How to Create ISO image from Files and Folders with Ansible?

I'm going to show you a live Playbook with some simple Ansible code.

I'm Luca Berton and welcome to today's episode of Ansible Pilot

Create ISO images from the Files and Folders

  • community.general.iso_create
  • Generate ISO files with specified files or folders

Let's talk about the Ansible module iso_create.

The full name is community.general.iso_create, which means that is part of the collection of modules "community.general" maintained by the Ansible Community.

This module requires the extra pycdlib Python library. You can easily install the pycdlib Python library using PIP, the Python Package Installer.

The purpose of the module is to generate ISO files with specified files or folders.

Parameters

  • dest_iso path - ISO file absolute path
  • src_files list - absolute paths of source files or folder
  • interchange_level integer - ISO9660 standards (1–4)
  • joliet integer - Joliet extension (1–3)
  • rock_ridge string - Rock Ridge extension (1.09, 1.10, 1.12)
  • udf boolean - no/yes UDF support 2.60

Let me summarize the main parameters of the module iso_create.

The required parameters are "dest_iso" and "src_files".

The "dest_iso" parameter contains the generated ISO file absolute path according to the ISO9660 standard.

The "src_files" parameter contains the list of absolute paths of source files or folders.

You probably would like to set to four the "interchange_level" parameter because it allows you to specify which of the fourth ISO9660 standards to support, default to "1".

Level 1 is the most restrictive standard and Level 4 is the most permissive one.

With all ISO9660 levels from 1 to 3, all file names are restricted to uppercase letters, numbers, and underscores (\_). File names are limited to 31 characters, directory nesting is limited to 8 levels, and path names are limited to 255 characters.

Level 1 allows a maximum of 8 characters for names and 3 characters in the extension.

Joliet is a popular ISO9660 extension in the Windows-like environment that you could enable setting to three the "joliet" parameter to allow the support of filenames up to 103 characters in length (according to the mkisofs documentation).

Rock Ridge is another popular ISO9660 extension in the Unix-like operating systems to enable up to 255 bytes long file names and soft/hard links. You can enable the "1.12" specification setting accordingly the "rock_ridge" parameter.

Another popular extension is the Universal Disk Format (UDF) which allows files to be created, deleted, and changed on a disc just as a general-purpose filesystem. You can enable the UDF specification 2.60 setting the "udf" boolean.

Links

  • [community.general.iso_create](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/community/general/iso_create_module.html)

Playbook

Let's jump into a real-life Ansible Playbook to Create ISO images from Files and Folders.

I'm going to show you how to create an