Capture Agent Ansible Playbooks

Deployment and update scripts for Galicaster, LectureSight, FFMpeg, VNC, DataPath, and other requirements onto a specified Capture Agent.

Quick start

From the repo root:

chmod +x run-playbook-menu.sh
./run-playbook-menu.sh

Alternatively, run a playbook directly:

ansible-playbook -i hosts <playbook>.yml -l <host-or-group>

See PLAYBOOKS.md for an auto-generated list of playbooks and their name: descriptions.

Regenerate it with: ./scripts/generate-playbooks-md.sh

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Playbooks

Deployment / core configuration

• playbook.yml – full CA deployment playbook (imports tasks/main.yml).
• main.yml – (unused/placeholder) imports install.yml (currently not present in repo).

Install / configure software on CAs

• install-ls.yml – install LectureSight (imports tasks/lecturesight/main.yml).
• install-gsmart.yml – installs gsmartcontrol / smartmontools on CAs.
• install-eos-fix-to-gc.yml – apply EOS fix for Galicaster, reboot the CA.
• install-fsck-fix.yml – sets FSCKFIX=yes in /etc/default/rcS.
• install-gc-checkspace-plugin.yml – deploys a Galicaster checkspace plugin.
• install-gc-lowaudio-plugin.yml – deploys and enables a Galicaster lowaudio plugin.
• install-intel-opencl.yml – installs Intel OpenCL runtime (removes NVIDIA drivers first).
• install-datapath.yml – installs Datapath capture drivers based on detected hardware.

Updates / tweaks

• update-nvidia.yml – updates LectureSight NVIDIA drivers (tasks/lecturesight/nvidia-update.yml).
• update-ls.yml – updates LectureSight software (tasks/lecturesight/update.yml).
• update-ls-start.yml – copies a new LectureSight start script into /opt/ls/.
• update-ls-url.yml – updates the LectureSight status URL in /opt/ls/conf/lecturesight.properties.
• update-gc-with-ca-details.yml – updates Opencast host/user/password in /etc/galicaster/conf.ini and reboots.
• update-gc-to-mediadev.yml – switches the Opencast host to mediadev.uct.ac.za in /etc/galicaster/conf.ini.
• update-os-blackmagic-playbook.yml – updates OS packages, installs Blackmagic drivers, and can reboot.

Reporting / diagnostics

• get-pc-health.yml – gathers SMART/disk health and writes JSON + markdown summary into logs/.
• get-ubuntu-version.yml – prints the Ubuntu release version.
• check-vga.yml – collects VGA device + Ubuntu version info and writes to /tmp logs.

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Archive

The archive/ folder contains older legacy playbooks (Opencast upgrades, etc.) that are kept for reference.

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Notes

• Inventory file: hosts (root-level).
• Templates: templates/.
• Variables: vars/.

Common inventory groups

• CAs – all classroom capture agents.
• new – intended for newly provisioned hosts / fresh installs.
• lecturesight – subset of hosts running LectureSight.

If you want a new playbook added to this list, add a short name: and top-level comment so it’s easier to summarize automatically.