system_reboot

Maintains the ansible/roles/system_reboot Ansible role that reboots a host per a configurable policy, as part of the Linux SOE. Use when asked to reboot a host as a standalone, policy-driven action (d

SKILL.md

GitHub

system_reboot

Maintains ansible/roles/system_reboot/. See docs/ARCHITECTURE.md for the shared conventions (role layout, audit vs. remediate via --check --diff, safety rules, branch + PR contribution workflow).

ansible/roles/system_reboot/README.md documents this role's full configuration surface (every defaults/main.yml variable, with its original inline comments, rendered as a single reference). Read it before proposing or explaining how to configure this role — it reflects the role's actual current defaults even if a variable summary elsewhere in this file has drifted out of sync with the role.

Policy & workload awareness

docs/VERTICAL_POLICY.md, docs/HORIZONTAL_POLICY and docs/WORKLOAD.md capture org-wide policy items and the workloads this SOE actually hosts — either can gain a new or changed item that this role should reflect. Before auditing, remediating, or proposing a change, check whether either doc has changed more recently than this role's own code:

git log -1 --format='%cI %h %s' -- docs/VERTICAL_POLICY.md docs/HORIZONTAL_POLICY.md docs/WORKLOAD.md
git log -1 --format='%cI %h %s' -- ansible/roles/system_reboot/

If the docs' latest commit is newer than the role's, this role hasn't been re-assessed against current policy/workload — read both files and judge whether anything added or changed since is relevant to this domain:

  • Relevant — propose a concrete change on a branch (soe/system_reboot/policy-<short-desc> or soe/system_reboot/workload-<short-desc>), same branch + PR workflow as any other role change (see "What to do" above and docs/ARCHITECTURE.md's "Contribution workflow"). Don't wait to be asked.
  • Not relevant — say so explicitly (e.g. "checked against docs/VERTICAL_POLICY.md, docs/HORIZONTAL_POLICY and docs/WORKLOAD.md as of <date>, nothing affecting this domain") rather than silently skipping the check.

This check is informational, not a gate — it runs alongside a normal audit/remediate, never blocks one; surface the staleness note alongside the normal output.

What the role actually does

Encoded in ansible/roles/system_reboot/defaults/main.yml:

  • system_reboot_policy (default when_needed) — never / when_needed (checks dnf needs-restarting) / always.

This role is sourced from the myllynen/rhel-ansible-roles import (see git log -- ansible/roles/system_reboot) rather than hand-authored for this repo. Unlike the original reference domains (e.g. timesync, usbguard_setup), it applies state declaratively via standard Ansible modules and does not add its own assert-based drift checks on top — an audit here is exactly what --check --diff reports from the underlying modules, nothing more.

What to do

Audit (read-only, safe to run any time):

ansible-playbook ansible/configure_rhel.yml --tags system_reboot --check --diff

Summarize the diff output and any failed tasks in plain language.

Remediate (modifies the system — only after the user explicitly asks): first summarize what will change from the --check --diff output, then run the same command without --check:

ansible-playbook ansible/configure_rhel.yml --tags system_reboot

Note this only works at all if system_reboot has been uncommented in ansible/configure_rhel.yml's roles: list first — see "Wiring into the SOE" below; by default the tag matches nothing.

Propose a change to the role itself: never edit and commit directly. On a branch named soe/system_reboot/<short-desc>, edit ansible/roles/system_reboot/, validate locally (--syntax-check, ansible-lint roles/system_reboot/, and --check --diff against a real/test host if available), then push and open a PR titled [system_reboot] <what changed> with the --check --diff output in the body. Then stop — a human reviews and merges; see docs/ARCHITECTURE.md's "Contribution workflow".

Notes

  • This role's sole purpose is to reboot the host — treat any remediate run including it the same as the reboot warnings called out for boot_parameters/system_locale in soe/SKILL.md: confirm explicitly before running without --check if system_reboot_policy isn't never.

Wiring into the SOE

This role is not present at all in ansible/configure_rhel.yml's roles: list — not even as a commented-out line, unlike most of the "opt-in" roles in this repo (see .claude/skills/soe/SKILL.md's "excluded from the default run" table) — nor in any of the other playbooks (load_balancer_setup.yml, nfs_client_setup.yml, nfs_server_setup.yml, update_rhel.yml, connect_linux.yml). This is deliberate: it acts unconditionally with no guard variable, and its entire purpose is to reboot the host, so it must never run as a side effect of a routine baseline run.

To actually invoke it, add - system_reboot (and any system_reboot_policy override) directly to ansible/configure_rhel.yml's roles: list yourself before running the commands above, or write a small dedicated one-off playbook — either way, propose it via the branch + PR workflow, and treat adding it to configure_rhel.yml permanently as a cross-cutting, high-blast-radius change needing an explicit human decision, same as it was under the old ansible/site.yml. This repo no longer uses ansible/site.yml; see docs/ARCHITECTURE.md.