Automating SonarQube Deployment with Ansible

Overview

Code quality and maintainability are pivotal in modern software development. Tools like SonarQube ensure that your code adheres to best practices by performing static code analysis. However, manually setting up and managing SonarQube can be time-consuming and error-prone. This blog explores an automated approach to deploying SonarQube using Ansible, leveraging the power of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) to simplify and standardize the deployment process.

Pioneers in Cloud Consulting & Migration Services

Reduced infrastructural costs
Accelerated application deployment

Get Started

Introduction

SonarQube is a popular open-source platform for continuously inspecting code quality supporting various programming languages. It helps teams identify vulnerabilities, bugs, and code smells, ensuring higher quality releases.

Managing SonarQube at scale involves handling complex configurations, dependencies, and consistent deployments across environments. This is where Ansible, a simple yet powerful automation tool, proves to be a game-changer.

The SonarQube Ansible Repository (GitHub Repo) demonstrates a streamlined approach to deploying and configuring SonarQube instances using Ansible playbooks.

Advantages and Benefits

Simplified Deployment

The playbooks in the repository allow you to install and configure SonarQube seamlessly on target servers. Ansible automates the entire process, eliminating manual intervention and reducing setup time.

Consistency Across Environments

By defining SonarQube configurations as code, Ansible ensures consistency across multiple environments, such as development, staging, and production. This minimizes the risk of misconfigurations.

Reusability

Ansible roles and playbooks are modular and reusable. This repository can be adapted for different environments or SonarQube versions without significant changes.

Scalability

Whether deploying on a single server or a fleet of servers, the same playbooks can handle the workload with minimal adjustments.

Customization

The repository supports parameterized configurations, enabling teams to tailor the SonarQube deployment to their specific requirements.

Implementation steps

Install Ansible:
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/installation_guide/installation_distros.html

Or, On an Ubuntu machine, you can run these commands

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install software-properties-common
$ sudo add-apt-repository --yes --update ppa:ansible/ansible
$ sudo apt install ansible

$ sudo apt update

$ sudo apt install software-properties-common

$ sudo add-apt-repository --yes --update ppa:ansible/ansible

$ sudo apt install ansible

To run on the Ubuntu machine (I have chosen Ubuntu 22.04 specifically and tried this code), please manually run the commands below before running the playbook file.

$ sudo apt install python3-pip
$ sudo pip3 install passlib

1 2	$ sudo apt install python3-pip $ sudo pip3 install passlib

You can run these commands for a temporary fix, as SonarQube requires these sizes instead of default sizes.

$ sudo sysctl -w vm.max_map_count=262144
$ sudo sysctl -w fs.file-max=65536

1 2	$ sudo sysctl -w vm.max_map_count=262144 $ sudo sysctl -w fs.file-max=65536

If you want to persist with the changes, add the below content to the file /etc/sysctl.conf

vm.max_map_count=262144
fs.file-max=65536

1 2	vm.max_map_count=262144 fs.file-max=65536

I have used the inventory file as just the machine IP to avoid passing the PEM key. You can follow the same or use the above commands (in the inventory file) to run the playbook.

If you want to use only the machine IP, follow the commands below. Copy your machine PEM key in the machine once it is copied and given permission for “id_rsa,” and remove it once the commands below run.

$ cp /home/ubuntu/asista-mumbai-dev-key.pem ~/.ssh/id_rsa
$ chmod 400 ~/.ssh/id_rsa
$ eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
$ ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa

$ cp /home/ubuntu/asista-mumbai-dev-key.pem ~/.ssh/id_rsa

$ chmod 400 ~/.ssh/id_rsa

$ eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"

$ ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Run the playbook using

$ ansible-playbook -i inventory.ini sonarqube_playbook.yml

1	$ ansible-playbook -i inventory.ini sonarqube_playbook.yml

Key Features of the Repository

Modular Ansible Roles: Roles are designed for modularity, focusing on specific aspects like installing dependencies, configuring the database, and starting the SonarQube service.
Database Integration: Seamlessly integrates SonarQube with a database like PostgreSQL.
Platform Agnostic: Supports various operating systems, ensuring broader compatibility.
Idempotency: Playbooks are idempotent, ensuring the same output even when executed multiple times.
Ease of Use: Comprehensive documentation and variables in the repository make it easy to get started.

Conclusion

The SonarQube Ansible Repository showcases how automation can simplify complex deployment tasks. By leveraging Ansible, you streamline SonarQube installation and ensure reliability, consistency, and scalability in your CI/CD pipeline.

Whether you’re a developer, DevOps engineer, or system administrator, this approach empowers you to focus on delivering high-quality software without worrying about infrastructure complexities.

Drop a query if you have any questions regarding SonarQube and we will get back to you quickly.

Making IT Networks Enterprise-ready – Cloud Management Services

Accelerated cloud migration
End-to-end view of the cloud environment

Get Started

About CloudThat

CloudThat is a leading provider of Cloud Training and Consulting services with a global presence in India, the USA, Asia, Europe, and Africa. Specializing in AWS, Microsoft Azure, GCP, VMware, Databricks, and more, the company serves mid-market and enterprise clients, offering comprehensive expertise in Cloud Migration, Data Platforms, DevOps, IoT, AI/ML, and more.

CloudThat is the first Indian Company to win the prestigious Microsoft Partner 2024 Award and is recognized as a top-tier partner with AWS and Microsoft, including the prestigious ‘Think Big’ partner award from AWS and the Microsoft Superstars FY 2023 award in Asia & India. Having trained 650k+ professionals in 500+ cloud certifications and completed 300+ consulting projects globally, CloudThat is an official AWS Advanced Consulting Partner, Microsoft Gold Partner, AWS Training Partner, AWS Migration Partner, AWS Data and Analytics Partner, AWS DevOps Competency Partner, AWS GenAI Competency Partner, Amazon QuickSight Service Delivery Partner, Amazon EKS Service Delivery Partner, AWS Microsoft Workload Partners, Amazon EC2 Service Delivery Partner, Amazon ECS Service Delivery Partner, AWS Glue Service Delivery Partner, Amazon Redshift Service Delivery Partner, AWS Control Tower Service Delivery Partner, AWS WAF Service Delivery Partner, Amazon CloudFront and many more.

To get started, go through our Consultancy page and Managed Services Package, CloudThat’s offerings.

FAQs

1. Can I use this repository to deploy SonarQube in a Kubernetes cluster?

ANS: – This repository is tailored to deploy SonarQube on virtual machines or bare-metal servers. For Kubernetes deployments, you can explore Helm charts or tailor this repository to integrate with tools like KubeVirt.

2. What are the prerequisites for using this Ansible repository?

ANS: – You will need:

Ansible is installed on your control node.
SSH access to the target servers.
Sufficient system resources on the target server to support SonarQube.
A supported database like PostgreSQL.

WRITTEN BY Ravikumar Eranna Murali

Ravikumar works as a Sr. Research Associate at CloudThat. His expertise lies in AWS Services and pursuing DevOps technologies like Kubernetes, Docker, and Jenkins. Ravi enjoys learning and working on new challenges to give the best solution.