docker-ara

Slim, production-ready container image for ARA Records Ansible built on AlmaLinux 9 minimal.

Features:

Minimal image footprint (almalinux:9.5-minimal base, build tools removed after install)
tini as PID 1 — correct signal handling and zombie reaping for crond child processes
Supports SQLite (default), MariaDB/MySQL, and PostgreSQL via environment variables
Built-in crond — automatically prunes playbooks older than a configurable number of days
All settings configurable at runtime through environment variables

Quick start (SQLite)

docker build -f docker/Dockerfile -t ara .

docker run -d \
  --name ara \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  -v ara_data:/opt/ara \
  ara

Then open http://localhost:8000.

Environment variables

All ARA server settings map directly to environment variables.
Full reference: https://ara.readthedocs.io/en/latest/api-configuration.html

Core

Variable	Default	Description
`ARA_BASE_DIR`	`/opt/ara`	Data & config directory
`ARA_SECRET_KEY`	(random)	Django secret key — set a stable value in production
`ARA_ALLOWED_HOSTS`	`["127.0.0.1","localhost","::1"]`	Hosts the server will respond to
`TZ`	`UTC`	System timezone — controls when crond fires
`ARA_TIME_ZONE`	same as `TZ`	Timezone for ARA to store/display results — keep in sync with `TZ`
`ARA_LOG_LEVEL`	`INFO`	Log verbosity (`DEBUG`, `INFO`, `WARNING`, `ERROR`)

Database

Variable	Default	Description
`ARA_DATABASE_ENGINE`	`django.db.backends.sqlite3`	`sqlite3`, `mysql`, or `postgresql`
`ARA_DATABASE_NAME`	`~/.ara/server/ansible.sqlite`	DB name (or path for SQLite)
`ARA_DATABASE_HOST`	(none)	Database host
`ARA_DATABASE_PORT`	(none)	Database port
`ARA_DATABASE_USER`	(none)	Database user
`ARA_DATABASE_PASSWORD`	(none)	Database password
`ARA_DATABASE_CONN_MAX_AGE`	`0`	Persistent connection lifetime (seconds)

Security / authentication

Variable	Default	Description
`ARA_READ_LOGIN_REQUIRED`	`false`	Require auth for read requests
`ARA_WRITE_LOGIN_REQUIRED`	`false`	Require auth for write requests

Server tuning

Variable	Default	Description
`ARA_PORT`	`8000`	Port gunicorn listens on
`ARA_GUNICORN_WORKERS`	`4`	Number of gunicorn worker processes
`ARA_PAGE_SIZE`	`100`	Results per page from the API

Maintenance / pruning

Variable	Default	Description
`ARA_PRUNE_DAYS`	`30`	Delete playbooks older than this many days
`ARA_PRUNE_CRON`	`0 2 * * *`	Cron schedule for pruning (daily at 02:00)

The prune job uses ara playbook prune --client offline so it accesses the database directly without going through the HTTP server. Output is forwarded to docker logs.

Docker Compose — MariaDB

See docker-compose.yml for a ready-to-use stack with MariaDB.

# Copy and edit the environment file
cp .env.example .env

# Start the stack
docker compose up -d

# View logs
docker compose logs -f ara

Manual pruning

# Preview what would be deleted (no --confirm = dry run)
docker exec ara ara playbook prune --client offline --days 30

# Actually delete
docker exec ara ara playbook prune --client offline --days 30 --confirm

Configuring Ansible to report to ARA

Install the ARA callback plugin on your Ansible controller:

pip install ara

Then add to ansible.cfg:

[defaults]
callback_plugins = $(python3 -m ara.setup.callback_plugins)

[ara]
api_client = http
api_server = http://<ara-host>:8000

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