community.docker.nsenter connection – execute on host running controller container

Note

This connection plugin is part of the community.docker collection (version 4.2.0).

You might already have this collection installed if you are using the ansible package. It is not included in ansible-core. To check whether it is installed, run ansible-galaxy collection list.

To install it, use: ansible-galaxy collection install community.docker.

To use it in a playbook, specify: community.docker.nsenter.

New in community.docker 1.9.0

Synopsis

  • This connection plugin allows Ansible, running in a privileged container, to execute tasks on the container host instead of in the container itself.

  • This is useful for running Ansible in a pull model, while still keeping the Ansible control node containerized.

  • It relies on having privileged access to run nsenter in the host’s PID namespace, allowing it to enter the namespaces of the provided PID (default PID 1, or init/systemd).

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

nsenter_pid

integer

PID to attach with using nsenter.

The default should be fine unless you are attaching as a non-root user.

Default: 1

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [nsenter_connection]
nsenter_pid = 1

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_NSENTER_PID

  • Variable: ansible_nsenter_pid

Notes

Note

  • The remote user is ignored; this plugin always runs as root.

  • This plugin requires the Ansible controller container to be launched in the following way: (1) The container image contains the nsenter program; (2) The container is launched in privileged mode; (3) The container is launched in the host’s PID namespace (--pid host).

Authors

  • Jeff Goldschrafe (@jgoldschrafe)

Hint

Configuration entries for each entry type have a low to high priority order. For example, a variable that is lower in the list will override a variable that is higher up.