vps/runbooks/ansible-operations.md

Runbook: routine operations through Ansible

Purpose

Routine operations (health, reconcile, maintenance) through the Ansible playbooks.

Scope

• Applicable: every inventory host, run from ansible/.
• Not applicable: arbitrary remote commands — the reconcile playbook is allowlisted and gated.

Run commands from ansible/. The inventory forces IPv4 and uses the windy account with sudo. Do a read-only health pass before any reconciliation.

Safety

• Read-only health pass before any reconciliation.
• Mutating playbooks require explicit confirmation variables; do not bypass them.
• If a reconcile target or service name is not allowlisted, STOP — do not invent one.

Health report (read-only)

cd ansible
ansible-playbook playbooks/health-report.yml
ansible-playbook playbooks/health-report.yml --limit mailcow
ansible-playbook playbooks/health-report.yml --limit matrix

This invokes the existing server-local checks and prints sanitized output; it does not expose secrets or alter application configuration. A warning or critical health result makes the play fail deliberately.

If the local health check has not been installed yet, deploy it first:

ansible-playbook playbooks/healthchecks.yml
ansible-playbook playbooks/matrix-healthchecks.yml

Reconcile a known Compose service (mutating)

Only use this after a reviewed configuration change that requires a recreate. The allowlist and flags are in inventory; arbitrary commands and service names are rejected. Run one host at a time and re-run the health report afterwards.

# PowerDNS auth after its configuration changed
ansible-playbook playbooks/compose-reconcile.yml --limit powerdns \
  -e '{"service_reconcile_confirm": true, "service_reconcile_targets": ["auth"]}'

# Vaultwarden, including the documented Traefik refresh for a post-recreate 404
ansible-playbook playbooks/compose-reconcile.yml --limit vaultwarden \
  -e '{"service_reconcile_confirm": true, "service_reconcile_targets": ["vaultwarden"], "service_reconcile_restart_traefik": true}'

# Poweradmin after changing its environment or Traefik labels; restart its
# Traefik container only when the UI is returning 404
ansible-playbook playbooks/compose-reconcile.yml --limit powerdns \
  -e '{"service_reconcile_confirm": true, "service_reconcile_targets": ["poweradmin"], "service_reconcile_restart_traefik": true}'

Do not use this playbook for a Mailcow update, database migration, DNS record change, or secret rotation. Those operations require their dedicated reviewed and, where appropriate, interactive procedures.

Host-level maintenance

These playbooks cover every inventory host, including the Matrix K3s node:

# Read-only pending package and reboot report
ansible-playbook playbooks/maintenance-preview.yml

# Baseline observations; logrotate management remains opt-in
ansible-playbook playbooks/baseline.yml

us4 firewalld reconciliation

The us4 playbook owns only the audited public zone allowlist. It fails closed on unknown services or ports, never reloads/restarts firewalld, and does not manage Docker-published ports.

cd ansible
ansible-galaxy collection install -r requirements.yml

# Read-only preview
ansible-playbook playbooks/us4-firewalld.yml --limit us4 --check --diff

# Apply only after testing the provider console and retaining an independent
# SSH rollback session.
ansible-playbook playbooks/us4-firewalld.yml --limit us4 \
  -e '{"us4_firewalld_confirm": true, "us4_console_confirm": true}'

Apply creates a protected server-local backup and schedules a 15-minute automatic rollback before changing rules. The rollback is cancelled only after the playbook verifies fresh SSH/sudo access, public HTTPS routes, SMTP, Docker, Fail2ban, and WireGuard. Do not bypass either confirmation variable.

UniFi SSO login setting (mutating)

Reconciles super_sdn.sso_login_enabled on the UniFi controller (host ubnt, group unifi). Idempotent and gated: without unifi_sso_confirm=true the playbook only reports the current state and refuses to change anything.

# Read-only status report
ansible-playbook playbooks/unifi-sso.yml --limit unifi --check

# Apply (disable SSO login; local accounts use local passwords, no MFA)
ansible-playbook playbooks/unifi-sso.yml --limit unifi \
  -e '{"unifi_sso_confirm": true, "unifi_sso_target_value": false}'

# Rollback (re-enable SSO login)
ansible-playbook playbooks/unifi-sso.yml --limit unifi \
  -e '{"unifi_sso_confirm": true, "unifi_sso_target_value": true}'

The controller container is not restarted by default; the UI path applies the setting immediately. Set unifi_sso_restart_controller: true only when the setting was changed directly in the DB while the controller was running.