General Configuration

Managing LinchPin requires a few configuration files. Most configurations are stored in the :code1.5:`linchpin configuration <linchpin/linchpin.constants>` file.

Note

in versions before 1.5.1, the file was called linchpin.conf. This changed in 1.5.1 due to backward compatibility requirements, and the need to load configuration defaults. The linchpin.conf continues to work as expected.

The settings in this file are loaded automatically as defaults.

However, it’s possible to override any setting in linchpin. For the command line shell, three different locations are checked for linchpin.conf files. Files are checked in the following order:

  1. /etc/linchpin.conf

  2. ~/.config/linchpin/linchpin.conf

  3. /path/to/workspace/linchpin.conf

The LinchPin configuration parser supports overriding and extending configurations. If linchpin finds the same section and setting in more than one file, the header that was parsed more recently will provide the configuration. In this way user can override default configurations. Commonly, this is done by placing a linchpin.conf in the root of the workspace.

Adding/Overriding a Section

New in version 1.2.0

Adding a section to the configuration is simple. The best approach is to create a linchpin.conf in the appropriate location from the locations above.

Once created, add a section. The section can be a new section, or it can overwrite an existing section.

[lp]
# move the rundb_connection to a global scope
rundb_conn = %(default_config_path)s/rundb/rundb-::mac::.json

module_folder = library
rundb_conn = ~/.config/linchpin/rundb-::mac::.json

rundb_type = TinyRunDB
rundb_conn_type = file
rundb_schema = {"action": "",
                "inputs": [],
                "outputs": [],
                "start": "",
                "end": "",
                "rc": 0,
                "uhash": ""}
rundb_hash = sha256

dateformat = %%m/%%d/%%Y %%I:%%M:%%S %%p
default_pinfile = PinFile

Warning

For version 1.5.0 and earlier, if overwriting a section, all entries from the entire section must be updated.

Overriding a configuration item

New in version 1.5.1

Each item within a section can be a new setting, or override a default setting, as shown.

[lp]
# move the rundb_connection to a global scope
rundb_conn = ~/.config/linchpin/rundb-::mac::.json

As can be plainly seen, the configuration has been updated to use a different path to the rundb_conn. This section now uses a user-based RunDB, which can be useful in some scenarios.

Useful Configuration Options

These are some configuration options that may be useful to adjust for your needs. Each configuration option listed here is in a format of section.option.

Note

For clarity, this would appear in a configuration file where the section is in brackets (eg. [section]) and the option would have a option = value set within the section.

lp.external_providers_path

New in version 1.5.0

Default value: %(default_config_path)s/linchpin-x

Providers playbooks can be created outside of the core of linchpin, if desired. When using these external providers, linchpin will use the external_providers_path to lookup the playbooks and attempt to run them.

See Examples for all Providers for more information.

lp.rundb_conn

New in version 1.2.0

Default value:
  • v1.2.0: /home/user/.config/linchpin/rundb-<macaddress>.json

  • v1.2.2+: /path/to/workspace/.rundb/rundb.json

The RunDB is a single json file, which records each transaction involving resources. A run_id and uHash are assigned, along with other useful information. The lp.rundb_conn describes the location to store the RunDB so data can be retrieved during execution.

evars._async

Updated in version 1.2.0

Default value: False

Previous key name: evars.async

Some providers (eg. openstack, aws, ovirt) support asynchronous provisioning. This means that a topology containing many resources would provision or destroy all at once. LinchPin then waits for responses from these asynchronous tasks, and returns the success or failure. If the amount of resources is large, asynchronous tasks reduce the wait time immensely.

Reason for change: Avoiding conflict with existing Ansible variable.

Starting in Ansible 2.4.x, the async variable could not be set internally. The _async value is now passed in and sets the Ansible async variable to its value.

evars.default_credentials_path

Default value: %(default_config_path)s

Storing credentials for multiple providers can be useful. It also may be useful to change the default here to point to a given location.

Note

The --creds-path option, or $CREDS_PATH environment variable overrides this option

evars.inventory_file

Default value: None

If the unique-hash feature is turned on, the default inventory_file value is built up by combining the workspace path, inventories_folder topology_name, the uhash, and the extensions.inventory configuration value. The resulting file might look like this:

/path/to/workspace/inventories/dummy_cluster-049e.inventory

It may be desired to store the inventory without the uhash, or define a completely different structure altogether.

ansible.console

Default value: False

This configuration option controls whether the output from the Ansible console is printed. In the linchpin CLI tool, it’s the equivalent of the -v (--verbose) option.