How to Deploy OpenClaw at Scale with Ansible
Managing OpenClaw across dozens of hosts manually is error-prone and slow. Ansible lets you define your infrastructure as code, ensuring consistent deployments, easy updates, and reproducible environments. This guide covers creating playbooks, managing inventories, templating configurations, and orchestrating rolling updates.
Why This Is Hard to Do Yourself
These are the common pitfalls that trip people up.
Environment consistency
Each host needs identical dependencies, configurations, and versions. One misconfigured node breaks production.
Zero-downtime updates
Rolling updates must drain sessions, update gracefully, and avoid service disruptions across the fleet
Configuration drift
Manual changes on individual hosts create drift. Ansible must enforce state and detect deviations.
Post-deployment validation
Deployments can succeed but leave agents unhealthy. You need automated health checks and rollback capability.
Secret management
API keys, credentials, and certificates must be distributed securely without hardcoding in playbooks
Step-by-Step Guide
Install Ansible
Install Ansible on your control machine.
# On macOS:
brew install ansible
# On Ubuntu/Debian:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install ansible
# Verify installation:
ansible --versionCreate inventory file for OpenClaw hosts
Define your server groups and variables.
# In inventory/production.ini:
[openclaw_agents]
agent-1.example.com
agent-2.example.com
agent-3.example.com
[openclaw_routers]
router-1.example.com
router-2.example.com
# Variables for all hosts
[all:vars]
ansible_user=deploy
ansible_ssh_private_key_file=~/.ssh/id_openclaw
openclaw_version=2.1.0
openclaw_home=/opt/openclaw
# Variables for agent hosts
[openclaw_agents:vars]
openclaw_role=agent
default_model=claude-3.5-sonnet
# Variables for router hosts
[openclaw_routers:vars]
openclaw_role=routerWarning: Never commit secrets to inventory files. Use Ansible Vault for sensitive variables or integrate with a secret manager like HashiCorp Vault.
Write base playbook for OpenClaw install
Create a playbook to install dependencies and OpenClaw.
# In playbooks/install.yml:
---
- name: Install OpenClaw
hosts: all
become: yes
tasks:
- name: Install Node.js
apt:
name: nodejs
state: present
update_cache: yes
- name: Create OpenClaw user
user:
name: openclaw
state: present
shell: /bin/bash
- name: Create OpenClaw directory
file:
path: "{{ openclaw_home }}"
state: directory
owner: openclaw
group: openclaw
- name: Download OpenClaw release
get_url:
url: "https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/releases/download/v{{ openclaw_version }}/openclaw-linux-x64.tar.gz"
dest: /tmp/openclaw.tar.gz
- name: Extract OpenClaw
unarchive:
src: /tmp/openclaw.tar.gz
dest: "{{ openclaw_home }}"
remote_src: yes
owner: openclaw
group: openclawAdd configuration templates
Use Jinja2 templates for dynamic configuration.
# In templates/openclaw.yaml.j2:
# OpenClaw Configuration for {{ inventory_hostname }}
version: {{ openclaw_version }}
role: {{ openclaw_role }}
{% if openclaw_role == 'agent' %}
agent:
model: {{ default_model }}
max_context: 200000
skills_dir: {{ openclaw_home }}/skills
{% endif %}
{% if openclaw_role == 'router' %}
router:
agents:
{% for host in groups['openclaw_agents'] %}
- url: http://{{ host }}:3000
{% endfor %}
{% endif %}
# In playbooks/configure.yml:
- name: Configure OpenClaw
hosts: all
become: yes
tasks:
- name: Deploy configuration
template:
src: templates/openclaw.yaml.j2
dest: "{{ openclaw_home }}/config/openclaw.yaml"
owner: openclaw
group: openclaw
notify: restart openclaw
handlers:
- name: restart openclaw
systemd:
name: openclaw
state: restartedImplement rolling updates
Update agents one at a time to avoid downtime.
# In playbooks/update.yml:
---
- name: Rolling update OpenClaw agents
hosts: openclaw_agents
become: yes
serial: 1 # Update one host at a time
max_fail_percentage: 0
tasks:
- name: Mark agent as draining
uri:
url: "http://{{ inventory_hostname }}:3000/admin/drain"
method: POST
delegate_to: localhost
- name: Wait for sessions to drain
wait_for:
timeout: 60
- name: Stop OpenClaw
systemd:
name: openclaw
state: stopped
- name: Update OpenClaw binary
get_url:
url: "https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw/releases/download/v{{ openclaw_version }}/openclaw-linux-x64.tar.gz"
dest: /tmp/openclaw.tar.gz
- name: Extract update
unarchive:
src: /tmp/openclaw.tar.gz
dest: "{{ openclaw_home }}"
remote_src: yes
- name: Start OpenClaw
systemd:
name: openclaw
state: started
- name: Wait for health check
uri:
url: "http://{{ inventory_hostname }}:3000/health"
status_code: 200
register: result
until: result.status == 200
retries: 10
delay: 3Warning: Always test rolling updates in staging first. Set `max_fail_percentage: 0` to abort the entire update if any single host fails.
Set up monitoring integration
Deploy monitoring agents alongside OpenClaw.
# In playbooks/monitoring.yml:
---
- name: Install monitoring
hosts: all
become: yes
tasks:
- name: Install Prometheus node exporter
apt:
name: prometheus-node-exporter
state: present
- name: Deploy OpenClaw metrics config
template:
src: templates/metrics.yaml.j2
dest: "{{ openclaw_home }}/config/metrics.yaml"
- name: Enable OpenClaw metrics endpoint
lineinfile:
path: "{{ openclaw_home }}/config/openclaw.yaml"
line: " metrics_port: 9090"
insertafter: "^monitoring:"
notify: restart openclawRun the playbook
Execute the deployment.
# Full deployment (install + configure):
ansible-playbook -i inventory/production.ini playbooks/install.yml
ansible-playbook -i inventory/production.ini playbooks/configure.yml
# Rolling update:
ansible-playbook -i inventory/production.ini playbooks/update.yml
# Check host connectivity:
ansible all -i inventory/production.ini -m ping
# Ad-hoc command to check OpenClaw version on all hosts:
ansible all -i inventory/production.ini -a "{{ openclaw_home }}/openclaw --version"Ansible Orchestration Requires Production Experience
Playbooks, inventories, rolling updates, secret management, health checks — getting Ansible right for production deployments is complex. Our DevOps experts design and implement automated OpenClaw deployments for enterprise teams.
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