Hero Image
Ansible Role for Installing PaperMC

From Bedrock to Java: My Reseach for the Ultimate Minecraft Experience (with a little help from Ansible) Repository: https://github.com/apigban/papermc_role My journey into the world of Minecraft server administration started in October 2024, a shared adventure with my daughter. Like many others, we initially dove into the Bedrock edition, quickly setting up a server on our home network. It wasn’t the most elegant setup – a hastily configured LXC container in Proxmox, a far cry from well-documented infrastructure. I even dabbled with PufferPanel, but I just preferred using the Cli, so I ditched Pufferpanel.

Friday, December 20, 2024 Read
Hero Image
My Method for Testing Ansible Roles with Molecule and Proxmox Driver

This document outlines my method for testing Ansible roles using Molecule with the molecule-proxmox driver. Thanks to Michael Meffie for creating the molecule-proxmox plugin. Overview Molecule is a testing framework for Ansible roles. It has allowed me to create test scenarios that automate the process of provisioning, converging, verifying, and destroying infrastructure. The molecule-proxmox driver enables me to test my roles against virtual machines running on a Proxmox virtualization platform. Configuration Files Molecule uses several configuration files to define the test environment and the steps involved in the testing process. I typically put these files in the molecule/default/ directory.

Friday, December 20, 2024 Read
Hero Image
Automating Netbox Deployment with Ansible and Podman

Automating Netbox Deployment with Ansible and Podman Having a reliable source of truth for my infrastructure design is important. While enterprises often use AWS Systems Manager Inventory for this purpose, homelab environments need a more accessible solution. This is where Netbox comes in - an open-source infrastructure resource modeling tool that can serve as a powerful alternative for homelab environments. Why Netbox for My Homelab? It began with a specific need: I needed to simulate AWS Systems Manager Inventory functionality in my homelab environment. I needed a robust source of truth for my infrastructure, and Netbox’s IPAM (IP Address Management) capabilities offered the perfect solution to help get my homelab infrastructure to the desired state.

Tuesday, November 19, 2024 Read
Hero Image
Working with Stacked Loops in Ansible

In my homelab environment, I recently encountered an interesting challenge: I needed to execute multiple Hugo commands across multiple website directories. This led me to explore one of Ansible’s powerful features - stacked loops. In this post, I’ll share my experience and show you how to effectively use stacked loops in Ansible. The Challenge I maintain several Hugo-based websites in my homelab, each requiring the same set of commands for updates and maintenance. Manually running these commands for each site was becoming tedious and error-prone. I needed a way to automate:

Tuesday, November 19, 2024 Read