OpenWrt Mesh Network - Ansible Deployment Quick Start¶

What This Provides¶

Complete Infrastructure-as-Code deployment for your 3-node OpenWrt mesh network using Ansible.

Benefits:

✅ Repeatable, automated deployment
✅ Version-controlled configuration
✅ Easy updates and changes
✅ Consistent configuration across all nodes
✅ Backup and restore capabilities
✅ No manual configuration file editing

Files Included¶

openwrt-mesh-ansible.tar.gz contains:
├── inventory/hosts.yml          # Node definitions
├── group_vars/all.yml           # Configuration variables
├── templates/                   # Jinja2 configuration templates
│   ├── network.j2
│   ├── wireless.j2
│   ├── dhcp.j2
│   └── firewall.j2
├── playbooks/                   # Ansible playbooks
│   ├── deploy.yml              # Main deployment
│   ├── verify.yml              # Status verification
│   ├── backup.yml              # Configuration backup
│   └── update.yml              # Package updates
├── Makefile                    # Convenience commands
├── ansible.cfg                 # Ansible configuration
└── README.md                   # Comprehensive documentation

Prerequisites¶

On your control machine (laptop/workstation):

# Install Ansible
# Ubuntu/Debian:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install ansible

# macOS:
brew install ansible

# Verify installation
ansible --version

Setup Steps¶

1. Extract the Archive¶

tar -xzf openwrt-mesh-ansible.tar.gz
cd openwrt-mesh-ansible

2. Customize Your Configuration¶

Edit group_vars/all.yml - REQUIRED CHANGES:

# CHANGE THESE PASSWORDS!
mesh_password: YourSecureMeshPassword123!
client_password: YourClientPassword123!

# Adjust to your WAN speeds (in kbit/s)
batman_gw_bandwidth: 100000/100000  # 100Mbps down/up

# Optional: Add static host reservations
static_hosts:
  - name: admin-workstation
    mac: 'AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF'
    ip: 10.11.12.10

Other settings you might want to adjust:

WiFi channels (if interference issues)
SSID names
Network ranges (if 10.11.12.0/24 conflicts)
Timezone

3. Initial Deployment (Important!)¶

You must configure nodes ONE AT A TIME initially:

Node 1 First:

# 1. Flash Node 1 with OpenWrt (see main guide)
# 2. Connect ONLY Node 1 to your network
# 3. Node 1 will be at 192.168.1.1 (default)

# Edit inventory/hosts.yml - set node1 ansible_host to 192.168.1.1
# Then deploy:
make deploy-node1

# Or:
ansible-playbook playbooks/deploy.yml --limit node1 --ask-pass

# 4. Node 1 is now at 10.11.12.1
# 5. Update inventory/hosts.yml: ansible_host: 10.11.12.1

Node 2:

# 1. Disconnect Node 1, connect Node 2
# 2. Set node2 ansible_host to 192.168.1.1 in inventory
# 3. Deploy
make deploy-node2

# 4. Update inventory with 10.11.12.2

Node 3:

# Same process as Node 2
make deploy-node3

After all nodes configured:

# Connect wired ring (LAN3/LAN4)
# Connect all WANs
# Power on all nodes

4. Verify Deployment¶

# Check all nodes
make verify

# Or:
ansible-playbook playbooks/verify.yml

# Should show:
# ✓ All nodes reachable
# ✓ Batman interfaces active
# ✓ Mesh topology established
# ✓ Gateways available

Common Operations¶

Deploy Configuration Changes¶

# After editing group_vars/all.yml:
make deploy

# Deploy to specific node:
make deploy-node1

# Dry run (check what would change):
make check

Check Mesh Status¶

# Full status check
make verify

# Quick connectivity test
make ping

# Batman-specific status
make batman-status

# Check logs
make logs

Backup Configurations¶

# Backup all nodes
make backup

# Backups saved to: backups/YYYY-MM-DD/

Update Packages¶

# Check for updates
make update-check

# Apply updates (one node at a time)
make update

Deploy Specific Components¶

# Network configuration only
make deploy-network

# Wireless configuration only
make deploy-wireless

# DHCP configuration only
make deploy-dhcp

# Firewall configuration only
make deploy-firewall

Real-World Workflows¶

Scenario 1: Change WiFi Password¶

# 1. Edit group_vars/all.yml
client_password: NewPassword123!

# 2. Deploy wireless config
make deploy-wireless

# 3. Reconnect your devices with new password

Scenario 2: Add Static IP Reservation¶

# 1. Edit group_vars/all.yml
static_hosts:
  - name: my-server
    mac: '11:22:33:44:55:66'
    ip: 10.11.12.50

# 2. Deploy DHCP config to all nodes (all serve DHCP for redundancy)
make deploy --tags dhcp

# 3. Renew DHCP on client device

Scenario 3: Weekly Maintenance¶

# Backup configurations
make backup

# Check for updates
make update-check

# Verify mesh health
make verify

Scenario 4: Rollback Configuration¶

# If deployment goes wrong:
# 1. Find backup
ls backups/

# 2. Restore from backup (per node)
scp backups/2025-11-04/backup-node1-*.tar.gz root@10.11.12.1:/tmp/
ssh root@10.11.12.1
sysupgrade -r /tmp/backup-node1-*.tar.gz
reboot

Troubleshooting¶

Can't Connect to Nodes¶

# Test SSH manually
ssh root@10.11.12.1

# Test with Ansible
ansible mesh_nodes -m ping --ask-pass

# Check inventory file has correct IPs
cat inventory/hosts.yml

Configuration Not Applying¶

# Check syntax
make check

# Deploy with verbose output
ansible-playbook playbooks/deploy.yml -vv

# Check node logs
make logs

Mesh Not Working After Deployment¶

# Restart network on all nodes
make restart-network

# Check batman interfaces
make batman-status

# Full verification
make verify

# If still issues, check physical wiring
ansible mesh_nodes -a "ip link show | grep lan"

Advanced Tips¶

Version Control with Git¶

# Initialize repository
git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial mesh configuration"

# After changes
git add group_vars/all.yml
git commit -m "Updated WiFi passwords"

# Create tags for stable configs
git tag -a v1.0 -m "Production configuration"

SSH Key Authentication¶

# Generate SSH key
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f ~/.ssh/openwrt_mesh

# Copy to each node
ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/openwrt_mesh.pub root@10.11.12.1
ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/openwrt_mesh.pub root@10.11.12.2
ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/openwrt_mesh.pub root@10.11.12.3

# Update inventory/hosts.yml
ansible_ssh_private_key_file: ~/.ssh/openwrt_mesh

# Remove password from inventory
# Remove: ansible_ssh_pass: ...

Custom Playbooks¶

Create custom playbooks for specific tasks:

# playbooks/restart_services.yml
---
- hosts: mesh_nodes
  tasks:
    - name: Restart all services
      raw: |
        /etc/init.d/network restart
        wifi reload
        /etc/init.d/dnsmasq restart

Run with:

ansible-playbook playbooks/restart_services.yml

Monitoring Integration¶

Export batman status for monitoring:

# Create monitoring script
cat > playbooks/export_metrics.yml <<'EOF'
---
- hosts: mesh_nodes
  tasks:
    - name: Get batman metrics
      raw: batctl o
      register: batman_out

    - name: Save metrics
      local_action:
        module: copy
        content: "{{ batman_out.stdout }}"
        dest: "/tmp/batman_metrics_{{ inventory_hostname }}.txt"
EOF

# Run periodically
ansible-playbook playbooks/export_metrics.yml

Comparison: Manual vs Ansible¶

Manual Configuration¶

❌ Edit files on each node individually
❌ Easy to make mistakes/typos
❌ Hard to keep nodes in sync
❌ No change tracking
❌ Time-consuming for updates
❌ Difficult to replicate

Ansible Configuration¶

✅ Single source of truth
✅ Consistent across all nodes
✅ Version controlled
✅ Easy rollback
✅ Fast deployment
✅ Repeatable

Integration with Your Existing Infrastructure¶

Given your background with Proxmox, Terraform, and infrastructure automation:

Terraform + Ansible:

# terraform/main.tf
resource "null_resource" "deploy_mesh" {
  provisioner "local-exec" {
    command = "cd ../openwrt-mesh-ansible && ansible-playbook playbooks/deploy.yml"
  }
}

CI/CD Pipeline:

# .gitlab-ci.yml or .github/workflows/deploy.yml
deploy:
  script:
    - ansible-playbook playbooks/deploy.yml --check
    - ansible-playbook playbooks/deploy.yml
    - ansible-playbook playbooks/verify.yml

Monitoring Integration:

Export batman metrics to Prometheus
Create Grafana dashboards
Alert on mesh topology changes

Next Steps¶

Initial Setup:
Extract archive
Customize configuration
Deploy to each node sequentially
Testing:
Verify mesh status
Test failover scenarios
Monitor performance
Production:
Set up regular backups
Configure monitoring
Document your specific setup
Optimization:
Fine-tune batman parameters
Adjust for your environment
Add VLANs if needed

Support¶

For detailed documentation:

See README.md in the archive
Refer to main setup guide (openwrt-batman-mesh-setup.md)
Check OpenWrt documentation: https://openwrt.org

For automation questions:

Ansible docs: https://docs.ansible.com
Jinja2 templates: https://jinja.palletsprojects.com

Conclusion¶

This Ansible deployment gives you:

Professional-grade automation for your mesh network
Infrastructure-as-Code approach to network management
Easy maintenance and updates
Version control for all configuration changes
Quick disaster recovery with backups

Perfect for someone with your IT infrastructure experience who values:

Repeatability
Documentation
Version control
Automation

Enjoy your automated, highly-available mesh network!

Quick Reference Commands:

# Setup
tar -xzf openwrt-mesh-ansible.tar.gz && cd openwrt-mesh-ansible
make help

# Deploy
make deploy-node1  # First time, then node2, node3
make deploy        # After all configured

# Maintain
make verify        # Check status
make backup        # Backup configs
make update-check  # Check updates

# Troubleshoot
make ping          # Test connectivity
make batman-status # Check mesh
make logs          # View logs

Last Updated: 2025-11-05 Version: 1.0