Ceph Cluster Installation with Ansible (Ubuntu 24.04 + KVM/VMware)

This repository contains Ansible playbooks to automate deployment of a Ceph storage cluster using lightweight Ubuntu 24.04 VMs. It includes Ceph bootstrapping, OSD provisioning, SSH access setup, and container runtime installation — all driven by a single master playbook.

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🖥️ Cluster Layout

[master]
node-master ansible_host=192.168.178.73

[workers]
node-01 ansible_host=192.168.178.74
node-02 ansible_host=192.168.178.75
node-03 ansible_host=192.168.178.76

[all:vars]
ansible_user=ubuntu
ansible_ssh_private_key_file=/home/oracle/.ssh/id_rsa
ansible_python_interpreter=/usr/bin/python3

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📦 Playbooks Overview

File	Purpose
ceph-site.yml	Master playbook to run all steps in order
ceph-prereqs-workers.yml	Prepares worker nodes: wipes /dev/sdb, installs base packages
ceph-bootstrap-master.yml	Bootstraps the cluster using a local patched cephadm script
ceph-generate-and-distribute-ssh-key.yml	Generates Ceph’s SSH key and deploys it to worker nodes
add-ssh-keys.yml	Adds both Node-Master and Ceph Orchestrator SSH keys to workers
ceph-add-hosts.yml	Adds worker nodes to the Ceph orchestrator
ceph-add-osds.yml	Provisions /dev/sdb as an OSD on each worker

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🚀 Installation Steps

To run the full deployment sequence, use the master playbook:

ansible-playbook -i hosts.ini ceph-site.yml

Or run playbooks individually:

ansible-playbook -i hosts.ini ceph-bootstrap-master.yml
ansible-playbook -i hosts.ini ceph-add-osds.yml
# etc...

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🧪 Verification

Ceph Status

sudo cephadm shell -- ceph -s

OSD Tree

sudo cephadm shell -- ceph osd tree

Dashboard

Access: https://<node-master-ip>:8443

Default credentials:

• Username: admin
• Password: admin (or set in vars)

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🐞 Known Issues

❗ CEPHADM_REFRESH_FAILED or CEPHADM_STRAY_HOST

Run:

sudo cephadm shell -- ceph orch host refresh --all

Adopt unmanaged daemons (if needed):

sudo cephadm shell -- ceph orch adopt --name <daemon-name>

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❗ ValueError: too many values to unpack in cephadm

This is due to AppArmor detection failing. Patch your cephadm with:

parts = line.split(' ')
item = parts[0]
mode = parts[1] if len(parts) > 1 else 'UNKNOWN'

✅ Note: This repo includes a patched cephadm script only as an example. You should always patch and verify your version manually against the upstream Ceph release.

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Ideal for homelabs, POCs, learning Ceph orchestration, or reproducible lightweight deployments.