Linode Marketplace Helper Functions

The Linode Helper functions are static roles that can be imported into Marketplace playbooks to accomplish a particular system tasks. Examples of these include creating sudo users, generating SSL certificates and enabling a firewall.

Helper Functions

Name	Description	Actions
UFW	Add UFW firewalls to the Linode	The UFW module will import a ufw_rules.yml provided in roles/$APP/tasks and enables the service.
Certbot SSL	Generates and sets auto-renew for Certbot SSL certificates	The Certbot module installs Certbot Python plugin and certificates based on the webserver detected by Ansible. The default renewal cron runs Mondays at 00:00AM and can be manually edited.
Fail2Ban	Installs, activates and enables Fail2Ban	The Fail2Ban module installs, activates and enables the Fail2Ban service.
Hostname	Assigns a hostname to the Linode based on domains provided via UDF or uses default rDNS.	The Hostname module accepts a UDF to assign a FQDN and write to the /etc/hosts file. If no domain is provided the default ip.linodeusercontent.com rDNS will be used. For consistency, DNS and SSL configurations should use the Hostname generated _domain var when possible.
Secure MySQL	Generates a root password for MySQL and performs standard hardening.	The Secure MySQL module will use passgen.yml to generate a secure root password and write to group_vars/linode/vars. It will then update MySQL to be accessible by local socket or root password, and remove anonymous users, test databases and remote access.
Secure SSH	Performs standard SSH hardening.	The Secure SSH module writes to /etc/ssh/sshd_config to prevent password authentication and enable public key authentication for all users, including root.
Sudo User	Creates limited sudo user with variable supplied username and password.	Creates limited user from UDF supplied username and password. Note that usernames containing illegal characters will cause the play to fail.
SSH Key	Writes SSH pubkey to sudo user's authorized_keys.	Writes UDF supplied pubkey to /home/$username/.ssh/authorized_keys. To add a SSH key to root please use Cloud Manager SSH Keys.
Update Packages	Performs standard apt updates and upgrades.	The Update Packages module performs apt update and upgrade actions as root.
Data Exporter	Prometheus exporters that allow OS-level metrics collection	This modules allows the installation of several Promtheus exporters on the system by capturing UDF input as a list. This module allows the installation of node_exporter and mysqld_exporter. This modules creates a prometheus system user to run the service as.

Creating Your Own

Additional Linode Helpers can be added while respecting Ansible common practice and directory structure. Linode Helpers should perform common, repeatable system configuration tasks with minimal dependancies. Linode Helper functions can be imported as roles as needed in playbooks. Please see DEVELOPMENT.md for more detailed standards.