Ansible Configuration and Administration

Overview

This course presents the system management and configuration tool Ansible, from methods, techniques, capabilities to implementation. Each participant will learn how to configure an Ansible control machine along with the impact on the Linux system. A lot of time and attention will be spent in learning, writing, and applying playbook definitions, the key part of Ansible that allows the synchronization of environments easily and uniformly, to apply to Linux, Unix and Windows systems.

Learning Objectives

At the completion of the course, participants should be able to :

install and configure Ansible control-node and managed-node(s)
use Ansible from the (ad-hoc) command line
create and run playbooks
use standard Ansible modules
create and modify hosts (inventory) definitions
roles: create, install and access with the Ansible Galaxy
design a 'best practice' strategy for using Ansible capabilities
learn the usage and capabilities of the Ansible Tower

Audience

This course is directed towards working systems administrators, software developers, application testers, and quality assurance personnel.

Prerequisites

It is assumed that participants are working systems administrators / developers / testers with some very basic scripting knowledge (bash, ksh, Perl or Python) and an understanding of fundamental system utilities / commands on Linux and Windows systems

Implementation

Each participant will have a dedicated RHEL 7 virtual server for Ansible installation, playbook development, and DSL features, with an installed Ansible Tower instance. A CentOS 7 minimal virtual system and a virtualized Windows host will be setup as Ansible managed nodes. A local Git repo will be created to define a role structure, and will be used for local and remote access with Ansible Galaxy.

Course duration

This course requires four (4) days, 50% lecture, with 50% hands-on commands and lab exercises.

Course outline

Introduction

software development (cycle) considerations
strengths and weaknesses of Ansible
Ansible terminology
Ansible required environment setup

Initial Setup and Configuration

Ansible Core installation (package method)
Ansible component locations
Ansible documentation
Ansible configuration file
inventory (hosts) file contents (Linux and Windows nodes)
(gathering) system facts
defining local facts

Ansible (ad-hoc) Command Line Usage

usage in single module control
using a module across multiple nodes

Ansible Playbooks

layout of playbook sections :
-- directives, variables, tasks, handlers, checking for success / failure
variable creation and usage
controls : loops, conditionals, tags, notifications, plugins, filters, and lookups
using modules in playbooks
running as root

Ansible Modules

layout of an Ansible module
Linux modules : file, yum, systemd, cron, user, shell, filesystem
using the Windows specific (win_) modules
common Linux and Windows modules

roles in Ansible

overview of a role
creating a role (structure)
using (a) role(s)
packaging up a role
Ansible Galaxy - capabilities and usage with roles
Git repo (role) repository (creation)
local access of a Git repo role repository
remote access of a Git repo role repository

Managed Nodes

requirements for a Linux managed node
setup of a Linux managed node
requirements for a Windows managed node
setup of a Windows managed node
inventory and access control information on the control node

Ansible Tower

using the Ansible Tower (dashboard)
define Ansible Tower user accounts
create inventories of systems (with credentials)
create projects and job templates
job scheduling (launch forms), status, and tracking
watching and chaining (multi-) playbooks (workflows)
controlling and viewing logs and audit trails
notifications
remote command execution