firewall

name	firewall
description	Maintains the ansible/roles/firewall Ansible role that provides basic firewalld enable/disable, default-zone, and open-ports/services management, as part of the Linux SOE. Use when checking or fixing basic firewall state — for more complete firewall configuration, note the role explicitly defers to system_roles.firewall.

firewall

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

ansible/roles/firewall/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.

What the role actually does

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

• firewall_enable: null (default) means leave firewalld's enabled/disabled state untouched — the role only branches into enable.yml/disable.yml when this is explicitly true/false.
• firewall_default_zone (default public), firewall_open_ports, firewall_open_services (both default empty) are only applied in the enable path.
• firewall_close_unconfigured (default false) — if true, closes any port/service not in the two lists above; the ssh service is protected from closure regardless of this setting.
• The role's own README states this is deliberately basic — recommends system_roles.firewall (i.e. redhat.rhel_system_roles.firewall) for anything more complete.

This role is sourced from the myllynen/rhel-ansible-roles import (see git log -- ansible/roles/firewall) 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 firewall --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 firewall

Propose a change to the role itself: never edit and commit directly. On a branch named soe/firewall/<short-desc>, edit ansible/roles/firewall/, validate locally (--syntax-check, ansible-lint roles/firewall/, and --check --diff against a real/test host if available), then push and open a PR titled [firewall] <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

• firewall_close_unconfigured: true can cut off any service not explicitly listed — review firewall_open_ports/firewall_open_services completeness before enabling it on a host reachable only over the network being closed.

Wiring into the SOE

This role is in configure_rhel_domains's default value in ansible/configure_rhel.yml (see .claude/skills/configure_rhel/SKILL.md) for the general host baseline, and has a row in .claude/skills/soe/SKILL.md's domain table, so it runs as part of both ansible-playbook ansible/configure_rhel.yml --tags firewall ... and a full, untagged ansible-playbook ansible/configure_rhel.yml run. This repo no longer uses ansible/site.yml as the baseline entrypoint — see docs/ARCHITECTURE.md.

The same role is also invoked by ansible/nfs_server_setup.yml, with its own purpose-specific variables set directly in that playbook (not this role's defaults/main.yml) — that playbook opens the nfs firewalld service on the export network, not the general baseline's port/service set. When asked to audit/remediate firewall on a host, check whether it's an NFS server (use nfs_server_setup.yml) or a general-purpose host (use configure_rhel.yml) before picking a playbook; running the wrong one reports drift against the wrong intent.