Configuration Management with Ansible

Ansible is an open source IT Configuration Management, Deployment & Orchestration tool. It aims to provide large productivity gains to a wide variety of automation challenges. This tool is very simple to use yet powerful enough to automate complex multi-tier IT application environments. At the completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• Understand the fundamentals of Ansible, including its history and how it fits into the current state of IT automation.
• Gain proficiency in the Ansible framework and its approach to configuration management and Infrastructure as Code (IaC).
• Learn the essentials of Ansible deployment, including installation, configuration, and managing inventory and architecture.
• Master executing ad-hoc commands and writing Ansible playbooks for task automation.
• Acquire the ability to define and use variables, facts, conditionals, loops, and handlers within Ansible playbooks.
• Develop skills in creating and managing reusable code through Ansible roles, including role creation and dependency management.
• Learn to secure sensitive data using Ansible Vault and manage secrets within Ansible playbooks.
• Explore Ansible Galaxy to find, share, and reuse community-developed roles and collections.
• Optimize performance and efficiency in Ansible playbooks through best practices and techniques such as forks, tags, and Jinja2 templating.
• Conduct playbook dry-runs to verify code before pushing changes and understand how to troubleshoot common issues and optimize playbook performance.

• System Administrators
• DevOps Engineers
• IT Automation Engineers
• Infrastructure Automation Professionals
• Software Developers with an interest in deployment automation
• Technical Project Managers overseeing IT environments
• Security Professionals looking to automate security compliance
• Cloud Engineers working with scalable infrastructures
• Network Administrators interested in automating network configurations
• Release Engineers coordinating environment configurations and deployment
• Site Reliability Engineers (SREs) managing application stability and automation

Chapter 1 – Introduc1on to Configura1on Management with Ansible

• Introduc9on to Infrastructure as Code Current IT Automa9on State Configura9on Management
• Ansible History Introducing Ansible How Ansible Works

Chapter 2 – Understanding of Ansible Framework

• Case Study
• Ansible Way of Configura9on Management Infrastructure as a Code (IaC)
• Idempotency Ansible Terminology

Chapter 3 – Ansible Deployment

• Pre-Requisites for Controller Node Lab: Installa9on and Configura9on
• Understanding Ansible Configura9on File
• Lab: Crea9ng Ansible Configura9on File Pre-Requisites for Managed Node Understanding Ansible Inventory
• Lab: Crea9ng Ansible Inventory Ansible Communica9on Ansible Architecture

Chapter 4 – Ad-Hoc Execution with Ansible

• Understanding Ansible Modules Lab: Ad-Hoc Remote Execu9ons Lab: Ansible Commands
• Connec9ons and Privilege Escalations

Chapter 5 – Ansible Playbooks

• YAML Structure
• Crea9ng Ansible Playbooks Understanding Playbooks Structure Lab: Playbooks Syntax Checks
• Lab: Playbooks Smoke Test Lab: Playbooks Real-Time Run Lab: Playbook Examples

Chapter 6 – Variables in Ansible Ansible Variables:

• An Introduc9on Lab: Defining Variable in Ansible Code Use Cases
• Lab: Methods of Defining Variables Understanding Variable Precedence Understanding and Reading Ansible Facts Lab: Using Facts in Playbooks
• Disabling Facts Gathering

Chapter 7 – Condi1onals, Loops, Error Handling & Handlers

• Understanding Condi9ons, Loops, Error Handling & Handlers
• Lab: Using Condi9ons in Ansible Lab: Using Loops in Ansible Lab: Using ignore_errors
• Lab: Using Handlers in Ansible

Chapter 8 – Ansible Roles

• Introduction to Ansible Roles
• Understanding Directory Structure of Roles Lab: Manually Creating a Role
• Understanding Include and Dependency Management
• Lab: Using Roles in Playbooks

Chapter 9 – Ansible Vault Introduction to Ansible Vault

• Lab: Ansible Vault CLI Commands
• Lab: Using Ansible-Vault with playbook

Chapter 10 – Ansible Galaxy

• Ansible Galaxy: An Overview
• Lab: Using Roles from Ansible Galaxy
• Lab: Download Roles using requirements.yaml

Chapter 11 – Ansible Playbook Op1miza1on

• Lab: Difference in Copy and Fetch Modules Understanding Forks
• Understanding Serial
• Lab: Using Forks and Serial in playbooks