Dynamic Inventory | Inventories

Introduction

In this tutorial, we will explore the concept of dynamic inventory in the context of CrewAI. Dynamic inventory refers to the ability to automatically update the list of hosts and their attributes without manual intervention. This is particularly useful in environments where the infrastructure is constantly changing, such as in cloud environments.

What is Dynamic Inventory?

Dynamic inventory allows you to automatically retrieve the list of managed nodes and their attributes from an external source. This source could be a cloud provider, a database, or any other service that can provide the necessary information.

Setting Up Dynamic Inventory

To set up dynamic inventory, you need to create a script that will fetch the inventory data and output it in a format that CrewAI understands. Here is a simple example:

Example dynamic inventory script (dynamic_inventory.py):

#!/usr/bin/env python

import json

# Sample data
inventory = {
    "group": {
        "hosts": ["host1", "host2"],
        "vars": {
            "ansible_user": "admin"
        }
    },
    "_meta": {
        "hostvars": {
            "host1": {
                "ansible_host": "192.168.1.1"
            },
            "host2": {
                "ansible_host": "192.168.1.2"
            }
        }
    }
}

print(json.dumps(inventory))

Using the Dynamic Inventory Script

Once you have created your dynamic inventory script, you can use it with CrewAI by specifying the script path when running your commands. Here is an example:

Command to use dynamic inventory script:

crewai -i dynamic_inventory.py -m ping all

host1 | SUCCESS => {
    "changed": false,
    "ping": "pong"
}
host2 | SUCCESS => {
    "changed": false,
    "ping": "pong"

Advanced Dynamic Inventory

For more advanced scenarios, you may need to integrate with cloud providers or other external systems. CrewAI provides plugins for popular cloud providers like AWS, GCP, and Azure.

Example AWS dynamic inventory setup:

# Install the necessary plugin
pip install crewai[amazon]

# Create a configuration file (aws_inventory.yaml)
plugin: amazon.aws.aws_ec2
regions:
  - us-east-1

Command to use AWS dynamic inventory:

crewai -i aws_inventory.yaml -m ping all

Conclusion

Dynamic inventory is a powerful feature of CrewAI that allows you to automate the management of your infrastructure. By integrating with external data sources, you can ensure that your inventory is always up-to-date and accurate.