Ansible Role: systemd-timesyncd

This Ansible role sets up systemd-timesyncd for time synchronization.

Table of Contents

• Requirements
• Role Variables
  • Time Zone
  • NTP Servers
  • Purge Legacy Packages
• Dependencies
• Example Playbook
  • Top-Level Playbook
  • Role Dependency
• Tags
• License
• Author Information

Requirements

• Ansible version 2.9 or higher.

Role Variables

Time Zone

Specify the system time zone. Make sure to set this as there is no default value. Use the prefix system_ so it's clear that this variable can work with other roles.

system_timezone: Europe/Berlin

NTP Servers

List the preferred NTP servers for your network. These should be your internal NTP servers.

ntp_servers:
  - ntp1.domain.org
  - ntp2.domain.org
  - ntp3.domain.org

For backup, use regional pools:

ntp_fallback_servers:
  - 0.europe.pool.ntp.org
  - 1.europe.pool.ntp.org
  - 2.europe.pool.ntp.org
  - 3.europe.pool.ntp.org

Purge Legacy Packages

Decide whether to remove old time synchronization packages (like ntp and chrony):

systemd_timesyncd_purge_legacy_packages: yes

Dependencies

---

# requirements.yml

collections:

  - name: community.general
    version: X.Y.Z

roles:

  - name: idiv_biodiversity.systemd_timesyncd
    src: https://github.com/idiv-biodiversity/ansible-role-systemd-timesyncd
    version: vX.Y.Z

...

Example Playbook

Top-Level Playbook

Here is an example of a top-level playbook:

---

- name: head server
  hosts: head

  roles:
    - role: idiv_biodiversity.systemd_timesyncd
      tags:
        - systemd
        - systemd-timesyncd
        - timesync

...

Role Dependency

To set a role dependency, add this in meta/main.yml:

---

dependencies:

  - role: idiv_biodiversity.systemd_timesyncd
    tags:
      - systemd
      - systemd-timesyncd
      - timesync

...

Tags

You can use these tags to run specific parts of the role:

• timezone: only set the time zone.
• systemd-timesyncd: configure the timesyncd.conf file and restart the service if needed.
• service, service-timesyncd, and timesyncd-service: enable and start the service; the service tag allows you to enable and start all services across roles, for example: ansible-playbook site.yml -t service.

In the example playbook, the tags are timesyncd and timesync. The timesync tag is useful if you change between different time synchronization roles.

License

MIT

Author Information

This role was created in 2017 by Christian Krause aka wookietreiber, an HPC cluster systems administrator at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv).