My Ubuntu Playbooks

Rebuild my Ubuntu laptop using Ansible playbooks. Just for the fun of it and to learn more about Ansible. Also automate a bunch of setup steps, eg add a new git repo to my virtualenvwrapper and bind to a the project home. A Vagrant box is used to test the Ansible playbooks.

Restore 1st steps

• create a HOME directory for the user
• install rclone
• get the rclone config from the Password Manager
• place the rclone config in ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf
• restore secret files from encrypted cloud storage
• install git
• clone this repo from github
• create a python virtual environment
• install the requirements: wheel, ansible, mitogen, ..
• deploy

Test on the vagrant box

First create a vagrant box

$ vagrant up

Run defined tests on the vagrant box.

laptop$ vagrant ssh --command "cd /vagrant; ANSIBLE_INVENTORY=hosts ./test.sh"

Then test the ansible playbooks on the vagrant box

• all tasks

  $ vagrant ssh
  vagrant$ cd /vagrant
  vagrant$ ansible-playbook --inventory-file=hosts deploy.yml

• one role at a time using the tags defined in deploy.yml

  vagrant$ ansible-playbook --inventory-file=hosts deploy.yml --tags setup

Deploy from laptop onto the vagrant box

• deploy onto the vagrant box via ssh

  laptop$ ansible-playbook --inventory-file=.vagrant/provisioners/ansible/inventory/vagrant_ansible_inventory deploy.yml --tags terminator

Run on laptop

In my usual workflow I change the ansible script, for example add a new alias aliases.zsh, and then deploy to my laptop with

laptop$ ansible-playbook --inventory-file=hosts deploy.yml --tags=alias --extra-vars 'as_root=no'

Use Ansible container instead of local Ansible install

docker pull cytopia/ansible:latest

docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/data cytopia/ansible ansible-playbook --inventory-file=hosts deploy.yml

Categories and the major software that I use

devops

automate everything and so everything is reproducible. it can be run again and again. makes testing, load testing, building and deploying easy. also great for scaling.

• virtualbox
• vagrant
• ansible
• docker

aws

tools to access, manage and deploy.

• jungledisk
• s3cmd
• awscli
• rclone

jvm development

• scala
• java runtime
• maven and sbt

python development

great python packages to help writing great code. use functional programming, TDD, dependency injection, database abstraction, database migration.

• virtualenv
• nose, pyvows, hypothesis
• toolz, pyrsistent, effect
• inject
• sqlalchemy, agnostic

system programming

programming languages for high performance and system level access.

• dmd (d compiler)
• C, C++

data analysis

wrangle, plot, predict, test hypothesis, estimate.

py-data

• anaconda
• numpy, scipy, sympy, Jupyter, Seaborn, scikit-learn

development tools

write code with fully fledged IDE or lightweight editor. plugins can be used to extend the functionality.

• intellij idea
• vscode
• vim
• git
• meld

intellij plugins

• maven helper
• scala
• python
• elixir
• markdown support

vim plugins

• YouCompleteMe
• syntastic
• UltiSnips
• NerdTree
• tagbar
• vim-fugitive
• vim-airline

system tools

look under the hood.

performance

show and measure what is happening in the Linux kernel.

• SystemTap, perf_events, dtrace4linux, ktap, lttng
• strace, ftrace, ltrace, ss, sysdig, tiptop
• mpstat, vmstat, netstat, iostat

user account

github repos

• create workspace(s) in HOME
• git clone projects into the workspace(s)

office tools

communicate. create and manage documents, files.

• firefox
• libre office
• FocusWriter
• artha thesaurus
• Kazam
• Screenkey
• 7zip, bzip2
• Midnight Commander

firefox plugins

• FileZilla

media

view and process photos, e-books, audio and video.

• rawtherapee
• vlc media player
• ripperX
• dvdrip
• OpenShot
• Calibre

games

• pychess

eye candy

give Linux the look-and-feel I like. unfortunately haven`t figured out how to configure a "glass look"

• all backgrounds are transparent, blurred
• drop-down menu are transparent, blurred
• ...

tools for UI tweaks. did a few tweaks.

• Compiz config manager (CCSM)

  sudo apt-get install ccsm

Compiz config settings manager, Unity plugin

• set opacity for launcher
• set opacity for panel (or use Unity Tweak Tool)

browse and download a theme

gnome-look.org
sudo apt-get install arc-theme

set theme in Unity Tweak Tool

• current theme is Arc-dark

change desktop background

• ghost-in-the-shell

terminator

• transparency of background