sshc - SSH Configuration Management Tool with Ansible Inventory Generation

This tool can help you manage ssh config files with hosts as well as ansible inventory file.

What it does?

1. It creates a host database.
2. Create SSH config from that host database.
3. Create Ansible inventory from that same host database.

Example of generated SSH config

# Generated At: 2023-01-24 11:35:25.885044

# -- <
Host server1
HostName 192.168.0.100
Port 22
User ubuntu
IdentityFile /home/fahad/.ssh/id_rsa
LogLevel INFO
Compression yes
# Comment: Personal Server: ONE
# -- >

# -- <
Host server2
HostName 10.10.0.102
Port 4522
User root
IdentityFile /home/fahad/.ssh/id_rsa
LogLevel DEBUG
Compression no
# Comment: Personal Server: TWO
# -- >

Example of generated Ansible Inventory

{
    "all": {
        "hosts": {
            "server1": {
                "ansible_host": "192.168.0.100",
                "ansible_port": 22,
                "ansible_user": "ubuntu",
                "ansible_ssh_private_key_file": "/home/fahad/.ssh/id_rsa"
            },
            "server2": {
                "ansible_host": "10.10.0.102",
                "ansible_port": 4522,
                "ansible_user": "root",
                "ansible_ssh_private_key_file": "/home/fahad/.ssh/id_rsa"
            }
        },
        "children": {
            "personal": {
                "hosts": {
                    "server1": null,
                    "server2": null
                }
            },
            "home": {
                "hosts": {
                    "server1": null
                }
            },
            "storage": {
                "hosts": {
                    "server2": null
                }
            }
        }
    },
    "others": {
        "generated_at": "2023-01-24 11:35:25.885044"
    }
}

Why?

Problem it tried to solve

• Working with a bunch of servers gets messy to track those down.
• Managing Ansible Inventory and also SSH config file separate is redundant.

Tried to solve via

• Using a JSON file as a common database of hosts.
• Setting name, ports, user, private key, ssh compression, ssh connection log level etc when inserting a host information.
• Set groups, do comment on specific host for host management.
• Well sorted config files.
• Ansible inventory is managed using JSON file.
• Add host to multiple groups which end up with ansible hosts group.
• Remove and update host entry easily.

Description

Structure

1. Insert host information to a JSON file as a DB.
2. Generate SSH Config file and an Ansible Inventory file.

Technology Stack

1. python
2. json
3. yaml
4. openssh
5. ansible

Dependency

Runtime

• Python3.7+
• Linux

Development

• Poetry

Installation

% pip3 install sshc --upgrade

Usage

Step 1: Need the DB to be initiated for the first time

Pattern

usage: sshc init [-h] [--destination DESTINATION] [--dbfile DBFILE]

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --destination DESTINATION
                        Config HOME?
  --dbfile DBFILE       SSHC DB File.

Example

% sshc init

Step 2: Insert host information to the Database

Pattern

usage: sshc insert [-h] --name NAME --host HOST [--user USER] [--port PORT] [--comment COMMENT] [--loglevel {INFO,DEBUG,ERROR,WARNING}] [--compression {yes,no}]
                   [--groups GROUPS [GROUPS ...]] [--identityfile IDENTITYFILE] [--destination DESTINATION] [--dbfile DBFILE]

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --name NAME           Server Name?
  --host HOST           SSH Host?
  --user USER           SSH User?
  --port PORT           SSH Port?
  --comment COMMENT     SSH Identity File.
  --loglevel {INFO,DEBUG,ERROR,WARNING}
                        SSH Log Level.
  --compression {yes,no}
                        SSH Connection Compression.
  --groups GROUPS [GROUPS ...]
                        Which group to include?
  --identityfile IDENTITYFILE
                        SSH Default Identity File Location. i.e. id_rsa
  --destination DESTINATION
                        Config HOME?
  --dbfile DBFILE       SSHC DB File.

Example

% sshc insert --name Google --host 8.8.8.8 --port 22 --user groot --identityfile /home/fahad/fahad.pem --comment "This is the server where you are not authorized to have access." --configfile /home/fahad/.ssh/config --groups google, fun

Step 3: Generate ssh config and as well as ansible inventory file

Pattern

usage: sshc generate [-h] [--configfile CONFIGFILE] [--inventoryfile INVENTORYFILE] [--destination DESTINATION] [--dbfile DBFILE] [--filetype {json,yaml,yml}]

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --configfile CONFIGFILE
                        SSH Config File.
  --inventoryfile INVENTORYFILE
                        Ansible Inventory File.
  --destination DESTINATION
                        Config HOME?
  --dbfile DBFILE       SSHC DB File.
  --filetype {json,yaml,yml}
                        Preferred file type for Ansible inventory. Default is json and you can choose yaml too.

Example

% python3 sshc.py generate

This command will read all the entries in the DB and generate

1. SSH config file in your preferred directory or default one(i.e. $HOME/.ssh/sshc_ssh_config).
2. Ansible Inventory file will be created at your preferred directory or in default one (i.e. $HOME/.ssh/sshc_ansible_inventory.json).

If you stick with default directory you will find the generated files in:

1. Default Directory: $HOME/.ssh
2. Generated Ansible Inventory: $HOME/.ssh/sshc_ansible_inventory.json
3. Generated SSH Config: $HOME/.ssh/sshc_ssh_config

You can use these configs like below.

For SSH,

% ssh -F $HOME/.ssh/sshc_ssh_config

For Ansible,

% ansible -i $HOME/.ssh/sshc_ansible_inventory.json all --list-host

Note: If you choose default SSH config file location and ansible host file location, sshc will replace the file. Be careful.

Recommended Way of Generating Configurations

• There are two terms to keep in mind.
  • SSH default
  • sshc default
• Use sshc default paths which is different from SSH and Ansible default config.
• Use those newly created files(which should be separate than default one) either passing -F for SSH and -i for Ansible.

Others

Help message of the tool

% sshc --help

usage: sshc [-h] [--version] {init,insert,delete,update,read,generate} ...

SSH Config and Ansible Inventory Generator !

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --version             show program's version number and exit

subcommands:
  The main command of this CLI tool.

  {init,insert,delete,update,read,generate}
                        The main commands have their own arguments.
    init                Initiate Host DB !
    insert              Insert host information !
    delete              Delete host information !
    update              Update host information !
    read                Read Database !
    generate            Generate necessary config files !

Delete Inserted Data

% sshc delete --hostname <HOSTNAME>

Update Inserted Data

usage: sshc update [-h] --name NAME [--host HOST] [--user USER] [--port PORT] [--comment COMMENT]
                   [--loglevel {INFO,DEBUG,ERROR,WARNING}] [--compression {yes,no}] [--groups GROUPS [GROUPS ...]]
                   [--identityfile IDENTITYFILE] [--destination DESTINATION] [--dbfile DBFILE]

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --name NAME           Server Name?
  --host HOST           SSH Host?
  --user USER           SSH User?
  --port PORT           SSH Port?
  --comment COMMENT     SSH Identity File.
  --loglevel {INFO,DEBUG,ERROR,WARNING}
                        SSH Log Level.
  --compression {yes,no}
                        SSH Connection Compression.
  --groups GROUPS [GROUPS ...]
                        Which group to include?
  --identityfile IDENTITYFILE
                        SSH Default Identity File Location. i.e. id_rsa
  --destination DESTINATION
                        Config HOME?
  --dbfile DBFILE       SSHC DB File.

Read DB Data

% sshc read

You can pass verbose too

% sshc read --verbose yes

Known issues or Limitations

• Tested in Ubuntu 22.04
• Windows is not tested

Getting help

If you have questions, concerns, bug reports and others, please file an issue in this repository's Issue Tracker.

Getting involved

If you want to contribute to this tool, feel free to fork the repo and create Pull request with your changes. Keep in mind to

• include better comment to understand.
• create PR to development branch.

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Author

• Fahad Ahammed - DevOps Enthusiast - Dhaka, Bangladesh