AutoSSH

An Ansible Role that installs and configures multiple autossh connections, allowing port forwarding from the local server to remote servers via SSH.

Requirements

We assume that the SSH user exists and has the correct permissions to access on the remote server. A corresponding SSH key must also be present and available on the local server (/root/.ssh/id_rsa or defined per connection configuration).

Role Variables

Available variables are listed below, along with default values (see defaults/main.yml):

autossh_connections:
  - id: "example" # Simple unique connection identifier (characters: "a-z,0-9,-").
    user: "" # Username used to connect to remote server.
    server: "" # IP / hostname of remote server.
    server_key_type: "" # Key type of the remote server, defaults to autossh_default_server_key_type. (Optional)
    local_port: "" # Local port to forward.
    dest_server: "" # IP / hostname to use on the remote server, defaults to autossh_default_dest_server. (Optional)
    dest_port: "" # Port on the remote server to connect to.
    identity_file: "" # Path to SSH private key, defaults to autossh_default_ssh_key_path. (Optional)

Add a set of SSH connection properties per connection. Multiple connections can be listed here.

autossh_path: "/usr/bin/autossh"

Path to autossh.

autossh_ssh_dir: "/root/.ssh"

Directory to store SSH configuration.

autossh_systemd_dir: "/etc/systemd/system/"

Path to systemd system dir.

autossh_known_hosts_file: "{{ autossh_ssh_dir }}/known_hosts"

Path to known hosts file.

autossh_default_server_key_type: "ecdsa"

Default key type of the remote server. Override this value for an single connection using the server_key_type option in the autossh_connections list.

autossh_default_dest_server: "127.0.0.1"

Default IP / hostname to use on the remote server, this will most likely be localhost / 127.0.0.1. Override this value for an single connection using the dest_server option in the autossh_connections list.

autossh_default_identity_file: "/root/.ssh/id_rsa"

Path to file from which the identity (private key) for public key authentication is read. The default is /root/.ssh/id_rsa for protocol version 2. Override this value for an single connection using the identity_file option in the autossh_connections list.

Dependencies

None.

Example Playbook

- hosts: servers
  vars_files:
    - vars/main.yml
  roles:
     - { role: memiah.autossh }

Inside vars/main.yml:

autossh_connections:
  - id: "example"
    user: "username"
    server: "remote.server"
    local_port: "33061"
    dest_port: "3306"

Forward local port 33061 to port 3306 on remote.server, connecting via SSH as username@remote.server.

This will create a new service named autossh-example.service (autossh-{id}.service) which can be managed by systemctl:

systemctl status autossh-example.service
systemctl restart autossh-example.service
...

License

MIT / BSD

Author Information

This role was created in 2016 by Memiah Limited.