_1
      remoteAuthenticationBasicPassword: bridge_1_password
      remoteAuthenticationScheme: basic
    state: present

    # read the bridge parameters from the inventory
  - set_fact:
      remote_inventory_hostname: "{{ bridge_1.remote_host }}"
      remote_vpn: "{{ bridge_1.remote_vpn }}"

    # get the facts of the remote broker
  - solace_get_facts:
      hostvars: "{{ hostvars }}"
      hostvars_inventory_hostname: "{{ remote_inventory_hostname }}"
      msg_vpn: "{{ remote_vpn }}"
      get_functions:
        - get_vpnBridgeRemoteMsgVpnLocations
    register: remote_host_bridge

    # set the remote parameters on the bridge
  - solace_bridge_remote_vpn:
      name: "{{ remote_vpn }}"
      bridge_name: bridge_1
      bridge_virtual_router: auto
      # choose the correct remote location depending on the settings.tlsEnabled, settings.compressedDataEnabled
      remote_vpn_location: "{{ remote_host_bridge.facts.vpnBridgeRemoteMsgVpnLocations.plain }}"
      settings:
        enabled: false
        tlsEnabled: false
        compressedDataEnabled: false
        queueBinding: bridge_1
      state: present

  # ... add a trusted common name if required

  - solace_bridge_remote_subscription:
      bridge_name: bridge_1
      bridge_virtual_router: auto
      remote_subscription_topic: "ansible/solace/test/bridge/da/>"
      settings:
        deliverAlwaysEnabled: true
      state: present

The correct execution of the above playbook depends on ensuring that it has access to the facts from all brokers in the task solace_get_facts. To achieve that, we can use a simple trick Ansible provides, setting forks=1. This ensures that each task is executed on all hosts in the inventory before the playbook moves on to the next task.

Example:

ansible-playbook \
              --forks 1 \
              -i my-inventory-file.yml
              my-bridge-playbook.yml