Automating with Ansible Online Course

Automating with Ansible Online Course

About Automating with Ansible Online Course

Ansible is a robust automation tool that streamlines system configuration and infrastructure management with agentless, declarative, and idempotent playbooks. This comprehensive online course covers Ansible's fundamentals, including core vs. community versions, environment setup, ad-hoc commands, and Playbook creation. You'll master variables, conditionals, loops, tags, handlers, and error handling to optimize task execution. The course also explores privilege escalation, package management, logging, and advanced features like remote_src, delegate_to, and run_once. Through hands-on practice, you'll gain the expertise to efficiently manage infrastructure, automate tasks, and ensure consistent operations across diverse environments.

Key Benefits

• Gain in-depth knowledge of Ansible's capabilities, including error handling, logging, and task reusability, to enhance automation efficiency and reliability.
• Effectively automate system and application configuration management with a user-friendly tool designed for a minimal learning curve.
• Streamline infrastructure management by automating tasks such as operating system provisioning, application configuration, and deployment processes.

Target Audience

This Ansible course is designed for experienced systems and automation engineers with a background in infrastructure management, including operating systems, application configurations, and deployments. It is also well-suited for individuals seeking to automate system and application configurations effectively, even without prior Ansible experience. The course provides a streamlined learning pathway, enabling participants to quickly acquire the foundational knowledge and practical skills necessary to excel in automation.

Learning Objectives

• Gain a thorough understanding of Ansible’s core concepts and ad-hoc commands for efficient automation.
• Develop and execute robust Ansible Playbooks to automate complex tasks.
• Effectively manage variables, conditionals, loops, and tags to enhance Playbook functionality.
• Implement error handling and logging techniques to ensure reliability and transparency in automation workflows.
• Leverage advanced features such as privilege escalation and package installation to streamline system management.
• Work seamlessly across multiple environments by utilizing Ansible inventory files for efficient configuration management.

Course Topics

The Automating with Ansible Online Course covers the following topics - 

Module 1. Introduction

• Overview of Ansible
• Comparison: Ansible Core vs. Ansible Community
• Understanding How Ansible Works

Module 2. Environment Setup

• Initializing Nodes/Servers for Ansible Configuration
• Setting Up Ansible-Controller Node on CentOS 9 Using Windows WSL2
• Installing Ansible-Core on CentOS 9 with Python 3.9.x
• Configuring Ansible for Managed Nodes
• Why Ansible Is an Agentless Tool
• Creating a User on the Controller Node and Switching to ansadmin User
• An Overview of Simple Ansible Architecture
• Retrieving the Latest File or Directory from the Current Location

Module 3. Ad-Hoc Commands with Modules

• Introduction to Ansible Ad-Hoc Commands and Modules
• Running Unix/Linux Commands with Ansible Ad-Hoc Commands
• Handling Arguments in Ad-Hoc Commands with Quotations
• How Ansible Executes Ad-Hoc Commands

• Module 4. Working with Files Using Ad-Hoc Commands
• File Modules Overview: file, copy, lineinfile, blockinfile, etc.
• Creating Files on Managed Nodes Using the File Module
• Using the stat Module for File Information
• Copying Files to Managed Nodes with the copy Module
• Managing Lines in Files with the lineinfile Module
• Downloading Files from Managed Nodes Using the fetch Module

Module 5. Installing Packages on Various OS Families

• Using yum and apt Modules to Install Packages

Module 6. Executing Ad-Hoc Commands Locally

• Running Ansible Ad-Hoc Commands on the Ansible Controller Node

Module 7. Understanding Ad-Hoc Command Outputs

• Explaining Why Ansible Operations Are Idempotent

Module 8. Executing Commands with Credentials

• Running Ad-Hoc Commands Using Real-Time User Credentials

Module 9. Ansible Inventory Files

• Managing Inventory Files for Multiple Environments
• Types of Inventory Files

Module 10. Ansible Configuration Files

• Locations and Priorities of Configuration Files

Module 11. Using Shell Scripts with Ansible Commands

• Integr&ating Ansible Ad-Hoc Commands into Shell Scripts

Module 12. Ansible Facts

• Gathering Default Facts with the setup Module
• Creating Custom Facts Based on Specific Requirements

Module 13. Introduction to Playbooks

• What Are Playbooks and Their Purpose?
• Using Visual Studio Code to Develop Playbooks
• Writing Your First Playbook
• Executing Playbooks Locally on the Controller Node
• Verifying Playbook Syntax

Module 14. Playbook Development Basics

• Introduction to Custom Variables
• Variable Data Types and YAML Structures
• Reading Variables from Files
• Passing Variables via Command Line
• Using vars_prompt Section in Playbooks
• Working with host_vars and group_vars
• Debugging with the debug Module

Module 15. Registered and Set-Fact Variables

• Capturing Task Output with Register Variables
• Defining Variables Dynamically with Set-Fact

Module 16. Variable Operations

• Types of Operators: Arithmetic, Comparison, Membership, Logical, and Test
• Performing Operations on Lists, Strings, and Dictionaries
• Using Filters and Methods for Data Manipulation

Module 17. Conditional Statements

• Applying Conditions with the when Statement
• Writing In-Line Conditional Statements

Module 18. Playbook Practice Tasks

• Building an Arithmetic Calculator
• Writing Playbooks to Retrieve Python or Java Versions
• Executing General Commands

Module 19. Working with Facts in Playbooks

• Using Default Facts and service_facts Module
• Managing Inventory Hostnames and hostvars

Module 20. Privilege Escalation

• Understanding become, become_user, and become_method

Module 21. Task Reusability

• Installing Packages Based on OS Families
• Reusing Tasks with import_tasks and include_tasks

Module 22. Handlers

• Using Handlers and Their Execution Conditions

Module 23. Using Tags

• Defining and Executing Tagged Tasks

Module 24. Error Handling

• Handling Errors with block, rescue, and Task Grouping

Module 25. Logging in Ansible

• Capturing Command and Playbook Outputs in Log Files

Module 26. Advanced Options

• Using remote_src, delegate_to, and run_once in Playbooks
• Setting Environment Variables (e.g., JAVA_HOME) in Playbooks

Module 27. Loops in Playbooks

• Using Loops for Lists and Dictionaries
• Installing Multiple Packages with Loops

Module 28. Templates

• Creating Templates with Variables, Conditions, and Loops

Module 29. Plugins

• Understanding Plugins and Listing Available Ones

Module 30. Third-Party Collections

• Installing and Using Community Modules and Collections

Module 31. Dynamic Inventory with Plugins

• Configuring AWS Dynamic Inventory Plugin

Module 32. Roles

• Structuring and Using Ansible Roles

Module 33. Ansible Vault

• Encrypting Secrets with Ansible Vault

Module 34. Using the Raw Module

• Working with Unmanaged Nodes Using the Raw Module