How to Install Ansible-NAS on Debian Latest

This tutorial will guide you through the process of installing Ansible-NAS on Debian Latest. Ansible-NAS is a set of Ansible playbooks that can be used to quickly set up a network-attached storage (NAS) server.

Prerequisites

Before starting the installation, ensure that you have the following prerequisites:

  • A Debian Latest instance
  • Root access to the server
  • Basic knowledge of Linux terminal commands

Step 1: Install Git

To begin, you must install Git which is needed to clone the Ansible-NAS repository.

To install Git, run the following command in the terminal:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install git -y

Step 2: Clone the Ansible-NAS Repository

Next, you need to clone the Ansible-NAS repository from GitHub to your Debian Latest instance.

Run the following command in the terminal to clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/DaveStephens/ansible-nas.git

Step 3: Install Ansible

Ansible-NAS is built on top of Ansible, thus you must install Ansible before proceeding with the installation.

Run the following command in the terminal to install Ansible:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install ansible -y

Step 4: Install Required Python Libraries

Ansible-NAS requires additional Python libraries to function properly.

Run the following command in the terminal to install the required Python libraries:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install python3-pip -y
sudo pip3 install netaddr
sudo pip3 install pyOpenSSL
sudo pip3 install passlib
sudo pip3 install bcrypt

Step 5: Configure the Ansible-NAS Variables

Once you have installed all the prerequisites, you need to configure the Ansible-NAS variables before running the playbook.

Navigate to the cloned Ansible-NAS repository directory using the following command:

cd ansible-nas/

Next, open the group_vars/all.yaml file and modify the following variables as per your requirements:

  • nas_hostname: Set the hostname of your NAS server.
  • ansible_user: Set the username under which you want to execute the playbook.
  • nas_admin_users: Set the list of admin users with respective passwords who have access to the NAS server.
  • nas_disk_partitions: Specify the disk partitions in the format /dev/sda1, ext4 where sda1 is the partition name and ext4 is the filesystem, separated by commas.
  • admin_email: Set the email address to which the NAS status reports are sent.

Save and close the file when you are done.

Step 6: Run the Ansible-NAS Playbook

You are now ready to run the Ansible-NAS playbook.

Run the following command in the terminal to execute the playbook:

ansible-playbook site.yml

The playbook sets up various services such as Samba, SSH, and more on your NAS server.

Step 7: Access the NAS Server

Once the playbook execution is complete, you can access the NAS server using the hostname/IP address that you specified in the nas_hostname variable.

You can also access the web GUI by visiting https://{{ nas_hostname }} in your web browser.

Conclusion

You have successfully installed Ansible-NAS on your Debian Latest instance. You can now use your NAS server for storage, file sharing, and more.