[IoT] Ansible and Raspberry Pi

So you have a Raspberry Pi and want to get started with IoT Project.

But let me guess, you dont have time to read all the Docs, you just want to connect the wirings and get the Data Flowing.

If that resonates with you, keep reading - I will show you how to leverage Ansible.

Ansible is an automation tool that Pros are using all around and it can Spin up with one liners your IoT Projects with the RPi.

Yep, still, you will have to connect the cables 😝 {: .prompt-info }

Ansible with Raspberry Pi

1. Get Raspbian Installed
2. Install Ansible - Just like you would in any other Debian.

#sudo apt update
#sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install ansible

#ansible --version

3. Clone this Repo

git clone https://github.com/JAlcocerT/RPi ./RPi
#cd ./RPi/Z_ansible

So this is it from the Setup side. Now choose the IoT Project you want to have running and execute just one more command.

IoT Projects with Ansible

Mongo Project

Im Talking about: Raspberry Pi - DHT to MongoDB

So you want to have the project that pulls data from DHT11 or DHT22, sends it from Python to Mongo and then Display it in Metabase?

No issues, just execute:

ansible-playbook ./RPi/Z_ansible/Ansible_py_dht_mongo_arm32.yml -i inventory.ini #execute Meta Project Playbook
#ansible-playbook ./RPi/Z_ansible/Ansible_py_dht_mongo_arm64.yml -i inventory.ini #execute Meta Project Playbook


#docker-compose -f ./RPi/Z_IoT/DHT-to-MongoDB/Ansible_py_dht_mongo_arm64.yml up -d # Basically it spins up Docker and This Stack

You can always get inside the created containers with:

docker exec -it mongodb sh
docker exec -it dht_sensor_mongo sh

Working for me on RaspiOS Bullseye, not in Bookworm due to Adafruit not detecting the platform properly.

Influx Project

ansible-playbook ./RPi/Z_ansible/Ansible_py_dht_influx_grafana.yml -i inventory.ini #execute Influx Project Playbook

This is the one - Raspberry Pi - DHT to InfluxDB. There is a GHCR Image too https://github.com/JAlcocerT/RPi/blob/main/.github/workflows/python-dht-build.yml

FAQ

Containers? What’s that?

Container are a way to encapsule all Software Project dependencies.

For example to encapsule: MongoDB, Influx or the Python Script with all the libraries installed at a specified version.

To run containers, Ansible is actually using Docker.

You can check the installed versions with:

docker --version
docker-compose --version

Why Ansible for SelfHosting?

Because it as a powerful Automation Tool that the Pros are using to do crazy stuff with the cloud.

Why shouldnt we do it with our Pi’s?

Why Docker for SelfHosting?

https://jalcocert.github.io/RPi/posts/selfhosting-with-docker/

You can also try containers with Podman

How to Find proper RPi Pins?

• https://pinout.xyz/