Learning Ansible

Among the many configuration management tools available, Ansible has some distinct advantages—it’s minimal in nature, you don’t need to install anything on your nodes, and it has an easy learning curve. This practical guide shows you how to be productive with this tool quickly, whether you’re a developer deploying code to production or a system administrator looking for a better automation solution. Author Lorin Hochstein shows you how to write playbooks (Ansible’s configuration management scripts), manage remote servers, and explore the tool’s real power: built-in declarative modules. You’ll discover that Ansible has the functionality you need and the simplicity you desire. Understand how Ansible differs from other configuration management systems Use the YAML file format to write your own playbooks Learn Ansible’s support for variables and facts Work with a complete example to deploy a non-trivial application Use roles to simplify and reuse playbooks Make playbooks run faster with ssh multiplexing, pipelining, and parallelism Deploy applications to Amazon EC2 and other cloud platforms Use Ansible to create Docker images and deploy Docker containers

This book is your concise guide to Ansible, the simple way to automate apps and IT infrastructure. In less than 250 pages, this book takes you from knowing nothing about configuration management to understanding how to use Ansible in a professional setting. You will learn how to create an Ansible playbook to automatically set up an environment, ready to install an open source project. You’ll extract common tasks into roles that you can reuse across all your projects, and build your infrastructure on top of existing open source roles and modules that are available for you to use. You will learn to build your own modules to perform actions specific to your business. By the end you will create an entire cluster of virtualized machines, all of which have your applications and all their dependencies installed automatically. Finally, you'll test your Ansible playbooks. Ansible can do as much or as little as you want it to. Ansible: From Beginner to Pro will teach you the key skills you need to be an Ansible professional. You’ll be writing roles and modules and creating entire environments without human intervention in no time at all – add it to your library today. What You Will Learn Learn why Ansible is so popular and how to download and install it Create a playbook that automatically downloads and installs a popular open source project Use open source roles to complete common tasks, and write your own specific to your business Extend Ansible by writing your own modules Test your infrastructure using Test Kitchen and ServerSpec Who This Book Is For Developers that currently create development and production environments by hand. If you find yourself running apt-get install regularly, this book is for you. Ansible adds reproducibility and saves you time all at once. Ansible: From Beginner to Pro is great for any developer wanting to enhance their skillset and learn new tools.

Ansible is a simple, but powerful, server and configuration management tool. Learn to use Ansible effectively, whether you manage one server--or thousands.

To help aspiring IT professionals succeed in the automation field, "Learning Ansible" provides an in-depth primer that covers all the essential skills. The book is an excellent resource that will help you become an expert IT automation specialist and Ansible Developer. Starting with an introduction to Ansible, the journey will show how crucial it is in today's IT settings. The first few chapters cover the essentials, diving into topics like configuration management, automation, integration, and orchestration. The authors make sure that readers can confidently troubleshoot issues by thoroughly examining network, performance, and security errors and providing advanced debugging techniques. Practical uses of Ansible in system administration, user and group management, and managing common and complex errors are explored throughout the book. Setup of network devices, software upgrade automation, and fixing recurring network problems are all covered in detail, along with example programs. Next, we'll take a closer look at DevOps, with a focus on how Ansible has impacted CI/CD pipelines. The course teaches readers how to integrate Ansible with popular tools and cloud providers like AWS and Azure through and various tools such as Jenkins, Docker, and Kubernetes. Additionally, integration is extended to databases such as MySQL and MongoDB, as well as monitoring tools such as Nagios and Prometheus. By incorporating practical exercises throughout, the book guarantees that its readers will grasp the concepts and be able to put them to use in actual situations. Key Learnings A thorough introduction to Ansible, laying the groundwork for mastering IT automation techniques. In-depth examination of system administration, with emphasis on improving user and group management skills. Detailed instructions for debugging in Ansible, enhancing problem-solving and troubleshooting abilities. Practical demonstrations of network device configuration, aimed at improving network management skills. Hands-on Ansible integration with Jenkins, Docker, and Kubernetes, enhancing CI/CD capabilities. Integration with cloud providers such as AWS and Azure to strengthen cloud management skills. Techniques for automating workstation setup and software upgrades, with the goal of increasing automation efficiency. Integration with monitoring and logging tools, promoting best practices in system monitoring. Using Ansible to build a full-stack application setup and gain end-to-end automation expertise. Consistent application of web server sample program, which makes learning practical and relatable. Table of Content Introduction to Ansible Playbooks and Tasks Working with Modules Roles, Files and Templating Managing Systems with Ansible Ansible in Networking Ansible for DevOps Troubleshooting Ansible Integrating Ansible with Other Tools

Use Ansible to configure your systems, deploy software, and orchestrate advanced IT tasks Key FeaturesGet familiar with the fundamentals of Ansible 2.7Understand how to use Ansible Tower to scale your IT automationGain insights into how to develop and test Ansible playbooks Book Description Ansible is an open source automation platform that assists organizations with tasks such as application deployment, orchestration, and task automation. With the release of Ansible 2.7, even complex tasks can be handled much more easily than before. Learning Ansible 2.7 will help you take your first steps toward understanding the fundamentals and practical aspects of Ansible by introducing you to topics such as playbooks, modules, and the installation of Linux, Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), and Windows support. In addition to this, you will focus on various testing strategies, deployment, and orchestration to build on your knowledge. The book will then help you get accustomed to features including cleaner architecture, task blocks, and playbook parsing, which can help you to streamline automation processes. Next, you will learn how to integrate Ansible with cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) before gaining insights into the enterprise versions of Ansible, Ansible Tower and Ansible Galaxy. This will help you to use Ansible to interact with different operating systems and improve your working efficiency. By the end of this book, you will be equipped with the Ansible skills you need to automate complex tasks for your organization. What you will learnCreate a web server using Ansible Write a custom module and test it Deploy playbooks in the production environment Troubleshoot networks using Ansible Use Ansible Galaxy and Ansible Tower during deployment Deploy an application with Ansible on AWS, Azure and DigitalOceanWho this book is for This beginner-level book is for system administrators who want to automate their organization's infrastructure using Ansible 2.7. No prior knowledge of Ansible is required

Run Ansible playbooks to launch complex multi-tier applications hosted in public clouds Key Features Build your learning curve using Ansible Automate cloud, network, and security infrastructures with ease Gain hands-on exposure on Ansible Book Description Ansible has grown from a small, open source orchestration tool to a full-blown orchestration and configuration management tool owned by Red Hat. Its powerful core modules cover a wide range of infrastructures, including on-premises systems and public clouds, operating systems, devices, and services—meaning it can be used to manage pretty much your entire end-to-end environment. Trends and surveys say that Ansible is the first choice of tool among system administrators as it is so easy to use. This end-to-end, practical guide will take you on a learning curve from beginner to pro. You'll start by installing and configuring the Ansible to perform various automation tasks. Then, we'll dive deep into the various facets of infrastructure, such as cloud, compute and network infrastructure along with security. By the end of this book, you'll have an end-to-end understanding of Ansible and how you can apply it to your own environments. What you will learn Write your own playbooks to configure servers running CentOS, Ubuntu, and Windows Identify repeatable tasks and write playbooks to automate them Define a highly available public cloud infrastructure in code, making it easy to distribute your infrastructure configuration Deploy and configure Ansible Tower and Ansible AWX Learn to use community contributed roles Use Ansible in your day-to-day role and projects Who this book is for Learn Ansible is perfect for system administrators and developers who want to take their current workflows and transform them into repeatable playbooks using Ansible. No prior knowledge of Ansible is required.

Learn everything you need to manage and handle your systems with ease with Ansible 2 using this comprehensive guide About This Book Simplify the automation of applications and systems using the newest version of Ansible Get acquainted with fundamentals of Ansible such as playbooks, modules, and various testing strategies A comprehensive, learning guide that provides you with great skills to automate your organization's infrastructure using Ansible 2 Who This Book Is For The book is for sys admins who want to automate their organization's infrastructure using Ansible 2. No prior knowledge of Ansible is required. What You Will Learn Set up Ansible 2 and an Ansible 2 project in a future-proof way Perform basic operations with Ansible 2 such as creating, copying, moving, changing, and deleting files, and creating and deleting users Deploy complete cloud environments using Ansible 2 on AWS and DigitalOcean Explore complex operations with Ansible 2 (Ansible vault, e-mails, and Nagios) Develop and test Ansible playbooks Write a custom module and test it In Detail Ansible is an open source automation platform that assists organizations with tasks such as configuration management, application deployment, orchestration, and task automation. With Ansible, even complex tasks can be handled easier than before. In this book, you will learn about the fundamentals and practical aspects of Ansible 2 by diving deeply into topics such as installation (Linux, BSD, and Windows Support), playbooks, modules, various testing strategies, provisioning, deployment, and orchestration. In this book, you will get accustomed with the new features of Ansible 2 such as cleaner architecture, task blocks, playbook parsing, new execution strategy plugins, and modules. You will also learn how to integrate Ansible with cloud platforms such as AWS. The book ends with the enterprise versions of Ansible, Ansible Tower and Ansible Galaxy, where you will learn to interact Ansible with different OSes to speed up your work to previously unseen levels By the end of the book, you'll able to leverage the Ansible parameters to create expeditious tasks for your organization by implementing the Ansible 2 techniques and paradigms. Style and approach This book is a step-by-step learning guide on the all new Ansible 2, which is an ideal configuration management tool.

Design, develop, and solve real world automation and orchestration needs by unlocking the automation capabilities of Ansible About This Book Discover how Ansible works in detail Explore use cases for Ansible's advanced features including task delegation, fast failures, and serial task execution Extend Ansible with custom modules, plugins, and inventory sources Who This Book Is For This book is intended for Ansible developers and operators who have an understanding of the core elements and applications but are now looking to enhance their skills in applying automation using Ansible. What You Will Learn Understand Ansible's code and logic flow Safeguard sensitive data within Ansible Access and manipulate complex variable data within Ansible playbooks Handle task results to manipulate change and failure definitions Organize Ansible content into a simple structure Craft a multi-tier rollout playbook utilizing load balancers and manipulating your monitoring system Utilize advanced Ansible features to orchestrate rolling updates with almost no service disruptions Troubleshoot Ansible failures to understand and resolve issues Extend Ansible with custom modules, plugins, or inventory sources In Detail Automation is critical to success in the world of DevOps. How quickly and efficiently an application deployment can be automated, or a new infrastructure can be built up, can be the difference between a successful product or a failure. Ansible provides a simple yet powerful automation engine. Beyond the basics of Ansible lie a host of advanced features which are available to help you increase efficiency and accomplish complex orchestrations with ease. This book provides you with the knowledge you need to understand how Ansible works at a fundamental level and leverage its advanced capabilities. You'll learn how to encrypt Ansible content at rest and decrypt data at runtime. You will master the advanced features and capabilities required to tackle the complex automation challenges of today and beyond. You will gain detailed knowledge of Ansible workflows, explore use cases for advanced features, craft well thought out orchestrations, troubleshoot unexpected behaviour, and extend Ansible through customizations. Finally, you will discover the methods used to examine and debug Ansible operations, helping you to understand and resolve issues. Style and approach A clear, practical guide that covers best practise, system architecture and design aspects that will help you master Ansible with ease.