Automate Foreman Content Views with Ansible: Complete Playbook Guide for Red Hat Satellite

Overview

This playbook automates the management of Foreman or Redhat Satellite Content Views (CVs) and Composite Content Views (CCVs):

• Publishes new versions of CVs and CCVs
• Promotes CCVs to a specified lifecycle environment
• Cleans up old versions, keeping only a set number of the latest

You may find the complete playbook here

---

Prerequisites

• Ansible installed
• theforeman.foreman collection installed:

ansible-galaxy collection install theforeman.foreman

• Foreman server accessible from the control node
• API credentials with permissions to manage Content Views

---

Variables

You can override these variables via --extra-vars or in your inventory.

vars:
  foreman_server_url: "{{ server_url | default('https://formanurl') }}"
  foreman_username: "{{ frm_username | default('someuser') }}"
  foreman_password: "{{ frm_password | default('somepass') }}"
  target_environment: "{{ lifecycle_environment | default('Enviroment') }}"
  organization: "{{ org | default('Default') }}"
  keep_versions: "{{ max_versions | default('2') }}"

Variable	Default Value	Description
server_url	https://formanurl	Foreman server URL
frm_username	someuser	Foreman API username
frm_password	somepass	Foreman API password
lifecycle_environment	Enviroment	Target lifecycle environment for promotion
org	Default	Foreman organization name
max_versions	2	Number of versions to keep per Content View

---

Playbook Structure

1. Gather Content Views

Retrieves all Content Views in the specified organization.

- name: Get all content views
  theforeman.foreman.content_view_info:
    server_url: "{{ foreman_server_url }}"
    username: "{{ foreman_username }}"
    password: "{{ foreman_password }}"
    organization: "{{ organization }}"
    validate_certs: false
  register: content_views
  tags:
    - publish
    - cleanup
    - promote-only

---

2. Debug Target Environment

Prints the target environment for confirmation.

- name: Debug target target_environment
  ansible.builtin.debug:
    msg: "{{ target_environment }}"
  tags:
    - publish
    - cleanup
    - promote-only

---

3. Publish New Versions of CVs

Publishes a new version for each non-composite Content View (CV), skipping the “Default Organization View”.

- name: Publish a new version of each content view
  theforeman.foreman.content_view_version:
    server_url: "{{ foreman_server_url }}"
    username: "{{ foreman_username }}"
    password: "{{ foreman_password }}"
    organization: "{{ organization }}"
    validate_certs: false
    content_view: "{{ item.name }}"
  loop: "{{ content_views.content_views }}"
  when: not item.composite and 'Default Organization View' not in item.name
  ignore_errors: true
  tags:
    - publish
    - cv
  loop_control:
    pause: 300

---

4. Wait for Background Tasks

Waits 5 minutes to allow background publishing to complete.

- name: Sleep for 300 seconds until all background stuff is done
  ansible.builtin.wait_for:
    timeout: 300
  delegate_to: localhost
  tags:
    - publish
    - promote

---

5. Publish New Versions of CCVs

Publishes a new version for each Composite Content View (CCV), skipping the “Default Organization View”.

- name: "Publish CCVs"
  theforeman.foreman.content_view_version:
    server_url: "{{ foreman_server_url }}"
    username: "{{ foreman_username }}"
    password: "{{ foreman_password }}"
    organization: "{{ organization }}"
    validate_certs: false
    content_view: "{{ item.name }}"
  loop: "{{ content_views.content_views }}"
  loop_control:
    pause: 300
  when: item.composite and 'Default Organization View' not in item.name
  ignore_errors: true
  tags:
    - publish
    - ccv

---

6. Promote CCVs to Target Environment

Ensures the latest version of each CCV is promoted to the target environment, if not already present.

- name: "Ensure CCVs are on enviroment {{ target_environment }}"
  theforeman.foreman.content_view_version:
    server_url: "{{ foreman_server_url }}"
    username: "{{ foreman_username }}"
    password: "{{ foreman_password }}"
    organization: "{{ organization }}"
    validate_certs: false
    content_view: "{{ item.name }}"
    version: "{{ item.latest_version }}"
    lifecycle_environments: "{{ target_environment }}"
  loop: "{{ content_views.content_views }}"
  loop_control:
    pause: 300
  when: item.composite and 'Default Organization View' not in item.name and not
    (item.latest_version_environments | selectattr('name', 'equalto', target_environment) | list | length > 0)
  ignore_errors: true
  tags:
    - publish
    - promote-only

---

7. Clean Up Old Versions

Removes old versions of each CV and CCV, keeping only the latest keep_versions.

For CCVs:

- name: "Clean up versions of each CCV. Versions to keep: {{ keep_versions }}"
  theforeman.foreman.content_view_version:
    server_url: "{{ foreman_server_url }}"
    username: "{{ foreman_username }}"
    password: "{{ foreman_password }}"
    organization: "{{ organization }}"
    validate_certs: false
    content_view: "{{ item.name }}"
    version: "{{ (item.latest_version | float - keep_versions | float) | string }}"
    state: absent
  when: (item.latest_version | float - keep_versions | float > keep_versions | float) and
        'Default Organization View' not in item.name and
        item.composite
  loop: "{{ content_views.content_views }}"
  loop_control:
    pause: 600
  ignore_errors: true
  tags:
    - cleanup
    - ccv

For CVs:

- name: "Clean up versions of each CV. Versions to keep: {{ keep_versions }}"
  theforeman.foreman.content_view_version:
    server_url: "{{ foreman_server_url }}"
    username: "{{ foreman_username }}"
    password: "{{ foreman_password }}"
    organization: "{{ organization }}"
    validate_certs: false
    content_view: "{{ item.name }}"
    version: "{{ (item.latest_version | float - keep_versions | float) | string }}"
    state: absent
  when: (item.latest_version | float - keep_versions | float > keep_versions | float) and
        'Default Organization View' not in item.name and
        not item.composite
  loop: "{{ content_views.content_views }}"
  loop_control:
    pause: 600
  ignore_errors: true
  tags:
    - cleanup
    - cv

---

Tags and Selective Execution

You can run specific parts of the playbook using tags:

• publish: Publish new versions of CVs and CCVs
• promote-only: Only promote CCVs to the environment
• cleanup: Remove old versions of CVs and CCVs
• cv: Tasks specific to Content Views
• ccv: Tasks specific to Composite Content Views

Example:

ansible-playbook playbook.yml --tags "publish"

---

Usage Examples

Run the full playbook:

ansible-playbook playbook.yml

Run only cleanup tasks:

ansible-playbook playbook.yml --tags "cleanup"

Override variables:

ansible-playbook playbook.yml \
  -e "server_url=https://foreman.example.com" \
  -e "frm_username=admin" \
  -e "frm_password=secret" \
  -e "lifecycle_environment=Production" \
  -e "org=MyOrg" \
  -e "max_versions=3"

---

Tips and Troubleshooting

Long Waits: The playbook uses wait_for to allow background tasks to finish. Adjust the timeout if your environment is faster or slower.

Error Handling: Tasks use ignore_errors: true to continue even if some content views fail. Review the output for any issues.

API Credentials: Ensure your Foreman user has permissions to manage content views and versions.

Default Organization View: The playbook skips the “Default Organization View” as it is typically managed by Foreman internally.