KNELConfigMgmt-Ansible (KNELIAC)

Ansible configuration-management collection for the Known Element Enterprises fleet. This is the Ansible port of the legacy bash provisioning system that lives in PFVCluster/provisioning/, and is the project that AWX (tsys-awx.knel.net) syncs and executes.

Target hosts: Debian-family only (Debian, Ubuntu Server, Kali, Raspberry Pi OS).

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Repository layout

KNELIAC/
├── ansible.cfg                # ansible settings (roles_path, inventory, become)
├── requirements.yml           # external collections (currently none)
├── inventory/
│   ├── hosts.yml              # host inventory (physical_hosts / virtual_guests / raspberry_pi)
│   └── group_vars/all.yml     # all tunable variables (mirrors hard-coded bash values)
├── playbooks/
│   ├── hello_world.yml        # AWX smoke-test playbook
│   └── setup_new_system.yml   # full host build (port of SetupNewSystem.sh)
└── roles/
    ├── preflight              # host-class detection (physical/raspi/virt/ubuntu/kali)
    ├── oam                    # LibreNMS / check_mk agent
    ├── packages               # up2date, install fleet toolset, remove unwanted pkgs
    ├── system_config          # postfix, resolv, snmp, ntp, dhcp, lldpd, cockpit, zsh, shells
    ├── security_ssh           # sshd_config, authorized_keys, ssh-audit hardening
    ├── security_wazuh         # wazuh-agent install + hold
    ├── security_scap_stig     # GRUB perms, modprobe blacklist, banners, cron/at perms
    ├── security_2fa           # TOTP 2FA for SSH / Cockpit / Webmin
    └── security_audit         # auditd, journald, logrotate

Legacy → Ansible mapping

Legacy bash	KNELIAC role
SetupNewSystem.sh (runner)	playbooks/setup_new_system.yml
Project-Includes/PreflightCheck.sh + pi-detect.sh	roles/preflight
Modules/OAM/oam-librenms.sh	roles/oam
global-installPackages + scripts/up2date.sh	roles/packages
global-systemServiceConfigurationFiles + global-postPackageConfiguration	roles/system_config
Modules/Security/secharden-ssh.sh	roles/security_ssh
Modules/Security/secharden-wazuh.sh	roles/security_wazuh
Modules/Security/secharden-scap-stig.sh	roles/security_scap_stig
Modules/Security/secharden-2fa.sh	roles/security_2fa
Modules/Security/secharden-audit-agents.sh	roles/security_audit

Getting started with AWX

1. Create a Project in AWX pointing at this git repo.
2. Create an Inventory (either maintain hosts in AWX directly, or sync from inventory/hosts.yml).
3. Create a Job Template:
   • Playbook: playbooks/hello_world.yml
   • Run it against any host to confirm AWX can reach, become root, and gather facts. A green run = the pipeline works.
4. For the full build, create a second Job Template with playbook playbooks/setup_new_system.yml. Each phase is gated by a run_* toggle (see inventory/group_vars/all.yml), so you can enable phases incrementally.

Configuration

All knobs live in inventory/group_vars/all.yml and can be overridden per-host (inventory/host_vars/<host>.yml), per-group (inventory/group_vars/<group>.yml), or directly in AWX as extra vars on a Job Template. Key variables:

Variable	Purpose
dns_servers	Authoritative recursive DNS servers
ntp_servers	Upstream NTP sources
postfix_relayhost	SMTP smarthost
wazuh_manager	Wazuh server FQDN
packages_install	Fleet toolset package list
packages_remove	Packages purged on every host
run_*	Feature toggles to enable/skip each hardening phase

Host-class conditionals

The preflight role detects host class at runtime and sets facts that downstream roles branch on. Inventory groups provide additional static classification.

Fact	Source	Controls
is_physical_host	dmidecode Dell + NOT Proxmox + NOT Pi	physical snmpd.conf, CPU governor, physical packages
is_proxmox_host	dpkg proxmox-ve	physical packages + CPU governor; skips cockpit/tuned
is_virt_guest	virt-what (hyperv/kvm)	VM snmpd.conf, qemu-guest-agent, tuned virtual-guest
is_raspi	/sys/firmware/devicetree/base/model	Pi snmpd.conf, skip GRUB perms
is_kali	ansible_distribution==Kali	skip unavailable packages
is_ubuntu	ansible_distribution==Ubuntu	skip ssh-audit hardening drop-in
is_ntp_server	ntp_servers inventory group	skip NTP client config
is_dhcp_server	dhcp_servers inventory group	skip dhclient.conf deploy
is_librenms_server	librenms_server inventory group	skip rsyslog forward config
is_wazuh_server	wazuh_server inventory group	skip wazuh-agent install
is_dev_workstation	dev_workstations inventory group	skip hardened sshd_config

Roadmap

This is the foundation for a comprehensive DISA STIG / CMMC / FedRAMP / ITAR compliance library. The security_scap_stig role is the seed for that work — additional STIG control roles will be added alongside it.

AWX setup

AWX resources have been created at http://tsys-awx.knel.net:

Resource	ID	Name
Credential	3	KNELIAC Git Credential (Source Control)
Credential	4	KNELIAC Host SSH Key (Machine)
Project	10	KNELIAC (git, auto-syncs on launch)
Inventory	2	KNELIAC Fleet (SCM-backed, syncs from hosts.yml)

Job templates will be created after the code is pushed to git. Run:

python3 scripts/awx_create_job_templates.py