Mastering Ansible

Design, develop, and solve real-world automation and orchestration problems by unlocking the automation capabilities of Ansible. Key Features Tackle complex automation challenges with the newly added features in Ansible 2.7 Book Description Automation is essential for success in the modern world of DevOps. Ansible provides a simple, yet powerful, automation engine for tackling complex automation challenges. This book will take you on a journey that will help you exploit the latest version's advanced features to help you increase efficiency and accomplish complex orchestrations. This book will help you understand how Ansible 2.7 works at a fundamental level and will also teach you to leverage its advanced capabilities. Throughout this book, you will learn how to encrypt Ansible content at rest and decrypt data at runtime. Next, this book will act as an ideal resource to help you master the advanced features and capabilities required to tackle complex automation challenges. Later, it will walk you through workflows, use cases, orchestrations, troubleshooting, and Ansible extensions. Lastly, you will examine and debug Ansible operations, helping you to understand and resolve issues. By the end of the book, you will be able to unlock the true power of the Ansible automation engine and tackle complex, real- world actions with ease. What you will learn Gain an in-depth understanding of how Ansible works under the hood Fully automate Ansible playbook executions with encrypted data Access and manipulate variable data within playbooks Use blocks to perform failure recovery or cleanup Explore the Playbook debugger and the Ansible Console Troubleshoot unexpected behavior effectively Work with cloud infrastructure providers and container systems Develop custom modules, plugins, and dynamic inventory sources Who this book is for This book is for Ansible developers and operators who have an understanding of its core elements and applications but are now looking to enhance their skills in applying automation using Ansible. Downloading the example code for this book You can download the example code files for all Packt books you have purchased from your account at http://www.PacktPub.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit http://www.PacktPub.com/support and register to have the files e-mailed directly to you.

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.

Design, develop, and solve real-world automation and orchestration problems by unlocking Ansible's automation capabilities Key FeaturesCompletely revised and updated for Ansible 4.0 and beyondTackle complex automation challenges with the newly added features in AnsibleLearn about the rapidly expanding field of network automation using Ansible, with the help of practical examples for configuring network devicesBook Description Ansible is a modern, YAML-based automation tool (built on top of Python, one of the world's most popular programming languages) with a massive and ever-growing user base. Its popularity and Python underpinnings make it essential learning for all in the DevOps space. This fourth edition of Mastering Ansible provides complete coverage of Ansible automation, from the design and architecture of the tool and basic automation with playbooks to writing and debugging your own Python-based extensions. You'll learn how to build automation workflows with Ansible's extensive built-in library of collections, modules, and plugins. You'll then look at extending the modules and plugins with Python-based code and even build your own collections — ultimately learning how to give back to the Ansible community. By the end of this Ansible book, you'll be confident in all aspects of Ansible automation, from the fundamentals of playbook design to getting under the hood and extending and adapting Ansible to solve new automation challenges. What you will learnGain an in-depth understanding of how Ansible works under the hoodGet to grips with Ansible collections and how they are changing and shaping the future of AnsibleFully automate the Ansible playbook executions with encrypted dataUse blocks to construct failure recovery or cleanupExplore the playbook debugger and Ansible consoleTroubleshoot unexpected behavior effectivelyWork with cloud infrastructure providers and container systemsWho this book is for If you are an Ansible developer or operator who has a detailed understanding of its core elements and applications but are now looking to enhance your skills in applying automation using Ansible, this book is for you. Prior experience working with core system administration tasks on Linux and basic familiarity with concepts such as cloud computing, containers, network devices, and fundamentals of a high-level programming language will help you make the most of this book.

Design, develop, and solve real-world automation and orchestration problems by unlocking the automation capabilities of Ansible. Key FeaturesTackle complex automation challenges with the newly added features in Ansible 2.7Book Description Automation is essential for success in the modern world of DevOps. Ansible provides a simple, yet powerful, automation engine for tackling complex automation challenges. This book will take you on a journey that will help you exploit the latest version's advanced features to help you increase efficiency and accomplish complex orchestrations. This book will help you understand how Ansible 2.7 works at a fundamental level and will also teach you to leverage its advanced capabilities. Throughout this book, you will learn how to encrypt Ansible content at rest and decrypt data at runtime. Next, this book will act as an ideal resource to help you master the advanced features and capabilities required to tackle complex automation challenges. Later, it will walk you through workflows, use cases, orchestrations, troubleshooting, and Ansible extensions. Lastly, you will examine and debug Ansible operations, helping you to understand and resolve issues. By the end of the book, you will be able to unlock the true power of the Ansible automation engine and tackle complex, real- world actions with ease. What you will learnGain an in-depth understanding of how Ansible works under the hoodFully automate Ansible playbook executions with encrypted dataAccess and manipulate variable data within playbooksUse blocks to perform failure recovery or cleanupExplore the Playbook debugger and the Ansible ConsoleTroubleshoot unexpected behavior effectivelyWork with cloud infrastructure providers and container systemsDevelop custom modules, plugins, and dynamic inventory sourcesWho this book is for This book is for Ansible developers and operators who have an understanding of its core elements and applications but are now looking to enhance their skills in applying automation using Ansible.

Master Ansible and Automate Your IT Infrastructure! Conquer IT Infrastructure Challenges with Ansible, the powerful automation tool for configuration management and deployment. This comprehensive guide equips you with the skills to: - Automate repetitive tasks and streamline your workflow (say goodbye to manual configurations!). - Ensure consistent configurations across your entire infrastructure (no more inconsistencies or errors!). - Deploy applications quickly and reliably (get those applications up and running faster!). Whether you're a system administrator, developer, or DevOps engineer, this book is your one-stop shop for mastering Ansible. Learn in-depth: - Installation & Configuration (get Ansible up and running smoothly) - Writing & Organizing Playbooks (define your infrastructure as code) - Ansible Modules, Plugins & Roles (leverage pre-built functionality for complex tasks) - Variables, Templates & Conditionals (make your playbooks dynamic and adaptable) - Dynamic Inventory Management (manage large and diverse IT environments) - Security & Troubleshooting (keep your automation secure and efficient) Master Every Step: - Step-by-step guidance through each Ansible topic (learn at your own pace). - Clear explanations and code examples (understand the concepts and see them in action). - Real-world scenarios for practical application (learn by doing!). - Best practices to optimize your automation (write efficient and maintainable playbooks). Take control of your IT infrastructure, become an Ansible expert, and boost your automation efficiency today! Keywords: Ansible, Configuration Management, IT Automation, Infrastructure Automation, DevOps, System Administration, Application Deployment

Master the ins and outs of advanced operations with Ansible About This Book Learn how to extend Ansible with custom modules, plugins, and inventory sources Utilize advanced Ansible features to orchestrate rolling updates with little to no service disruptions An up-to-date book that brings to light the newly added features in Ansible 2.x Who This Book Is For This book is 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 Gain an in-depth understanding of how Ansible works under the covers Fully automate the Ansible playbook executions with encrypted data Access and manipulate variable data within playbooks Use Blocks to construct failure recovery or cleanup Explore the Playbook debugger and Ansible Console Troubleshoot unexpected behavior effectively Work with cloud infrastructure providers and container systems Develop custom modules, plugins, and dynamic inventory sources In Detail This book provides you with the knowledge you need to understand how Ansible 2.1 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. By the end of the book, the readers will be able to unlock the true power of the Ansible automation engine and will tackle complex real world actions with ease. Style and approach This clear, practical guide illustrates the advanced functionalities of Ansible, its system architecture, and design aspects that will help you to master Ansible with ease.

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

Leverage the power of Ansible to gain complete control over your systems and automate application deployment Key FeaturesUse Ansible 2.9 to automate and control your infrastructureDelve into advanced functionality such as plugins and custom modules in AnsibleAutomate and orchestrate major cloud platforms such as OpenStack, AWS, and Azure using AnsibleBook Description Ansible enables you to automate software provisioning, configuration management, and application roll-outs, and can be used as a deployment and orchestration tool. While Ansible provides simple yet powerful features to automate multi-layer environments using agentless communication, it can also solve other critical IT challenges, such as ensuring continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) with zero downtime. In this book, you'll work with Ansible 2.9 and learn to solve complex issues quickly with the help of task-oriented scenarios. You'll start by installing and configuring Ansible on Linux and macOS to automate monotonous and repetitive IT tasks and get to grips with concepts such as playbooks, inventories, and network modules. As you progress, you'll gain insight into the YAML syntax and learn how to port between Ansible versions. In addition to this, you'll also understand how Ansible enables you to orchestrate multi-layer environments such as networks, containers, and the cloud. By the end of this Ansible book, you'll be well - versed in writing playbooks and other related Ansible code to overcome just about all of your IT challenges, from infrastructure-as-code provisioning to application deployments, and even handling the mundane day-to-day maintenance tasks that take up so much valuable time. What you will learnBecome familiar with the fundamentals of the Ansible frameworkSet up role-based variables and dependenciesAvoid common mistakes and pitfalls when writing automation code in AnsibleExtend Ansible by developing your own modules and pluginsContribute to the Ansible project by submitting your own codeFollow best practices for working with cloud environment inventoriesTroubleshoot issues triggered during Ansible playbook runsWho this book is for If you are a DevOps engineer, administrator, or any IT professional looking to automate IT tasks using Ansible, this book is for you. Prior knowledge of Ansible is not necessary.