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Role Overview

Role Overview

Overview

The MiniPaaS Ansible role (minipaas-role/) prepares Linux hosts to run a Docker Swarm cluster.

The role provides:

  • Docker installation
  • Swarm initialization and worker joining
  • nftables firewall with safe defaults
  • syslog-ng logging
  • Fail2Ban for SSH protection
  • Telegram monitoring and log alerts
  • swarm-cronjob on the primary manager

This keeps the role simple, transparent, and reversible, suitable for small clusters, side projects, and environments where clarity matters more than heavy automation.

Features

Swarm initialization

The role creates a Swarm cluster:

  • one primary manager
  • any number of workers

Application Layer

The role provisions infrastructure only. Applications, routing, and secrets are handled by the MiniPaaS CLI:

Remote Access

The role keeps Docker bound to the local Unix socket. The CLI reaches a remote manager over SSH.

Firewall

A default-deny nftables setup, allowing:

  • SSH
  • required Swarm ports
  • user-defined ports

Logging & Security

  • syslog-ng for system and Docker logging
  • Fail2Ban for SSH protection
  • continuous system health monitoring
  • Telegram notifications for logs and reports

Host-level Cron for Swarm Tasks

swarm-cronjob is installed on the host, enabling cron-driven Swarm tasks once services define cron expressions.

Motivation

The MiniPaaS role exists to:

  • ensure servers are configured consistently
  • create a consistent Swarm cluster
  • establish safe security defaults
  • separate infrastructure provisioning from application deployment

This simplicity makes it ideal for:

  • prototyping
  • hobby clusters
  • homelabs
  • small production workloads
  • teams that want clear control over their infrastructure

Behavior Summary

After the role completes:

  • Docker is installed
  • Swarm is initialized and joined
  • Firewall and logging are configured
  • swarm-cronjob runs on the primary manager

Start Here

To begin using the MiniPaaS role:

  • Learn how to install and execute the role → Installation
  • Configure variables such as firewall and Swarm settings → Configuration
  • Understand what the role does on each node → Swarm
  • Review firewall behavior → Firewall
  • Learn about system monitoring options → Monitoring
  • Understand the inventory structure → Inventory
  • View all configurable variables → Variables

For deploying applications into the cluster, use the MiniPaaS CLI: