Service ansible_init

Introduction 

ansible_init is a lightweight, cloud-init style FreeBSD rc(8) initialization service designed for the unattended, automated configuration of freshly deployed FreeBSD instances.

By leveraging the native FreeBSD firstboot framework and Ansible’s pulling execution model (ansible-pull), this service eliminates the need for an external orchestration server to push configuration changes. Instead, the newly booted system configures itself locally.

High-level architecture 

The service coordinates the handover between system initialization and configuration management:

[ Provisioning Layer ] ──> Instance Boots ──> rc.d/ansible_init runs
                                                   │
                                                   ▼
                                    Clones Remote Git Repository
                                                   │
                                                   ▼
                                    Executes Playbook Locally
                                                   │
                                                   ▼
                                    [ System Fully Configured ]

Bootstrap Condition: The script is flagged with the “KEYWORD: firstboot” macro. It triggers dynamically on systems where the marker file /firstboot exists in the root directory.

Execution Hook: It blocks the final multi-user runlevel sequence until the networking layer is available (REQUIRE: NETWORKING).

Local Compilation: Rather than exposing an open SSH port for an internal control node, ansible_init pulls down your infrastructure-as-code repository via standard Git/HTTPS channels, compiles variables locally, and executes the target playbooks against localhost.

Self-Termination: Upon a successful complete execution, the underlying FreeBSD firstboot framework removes the /firstboot trigger file, ensuring the initialization tasks run exactly once in the lifecycle of the instance.

Example 

This example demonstrates how to bootstrap a FreeBSD system within an isolated provisioning network using a local Git daemon.

What This Example Accomplishes 

It creates an infrastructure-as-code repository containing a custom Ansible configuration, inventory file, and an example playbook.
It configures the host to export this repository over the lightweight, unauthenticated git:// protocol.
It configures the ansible_init rc service to hook into that local repository.
Upon execution, ansible-pull clones the repository and executes a task that generates a file (/tmp/ansible-hello-world.txt).

Install Git and create local Git repository 

# ls -la /usr/local/git/ansible-conf-example/
total 230
drwxr-xr-x  3 git_daemon git_daemon   6 Jul  2 11:05 .
drwxr-xr-x  7 git_daemon git_daemon   7 Jul  2 10:55 ..
drwxr-xr-x  7 git_daemon git_daemon  12 Jul  2 11:07 .git
-rw-r--r--  1 git_daemon git_daemon  65 Jul  2 10:59 ansible.cfg
-rw-r--r--  1 git_daemon git_daemon  35 Jul  2 10:48 hosts
-rw-r--r--  1 git_daemon git_daemon 211 Jul  2 10:48 pb-example.yml

Configure git_daemon in /etc/rc.conf and start it 

git_daemon_enable="YES"
git_daemon_directory="/usr/local/git"
git_daemon_flags="--syslog --base-path=/usr/local/git --export-all --reuseaddr --detach"

Configure ansible_init in /etc/rc.conf 

ansible_init_enable="YES"
ansible_init_host="git://localhost"
ansible_init_repo="ansible-conf-example"
ansible_init_playbook="pb-example.yml"

Start ansible_init 

# service ansible_init start

The ansible-pull execution clones the repository into the local directory /root/ansible-conf-example and executes the playbook. As a result, the file /tmp/ansible-hello-world.txt is created:

# cat /tmp/ansible-hello-world.txt
[ansible-test] Hello world!