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Ansible Semaphore Documentation

Overview

AWS Instance Creation

  1. After logging in, navigate to the ‘Task Templates’ in the nav bar on the left-hand side.
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  2. Along the top you will see a list of OS versions to filter tasks by OS. There is also a ‘DB’ filter for databases and other services.
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  3. To start a task, click the ‘RUN’ button on the right side of the row for the Task you want to execute.
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  4. You will now see a pop-up window showing 2 entry fields.
    • VM Count - Number of duplicate EC2 instances to create (default=1).
    • AWS Region - Region where you want the EC2 instance to be created. EU, US and AP (default=EU).
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    NOTE: Unless you are creating and testing new Tasks, there is no need to check any of the checkboxes at the bottom. Enabling them will cause the task to fail and/or run very slowly.

  5. A Task Console window will appear, while the EC2 instance is being created.
    You can safely close the browser now or leave it open to monitor its creation. If you want to come back to the task later to check progress, take note of the Task number. When you return, open the Dashboard and click on the ‘History’ tab. The find your Task and click the Task number to re-open the Task console.
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  6. Once the Task has completed and is marked as a ‘Success’, scroll to the very bottom of the Task console, and you will see the EC2 Instance details like public IP/DNS and database connection information.
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NOTE: If it failed elsewhere in the script, report the issue (including the Task number) to an admin to check the problem.

Optional PU Installers (Windows ED/ES)

For Windows ED/ES builds, the task now supports optional extra PU installers from:

C:\MFInstallers\PU

How it works:

  1. The task checks whether C:\MFInstallers\PU exists.
  2. If the folder does not exist, the PU step is skipped.
  3. If the folder exists but contains no .exe files, the PU step is skipped.
  4. If the folder contains one or more .exe files, each installer is executed silently in a loop.

Execution order:

  1. Base ED/ES install runs first.
  2. Optional PU installers from C:\MFInstallers\PU run after the base install.

Usage:

  1. Start the Windows ED/ES task.
  2. After the instance and installer directories are created, upload any PU installer .exe files to C:\MFInstallers\PU using SFTP.
  3. Ensure uploads are complete before the ED/ES install phase reaches the PU step.

Each PU installer is launched with quiet install arguments and writes a log file to the same folder.

Additional Details

Supported OS / Products

Windows Server 2025

Windows Server 2022

Windows Server 2019

RHEL 9 AMD

RHEL 9 ARM

RHEL 10 AMD

RHEL 10 ARM

ROCKY 9

ROCKY 10

SLES 15

Ubuntu 22.04

Ubuntu 24.04

Amazon Linux 2023

NOTE: Patch Updates will be added as they become GA.

Licenses

ED/ES and AcuCOBOL-GT extend are all licensed, ready to use.

Security

ED/ES 7.0+ tasks will also install and setup ADLDS (Windows) OpenLDAP (Linux).
The connection details are automatically added into ESCWA using the API.

ADLDS

BASE DN - CN=Micro Focus,CN=Program Data,DC=local
Authorized ID - CN=MFReader,CN=ADAM Users,CN=Micro Focus,CN=Program Data,DC=local
LDAP URL - ldap://localhost:389

OpenLDAP

BASE DN - cn=Micro Focus,dc=secldap,dc=com
Authorized ID - cn=Manager,dc=secldap,dc=com
LDAP URL - ldap://localhost:389

ODBC Drivers/Libraries

VPN

Databases, etc.

For more information on the connection details etc.

Stopping/Terminating Instances

Semaphore is only for the creation and initial configuration of AWS EC2 Instances. To stop, terminate or re-start instances you need to use the AWS portal.

Troubleshooting

Connection Issues

AWS EC2 security groups act as virtual firewalls for your EC2 instances, controlling inbound and outbound traffic. They define which protocols, ports, and IP ranges can access your instances. Adding your external/public IP address allows you to connect to your EC2 instances securely by specifying that only traffic from your specific IP address is permitted, enhancing security by limiting access to trusted sources.

To view the security groups attached to an EC2 instance, you can navigate to the AWS Management Console and follow these steps:

  1. Go to the EC2 dashboard.
  2. Select “Instances” from the left-hand navigation pane.
  3. Choose the EC2 instance you’re interested in.
  4. Select the “Security” tab in the instance details pane.
  5. Below the header “Security groups” you’ll see a list of security groups attached to the EC2 instance, along with their names and IDs.

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To add your external/public IP address to the security group:

  1. Click ‘Edit inbound rules’ -> ‘Add rule’.
  2. Add your external/public IP address (appended with /32), Type ‘All traffic’ and a name for the rule.
  3. Click ‘Save rules’.

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Finding your Public IP Address

To find your public IP address:

  1. In a command prompt, execute the following command: 
     ssh sshmyip.com
  2. You should see your IP address returned in the format: 
     >ssh sshmyip.com
 {
 "comment": "##     Your IP Address is xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (50847)     ##",
 "family": "ipv4",
 "ip": "xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx",
 "port": "50847",
 "protocol": "ssh",
 "version": "v1.3.0",
 "website": "https://github.com/packetsar/checkmyip",
 "sponsor": "Sponsored by ConvergeOne, https://www.convergeone.com/"
 }
 Connection to sshmyip.com closed by remote host.
 Connection to sshmyip.com closed.

NOTE: HTTP(S) traffic on Rocket laptops is routed through a proxy, even when the device is not connected to the VPN. As a result, if you check your public IP address using a website in a browser, the IP address displayed may differ from the one used for SSH or RDP connections.

Task fails with error ‘Not authorized for images’

If a task fails with the following error, the AWS EC2 instance AMI number needs updating because Amazon has changed it. Contact an admin to have the AMI updated.

Failed to create new EC2 instance: An error occurred (AuthFailure) when calling the RunInstances operation: Not authorized for images: [ami-0729cb43cbe3dbf3c]