Practical Ansible Configuration Management from Start to Finish

Get ready to go from the basics of using Ansible to becoming proficient at implementing configuration management in your projects. This book begins with the basics of Ansible, providing you with details on how to install and configure your environment while working with different Ansible modules from the command line. Next, it introduces you to working with Ansible tasks and organizing configuration code into playbooks. 

You’ll then learn how to extend playbooks further, using roles and templates within the configuration code. Author Vincent Sesto then extends your knowledge further by covering custom Ansible modules using Python and Linux shell scripts and demonstrating how you can start to keep your secret values encrypted and secure using Ansible Vault. You’ll also develop Ansible roles with the use of Ansible Galaxy to reuse existing roles that others have created.

This updated edition reflects changes added in the latest version of Ansible (2.9). It also includes an expanded chapter on testing Ansible using Molecule and managing large server environments using applications like Ansible Tower.

What Will You Learn

• Understand what Ansible is and how to install and run your first basic command line commands
• Expand your configuration management using Ansible playbooks, roles and templates
• Customize your code further using Ansible Vault and third-party roles in Ansible Galaxy.
• Work with Ansible in managing cloud infrastructure, specifically in Amazon Web Services
• Troubleshoot your Ansible code and use frameworks like Molecule and Testinfra to help test your code changes
• Manage large server environments using real-world examples and extend your configurations using an application like Ansible Tower

Who This Book Is For

Systems Engineers, Developers, DevOps Engineers and Software Administrators.

Chapter 1:  Configuration Management With Ansible

Chapter Goal: Introduce configuration management and automation, introduce Ansible

No of pages: 20 - 25

Sub -Topics

1. Introduce Ansible to readers and installation onto your system.
2. Start with the basic configurations of Ansible and basic command line options.
3. Introduce working with Ansible on the command line, and demonstrate the basics of Ansible Playbooks.
4. Introduce common Ansible Modules used in day to day configuration management.
5. Introduce the projects we are going to work with during this book. A LAMP Stack for the first part of the book and a Splunk Server towards the end of the book when deploying to AWS.

Chapter 2:  Ansible Playbooks

Chapter Goal: Expand knowledge of Ansible with an in depth look at Ansible Playbooks

No of pages: 20 - 25

Sub - Topics  

1. Start with a brief discussion on YAML Syntax and how it relates to Ansible Playbooks.
Demonstrate how we can join numerous modules together to create a larger project Ansible Playbooks.
2. Expand Playbook functionality with import, include, loops and variables.
Start creating the Ansible Playbook for our first project of the book, the LAMP Stack.

Chapter 3: Expanding Playbooks With Roles and Templates

Chapter Goal: Expand the LAMP Stack project further expanding the readers knowledge on the use of Ansible Playbooks

No of pages: 20 - 25

Sub - Topics: 

1. Introduce Ansible Roles and create roles for the LAMP Stack including Web Server, Database and Django Server.
2. Provide a discussion on how to use command line options and variables with Ansible Playbooks.

3.  Configuring Playbooks using conditional tasks and tags to limit what changes are made by the Ansible Playbook.

 

Chapter 4: Custom Ansible Modules, Vaults And Galaxay’s

Chapter Goal: Provide an introduction to using Ansible Vault to manage their system secrets, as well as  exploring Ansible Galaxy to help them fast track their project deployments.

No of pages: 20 - 25

Sub - Topics:

1. Provide the reader with a demonstration on how to use Ansible Vault to help manage secrets within your Ansible Projects.
2. Provide an introduction to Ansible Galaxy getting the reader familiar with searching and using third party roles in Ansible Galaxy.
3. Demonstrate to the reader how they can start to create their own roles in Ansible Galaxy.
Demonstrate to the user how with some basic Python skills, they can create their own Ansible Modules if they need to.

 

Chapter 5: Working with Ansible In The Cloud

Chapter Goal: The goal of this chapter is to provide a brief introduction to Amazon Web services and get the reader to implement Ansible Playbooks that deploy to AWS.

No of pages: 20 - 25

Sub - Topics:

1. Introduce Amazon Web Services to the reader and provide a brief discussion on what it is and how you can create your own AWS account.
2. Discuss how to allow Ansible and your playbooks to interact with AWS and deploy services to the cloud.
Introduce the reader to the modules you will be using to create your new services on AWS.
3. Create our new project playbook for our second project to deploy a Splunk Server to AWS.

 

Chapter 6: AWS Templates and CloudFormation Scripts

Chapter Goal: Expand the readers knowledge further on deploying to their projects to AWS using templates, working with Ansible Pull and using GitHub repository deployments.

No of pages: 20 - 25

Sub - Topics:

1. Working with Ansible templates in AWS Instances.
Using Ansible Pull and GitHub repository deployments.
2. Provide a demonstration on how to build AWS Images in your projects to improve the speed of your deployments.
3. Combining CloudFormation and Ansible in our projects.

 

Chapter 7: Ansible Troubleshooting And Variables

Chapter Goal: Further our work with some finer points on how we can reduce potential issues from arising in our playbooks and ensure things run as smoothly as possible.

No of pages: 20 - 25

Sub - Topics:

Start with a brief discussion on why modules in AWS work differently than modules in dedicated hardware.
1. Provide details on how to use the Debug Module in your Playbooks to provide clarity on your running playbooks.
2. Working with Ansible Facts.
Using functions like Ansible Lint to help troubleshoot and ensure you are limiting the chance of your playbooks failing.
3. Provide a discussion on migrating from one configuration management system like Chef or Puppet to Ansible and how you might want to approach this.
Provide details on how you can interact and connect to servers when SSH is not available.

 

Chapter 8: Testing Ansible Playbooks With Molecule

Chapter Goal: This chapter will introduce setting up a test framework for Ansible playbooks and roles, as well as testing the end state infrastructure of what our Ansible roles are trying to achieve.

No of pages: 20 - 25

Sub - Topics:

1.      Introduce Molecule as a way of testing your Ansible code.

2.      Provide the basic commands on how to set up your roles and playbooks using Molecule and how to begin testing.

3.      Discuss how you can set up a workflow to automatically test your code and infrastructure when changes are made.

  Chapter 9: Managing Larger Server Environments

Chapter Goal: Introduce Ansible Tower to the reader and discuss how you can use the application as part of managing lager server environments. Due to licensing of Ansible the chapter will demonstrate how to use the open source version called AWX.

No of pages: 20 - 25

Sub - Topics:

1. Discuss how to set up your hosts files for larger server environments.
2. Introduce Ansible Tower to the reader and show some of the basic usage.
3. Show how to install Ansible Tower on your system.
4. Introduce basic usage of Tower and how to start implementing your configuration management using the application.

 

Vincent Sesto is a DevOps engineer, endurance athlete and author.

As a DevOps engineer Vince specializes in Linux, Amazon Web Services, and open source applications. He is particularly interested in developing his skills in DevOps, continuous integration, security, log aggregation (management, UI, and reporting), and Python development. In his spare time, you’ll find him running or cycling for long periods of time, making the most of his time outdoors.