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Setup Guide: Private Hosts Configuration

This repository contains the public SSH Central Agent (SCA) configuration. Host configurations are stored separately in a private repository to keep sensitive information secure.

Initial Setup

Recommended Installation Location

Best practice: Check out the repository in ~/.ssh/sca. However, the playbook will adapt to any location - you can install it anywhere on your system.

Initialize the repositories

  1. Clone the repository:

    # Recommended location
git clone https://github.com/styliteag/ssh-central-agent ~/.ssh/sca
# or git clone git@github.com:styliteag/ssh-central-agent.git ~/.ssh/sca
cd ~/.ssh/sca

# Or any other location - playbook will adapt
# git clone <repository-url> /path/to/sca
# cd /path/to/sca

  2. Create the hosts directory:

    After checkout, you need to create a hosts directory. This can be:

    Option A: Symlink to a separate private repository (recommended for team setups):

    # Clone your private hosts repository separately
git clone ssh://git@git-yourdomain.com/your-project/ssh-central-agent-hosts.git ~/sca-hosts

# Create symlink
ln -s ~/sca-hosts hosts

    Option B: Clone private repo directly as hosts directory:

    git clone ssh://git@git-yourdomain.com/your-project/ssh-central-agent-hosts.git hosts

    Option C: Create empty directory (if you don't have access to the private hosts repository yet):

    mkdir hosts

    You can add host configuration files later or set up the private repository when available.

  3. Configure local variables:

    cp localvars-example.yml localvars.yml
# Edit localvars.yml with your credentials and hostnames

  4. Run the Ansible playbook:

    ansible-playbook playbook.yml

    The playbook automatically detects the installation location and adapts all paths accordingly.

Directory Structure

After setup, your directory structure should look like this:

Recommended structure (~/.ssh/sca):

~/.ssh/sca/                          # Main repository (recommended location)
├── hosts -> ~/sca-hosts/            # Symlink to private repo (or direct clone)
├── playbook.yml
├── templates/
├── localvars.yml
└── ...

~/sca-hosts/                         # Private hosts repository (separate)
    ├── bonis
    ├── caritas
    ├── dev
    └── ...

Alternative structure (if hosts is a direct clone):

~/.ssh/sca/                          # Main repository
├── hosts/                           # Private hosts repository (cloned directly)
│   ├── bonis
│   ├── caritas
│   └── ...
├── playbook.yml
└── ...

Note: The playbook adapts to any installation location - the paths shown above are just examples.

Updating

Update Main Repository

cd ~/.ssh/sca  # or wherever you installed it
git pull
ansible-playbook playbook.yml

Update Private Hosts Repository

If hosts is a symlink:

cd ~/sca-hosts  # or wherever your private hosts repo is
git pull

If hosts is a direct clone:

cd ~/.ssh/sca/hosts
git pull

If hosts is a git submodule:

cd ~/.ssh/sca
git submodule update --remote --merge hosts

Notes

  • The hosts/ directory is gitignored in the public repository
  • The hosts directory can be:
    • A symlink to another private repository (recommended)
    • A direct clone of a private repository
    • An empty directory (if you don't have access to the private repo yet)
  • Never copy the hosts directory - always use a symlink or git clone
  • The playbook automatically adapts to the installation location
  • Both repositories can be updated independently
  • Recommended installation location is ~/.ssh/sca, but any location works