Ansible Overview

Ansible Overview

Ansible is an open-source automation tool that provides a simple yet powerful framework for application deployment, configuration management, and task automation.

Key Concepts

Control Node

The machine where Ansible is installed and from which automation tasks are run.

Managed Nodes

The target servers that Ansible manages and controls.

Inventory

A list of managed nodes that defines hosts and groups of hosts upon which commands, modules, and tasks in a playbook operate.

Playbooks

YAML files containing automation configurations, deployment procedures, and orchestration steps.

Benefits of Ansible

  1. Agentless Architecture
    • No need to install special software on managed nodes
    • Uses SSH for secure communications
  2. Simple Syntax
    • YAML-based playbooks
    • Human-readable configuration
  3. Idempotency
    • Safe to run playbooks multiple times
    • Only makes changes when needed

Getting Started

Installation

# On Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt update
sudo apt install ansible

# On CentOS/RHEL
sudo yum install ansible

Basic Commands

# Check Ansible version
ansible --version

# Ping all hosts in inventory
ansible all -m ping

# Run ad-hoc command
ansible all -a "uptime"

Best Practices

  1. Organization
    • Use roles for reusable configurations
    • Maintain consistent directory structure
    • Version control your playbooks
  2. Security
    • Use vault for sensitive data
    • Regularly rotate SSH keys
    • Limit access to production inventories
  3. Testing
    • Test playbooks in development environment
    • Use molecule for role testing
    • Implement CI/CD for playbooks

Next Steps

  • Learn about Ansible playbook structure
  • Explore Ansible roles and collections
  • Practice writing custom modules
  • Implement infrastructure automation