.. meta::
   
   :title: Ansible Playbooks for Confluent Platform
   :keywords: Confluent Ansible, Ansible, Ansible Playbooks
   :description: This guide provides instructions for using Confluent's Ansible playbooks to automate the deployment of Confluent Platform. It also provides information about how to configure several security options.
   
.. _cp-ansible-playbooks:

|ansible|
=========

The topics in this section describe using Ansible Playbooks to install |cp|.

The topics assume basic knowledge of how Ansible playbooks work.  If you
want to learn more about Ansible playbooks, see these resources:

* `How to build your inventory <https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/user_guide/intro_inventory.html>`__
* `Ansible Essentials On-Demand Webinar (Red Hat) <https://www.ansible.com/resources/webinars-training/introduction-to-ansible>`__

.. important::
   
   **Support:** For |cp| 5.3 and later, the Ansible playbooks are fully supported for those with a Confluent Support contract. Any issues encountered can be reported to Confluent Support at
   https://support.confluent.io.  For those without a Confluent Support
   contract, issues can be reported using the `cp-ansible GitHub repo <https://github.com/confluentinc/cp-ansible/issues>`__ and are addressed on a
   best-effort basis.
   
   **Feature recommendations:** For those with a Confluent Support contract, future work and additional features should be filed by opening a case with Confluent Support at https://support.confluent.io. For those without a Confluent Support contract, review the `Contributing document <https://github.com/confluentinc/cp-ansible/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md>`__.

Ansible offers a simple way to configure and deploy |cp|. The
`cp-ansible  <https://github.com/confluentinc/cp-ansible>`__ repository provides
the playbooks and templates that allow you to easily provision the |cp| in your
environment.

.. note::
  
  |ansible| is for first-time installs only. It should not be used to update
  configuration in place.
  
The Ansible playbooks provided by Confluent perform the following operations:

* Installs |cp| packages.
* Starts services using ``systemd`` scripts.
* Provides variables for configuring various security settings between |cp| component services:

  - SSL (one way and two way) with self-signed certs or custom certs
  - SASL (Kerberos, PLAIN, SCRAM)

You can install the services listed below using the Ansible playbooks provided
by Confluent:

* |zk-full|
* |ak-tm|
* |sr-long|
* |crest|
* |c3|
* |kconnect-long| (distributed mode)
* |ksqldb|
  
With the exception of |c3|, all |cp| components are installed with Jolokia enabled and metrics exposed.

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 1
   :hidden:
   
   ansible-requirements
   ansible-download
   ansible-inventory
   ansible-configure
   ansible-security
   ansible-adv-deployments
   ansible-install
   ansible-troubleshooting
   ansible-upgrade
   
===================
Suggested resources
===================

* Learn more about |ansible| in `The Easiest Way to Install Apache Kafka and Confluent Platform using Ansible <https://www.confluent.io/blog/confluent-platform-installation-with-cp-ansible>`__.
* Listen to the podcast `Installing Apache Kafka with Ansible <https://confluent.buzzsprout.com/186154/2088030-installing-apache-kafka-with-ansible-ft-viktor-gamov-and-justin-manchester>`__.