Ansible Essentials

Day 1 – Ansible Fundamentals

Module 1: Course Overview & Ansible Introduction

• What is Ansible?
• The role of Ansible in automation and DevOps
• Agentless architecture vs. other configuration management tools
• Hands-on: Lab setup (installing Ansible, configuring SSH access)

Module 2: Ansible Architecture & Design

• How Ansible works
• Control node vs. managed nodes
• The Ansible command-line tool (ansible, ansible-playbook, ansible-doc)
• Configuring Ansible (ansible.cfg, inventory files)
• Managing inventories (static vs. dynamic)
• Working with Ansible modules
• Hands-on: Running simple ad-hoc Ansible commands

Module 3: Ansible Playbooks – Introduction

• Introduction to YAML syntax
• Understanding playbook structure (tasks, handlers, plays)
• Variables and facts
• Using Jinja2 for templating
• Playbook creation and execution
• Hands-on: Writing and running basic playbooks

Day 2 – Advanced Ansible & Best Practices

Module 4: Ansible Playbooks – Deep Dive

• Understanding playbook modules (file, service, package, etc.)
• Using register to capture command output
• Conditional execution with when
• Using loops to repeat tasks
• Hands-on: Creating advanced playbooks with conditions and loops

Module 5: Structuring Ansible Playbooks

• Why structure matters
• Using roles to organize playbooks
• Exploring Ansible Galaxy
• Hands-on: Creating reusable roles for efficient automation

Module 6: Troubleshooting & Best Practices

• Common issues and how to debug
• Using ansible-playbook --check and --diff
• Log management and error handling
• Best practices for maintainable playbooks

Module 7: Advanced Ansible Techniques

• Includes & imports for modular playbooks
• Using tags to run specific tasks
• Dynamic inventories for cloud environments
• Managing execution with asynchronous, serial, and parallel processing
• Organizing tasks with blocks
• Securing secrets with Ansible Vault
• Task delegation and magic variables
• Hands-on: Implementing advanced Ansible techniques in real-world scenarios

Hands-on Labs & Final Project

• Lab 1: Running ad-hoc commands and managing inventories
• Lab 2: Writing and executing a basic playbook
• Lab 3: Using loops, conditions, and handlers in playbooks
• Lab 4: Creating and managing Ansible roles
• Lab 5: Securing secrets with Ansible Vault
• Final Project: Automating infrastructure configuration with Ansible