Time Ansible Role¶

An Ansible role to set the system timezone (via timedatectl) and configure systemd-timesyncd by default, or chrony if explicitly selected, on Debian-based systems.

Features¶

Install and manage systemd-timesyncd or chrony
Configure primary and fallback NTP servers in /etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf
Configure chrony sources in /etc/chrony/sources.d/60-ansible.sources
Set timezone with timedatectl (best-effort)
Optionally enable/disable time synchronization services

Default behavior¶

The default daemon is systemd-timesyncd.
chrony is optional.
The role installs chrony only when you set time_sync_daemon: chrony.

Installation¶

Install the role with ansible-galaxy:

ansible-galaxy install git+https://gitlab.com/niclas-zone/tools/ansible/roles/time.git

Role Variables¶

Variable	Default Value	Type	Description
`time_timezone`	`Europe/Berlin`	string	IANA timezone to apply (`timedatectl set-timezone`)
`time_ntp_enabled`	`true`	boolean	Enable/disable `systemd-timesyncd` service
`time_sync_daemon`	`timesyncd`	string	Time sync daemon to manage: `timesyncd` or `chrony`
`time_timesyncd_unit`	`systemd-timesyncd`	string	Service unit name
`time_chrony_unit`	`chrony`	string	Chrony service unit name
`time_packages`	`['tzdata']`	list[str]	Base packages to install before configuring time/NTP
`time_timesyncd_packages`	`['systemd-timesyncd']`	list[str]	Packages installed when `time_sync_daemon: timesyncd`
`time_chrony_packages`	`['chrony']`	list[str]	Packages installed when `time_sync_daemon: chrony`
`systemd_timesyncd_ntp_servers`	see below	str/list	Primary NTP servers written to `/etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf`
`systemd_timesyncd_fallback_ntp_servers`	see below	str/list	Fallback NTP servers written to `/etc/systemd/timesyncd.conf`
`time_chrony_pools`	`['pool pool.ntp.org iburst maxsources 4']`	list[str]	Raw chrony pool source lines
`time_chrony_servers`	`[]`	list[str]	Chrony servers converted to `server <host> iburst` lines
`ansible_managed_warning`	`"This file is managed by Ansible. Manual changes will be overwritten."`	string	Text to embed as a header comment when templating files
`ansible_role_repository`	`https://gitlab.com/niclas-zone/tools/ansible/roles/time`	string	Repository URL for this role

The role defaults to Europe/Berlin, but you should override time_timezone with the location needed in your environment (for example Europe/Zurich).

Default NTP servers¶

systemd_timesyncd_ntp_servers:
  - "ntp.server.local"

systemd_timesyncd_fallback_ntp_servers:
  - "0.de.pool.ntp.org"
  - "1.de.pool.ntp.org"
  - "2.de.pool.ntp.org"
  - "4.de.pool.ntp.org"

Example Playbooks¶

Basic: set timezone + enable NTP¶

---
- hosts: servers
  become: true
  roles:
    - role: time
      vars:
        time_timezone: "Europe/Zurich"
        time_ntp_enabled: true
        systemd_timesyncd_ntp_servers:
          - "0.pool.ntp.org"
          - "1.pool.ntp.org"
        systemd_timesyncd_fallback_ntp_servers:
          - "time.google.com"
          - "time.cloudflare.com"

Custom NTP servers¶

---
- hosts: servers
  become: true
  roles:
    - role: time
      vars:
        time_timezone: "Europe/Zurich"
        time_ntp_enabled: true
        systemd_timesyncd_ntp_servers:
          - "0.pool.ntp.org"
          - "1.pool.ntp.org"
        systemd_timesyncd_fallback_ntp_servers:
          - "time.google.com"
          - "time.cloudflare.com"

Use chrony¶

---
- hosts: servers
  become: true
  roles:
    - role: time
      vars:
        time_sync_daemon: chrony
        time_chrony_pools:
          - "pool pool.ntp.org iburst maxsources 4"
        time_chrony_servers:
          - "time.cloudflare.com"

Disable NTP (keep timezone configured)¶

---
- hosts: servers
  become: true
  roles:
    - role: time
      vars:
        time_ntp_enabled: false