Contents

Prerequisites 1

Linux 1

Installation 1

What is Ansible? 1

Basic Ansible Commands 1

Ansible Core Components 2

Plays and Playbooks 2

Inventories 2

Modules 2

Variables 3

Ansible Facts 3

Ansible config file 3

Templates 3

Handlers 4

Roles 4

ansible-vault 5

Repositories 5

Static Repositories 5

Dynamic Repositories 6

Modules 6

About Modules 6

Ansible Ad-hoc Commands 7

About Ad-hoc Commands 7

Sample Ad-hoc Commands 7

Plays and Playbooks 8

 About Plays and Playbooks 8

An Example Playbook That Installs Apache 8

Another Example of a Playbook That Performs Several Actions 9

Templates 10

What are Ansible Templates? 10

An Example of a Template and Playbook 10

Roles 11

What are Roles in Ansible 11

An Example of a Role in Ansible 11

Ansible Galaxy 12

What is Ansible Galaxy 12

An Example of Using Ansible Galaxy 13

Parallelism 14

What is Parallelism in Ansible? 14

How to Change It 14

Ansible Vault 14

What is Ansible Vault? 14

Ansible Vault Commands 15

How You Use It 15

Ansible Tower 15

What is Ansible Tower? 15

Further Information 15

Where Can You Go from Here 15

Links to Other Resources 16

QUALITY THOUGHT TECHNOLOGIES ANSIBLE MATERIAL

Prerequisites
Linux
• You can use 2.6.x or newer kernels

Installation
• On CentOS 7

• Install the EPEL repository

• yum -y install epel-release

• yum update

• yum -y install ansible openssl

What is Ansible?
• Ansible is automated provisioning system for your environments. It doesn't require agents or
additional security infrastructure, so it is easy to deploy. You require an SSH connection to the
server and ability to use sudo.

• It uses a language (YAML) in playbooks that allow you to describe your automated jobs in a
method to plain English.

Basic Ansible Commands

• ansible ad-hoc commands

• ansible-playbook - an Ansible playbook

• ansible-vault - Manage encrypted

• ansible-galaxy - Manage roles using galaxy.ansible.com

• ansible-doc - Show documentation on Ansible commands

• ansible-pull - Pull playbooks from server

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Ansible Core Components

Plays and Playbooks
• An Ansible playbook is made of of individual plays

• A play is a task that is performed

• Playbooks are in YAML format

• Playbook must start with --- at the top, comment may also be on the same line

Inventories
• Inventory format

• Static

• Inventories can

• Static inventories by default /etc/ansible/hosts

• Static inventories can be located anywhere use the -i option to include file. A path
should included. An example is :

• ansible all -i /home/ansible/myhosts -m ping

• Can include variable data for use with hosts or groups of hosts

• Dynamic inventories

• Contain dynamic lists of Ansible hosts

• The be executable or Ansible will expect an ini format

• Output executable is expected to be in a JSON format

• File must provide of servers if called with --list

• File must provide host if called with --host (HOSTNAME)

Modules
• Modules are used to perform the tasks you require

• Ansible ships with many of the modules you require and they can be used with the Ansible ad-hoc
command or through Ansible plays and playbooks

• You can write your own and documentation can be found at:

• http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/dev_guide/developing_modules.html
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Variables
• Allow you to customize behavior for systems, since not all systems are the same

• Variables are how we deal with the differences between systems

• Variable names should be letters, numbers and underscores

• Variables should always start with a letter

• Variables can be defined in the inventory

• Variables can be defined in a playbook or be referenced by templates

Ansible Facts
• Ansible systems

• They

• Gathering facts are

• Using the gathering_facts: no

Ansible config file

• Default Ansible config file is locate at /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg . You use a different
Ansible file if you require

• There is order of precedence for Ansible files

• ANSIBLE_CONFIG - an environment with the location

• ansible.cfg - in your current directory location

• .ansible.cfg - located in your users home directory

• /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg

Templates
• Templates are used with variable substitution

• They are processed by the Jinja2 templating system

• http://jinja.pocoo.org/docs/

• Useful for creating premade config files and then substituting the variables when the playbook runs

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Handlers
• Tasks can trigger handlers

• They are used to handle error conditions

• They are called at the end of each play

• Tasks can trigger multiple actions

Roles
• A playbook is a file that Ansible runs and Roles can be thought of as a playbook
that's split up into multiple

• The format of a

Roles/
└── apache
├── defaults
│ └── main.yml
├── files
├── handlers
│ └── main.yml
├── meta
│ └── main.yml
├── README.md
├── tasks
│ └── main.yml
├── templates
├── tests
│ ├── inventory
│ └── test.yml
└── vars
└── main.yml

• In the example the role itself is called apache and it sits in a folder Roles.

• The folders located apache are where files, handlers, meta templates and variables
should be located. Ansible expects the required portions of the playbook to be inside the main.yml
files.

• A playbook using that role would look like the following:

---
- hosts: local
become: yes
roles:
- Roles/apache

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ansible-vault
• ansible-vault is an encrypted store

• It's used for storing variables or passwords or files in an encrypted format

• It uses an AES-256 cipher

• The command line tool, ansible-vault, is used to work on the files

• When using an encrypted file in a playbook you need to use the following options when running the
playbook:

• --ask-vault-pass

• --vault-password-file

Repositories
Static Repositories
• Static repositories hold the information are being managed Ansible and under
which groups they belong.

• This information is held, by default, in the /etc/ansible/hosts file

• You can your own file as a repository, and select it with the -i option when command such as
the ad-hoc command is run

Example Hosts File Used for Repositories

[local]
localhost
[labservers]
server1.mylabserver.com
server2.mylabserver.com maxRequestsPerChild=100
server3.mylabserver.com
[webserver-group]
www[01:11].linuxacademy.com

• The portions with the [ ] are defining the group name of those servers. So the servers under the
[labservers] are in the labserver group and would be used with an ad-hoc command via
something like the following:

• ansible labservers -m ping

• The servers defined by www[01:11] are a way of selecting multiple servers without typing in their
names. This will select put all servers with the hostnames of www01.linuxacademy.com to www11.
linuxacademy.com into the webserver-group

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• Variables can be defined in repositories and an example is seen above with

maxRequestsPerChild=100

• Variables can also be defined for groups of servers as well as individual servers

Dynamic Repositories
• Dynamic repositories allow you to pull inventories via a more dynamic process than allowed for
with a ini based file

• Many cloud platforms are supported in Ansible and those providers have instructions on whats
required to use their service with Ansible

• The output provided from the the providers system must be in

JSON format.

• More

Modules
About Modules
• Modules what makes Ansible powerful. Modules control systems and perform the actions or
tasks you

• Modules what perform the actual work Ansible and are what gets run with playbooks or ad-
hoc tasks

• Most modules require arguments

• Arguments modules are generally in a key=value format that is space delimited

• Some modules arguments e.g the shell module takes a string of command you want to
run

• To find out the information what a module needs to view this URL: http://docs.ansible.
com/ansible/modules_by_category

• You can write your own modules and the documentation for that can be found at this URL: http://
docs.ansible.com/ansible/dev_guide/developing_modules.html

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Ansible Ad-hoc Commands

About Ad-hoc Commands
• Ansible ad-hoc commands are useful for quick tasks you need to get done.

• They are a great place to get started with Ansible if you're not familiar with it

• Format of an ad-hoc command is ansible <host-group> [options]

• An example of an ad-hoc command to all servers in the group called centos would be
the following:
• ansible centos -b -m yum -a 'name=php state=latest'

• Normally not have the

authority

• You would use -b needs to able to sudo

to root for this to

• Ansible ad-hoc uses Ansible modules

Sample Ad-hoc Commands

• These commands do a variety tasks:

• ansible all -m ping

• connectivity to the servers

• ansible local -m setup -a 'filter=ansible_default_ipv4'

• setup module to pull information about the server, then only the
ansible_default_ipv4 section

• ansible centos -b -m yum -a 'name=httpd state=latest'

• Installs the latest webserver on all servers centos group

• ansible webhosts -i myhosts -b -m yum -a "name=elinks state=latest"

• Installs elinks onto hosts in the webhosts group that are in the myhosts inventory file

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Plays and Playbooks

About Plays and Playbooks
• Plays are the individual tasks that are performed inside a playbook and a playbook is made up of
one or more plays

• Playbooks describe a set of steps in a process

• They can describe a policy you want to enforce

• They force a specific end state to

• They are designed to

• They can

• Playbooks

• Easier to put under

• Playbooks are written in YAML of syntax

• Uses standard AML but without the metadata the start. Because of this, define the start of
the YAMl with 3 dashes on the first line like this:

• ---

• Playbooks should be idempotent. So you should be able to rerun them multiple times without
problems. instance, if a file is going overwritten and cause problems should check
first and change it

An Example Playbook That Installs Apache

---
- hosts: local
become: yes
tasks:
- nam e: install apache
yum: name=httpd state=latest

• The playbook above first restricts the actions to the servers in the local group

• Then it uses become: yes to perform the actions on the target server as the root user

• Then it sets up the tasks that are required to be performed with the tasks

• Then it use nam e: to call the play "install apache"

• Then it uses the yum module and passes the required parameters of name=httpd (which is the

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Apache package on Red Hat) and state=latest. There are several different choices of state.

Another Example of a Playbook That Performs Several

Actions
---
- hosts: databases
tasks:
- shell: cat /etc/motd
register: motd_contents
- debug: msg="stdout={{motd_contents}}"
- debug: msg="MOTD is EMPTY"
when: motd_contents.stdout == ""

• This play book

• It has

• Its first task /etc/motd file into the register

called motd_contents responses to an action
that has been performed

• Then it the debug module that the shell command sent to the stdout and
shows on the info sent back by the running playbook

• The next debug command will echo to the responses from the running playbook, MOTD is
EMPTY only when the modt_contents is empty

• Here is what the response from running that playbook looks like:

[ansible@server roles]$ ansible-playbook check-motd.yml

PLAY [local] ********************************************************
*********
TASK [setup] ********************************************************
*********
ok: [localhost]
TASK [co mand] ******************************************************
*********
changed: [localhost]
TASK [debug] ********************************************************
*********
ok: [localhost] > {
"msg": "stdout={u'changed': True, u'end': u'2017-03-29
11:06:24.451976', u'stdout': u'', u'cmd': u'cat /etc/motd', u'rc': 0,
u'start': u'2017-03-29 11:06:24.448336', u'stderr': u'', u'delta':
u'0:00:00.003640', 'stdout_lines': [], u'warnings': []}"
}
TASK [debug] ********************************************************
*********
ok: [localhost] > {
"msg": "MOTD is EMPTY"
}

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PLAY RECAP **********************************************************

*********
localhost : ok=4 changed=1 unreachable=0
failed=0

Templates
What are Ansible Templates?
• Templates use the template module. The take variables that you have defined and
replace those in files. The use is then send that information to the
target server.

• Templates this language can

be

An Example of a Template and Playbook

• Here is what is the template template.j2

<p>
Hello there <p>
ServerName = {{description}}

• Here is a sample playbook that uses that template:

---
- hosts: databases
become: yes
vars:
description: "{{ ansible_hostname }}"
tasks:
- nam e: write the index file
template: src=template.j2 dest=/var/www/html/index.ht ml
notify:
- restart httpd
- nam e: ensure apache is running
service: name=httpd state=running
handlers:
- nam e: restart httpd
service: name=httpd state=restarted

• Here is the contents of the /var/www/html/index.ht ml file once the playbook has run:

<p>
Hello there <p>
ServerName = server

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• For this particular server, the hostname is 'server'

Roles
What are Roles in Ansible
• Roles in Ansible use the idea of using include files and combines them to form reusable sections

• It allows you to reuse portions of your code easier. You break up the playbook into sections and
when the playbook is run it pulls all the sections together and runs against your target hosts

• Ansible roles must be in a particular expected. You need a folder and subfolders
to be in a specified format.

• As an example, in there then

we ansible-galaxy
command

• Starting in the Roles ansible-galaxy init apache create the

following tree files:

apache/
├── defaults
│ └── main.yml
├── files
├── handlers
│ └── main.yml
├── meta
│ └── main.yml
├── README.md
├── tasks
│ └── main.yml
├── templates
├── tests
│ ├── inventory
│ └── test.yml
└── vars
└── main.yml

• We would edit the files as required our project needs. For instance, we would
edit the apache/tasks/main.yml file to put in the tasks that are required. We would edit the
apache/vars/main.yml to put in any variables that are needed and so on.

• If you don't need a section then it's not used. So, for instance, if we put no data into handlers/
main.yml, then it would be ignored when the role is run

An Example of a Role in Ansible

• Here is an example of a role in Ansible. The only file we require is tasks since this is a simple

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example. Here is the file system tree with only the files that are needed:

.
└── apache
└── tasks
└── main.yml

• Here is the contents of main.yml

- yum: name=httpd state=present

• Here is the contents of the playbook role:

---
- hosts: local
become: yes
roles:
- Roles/apache

• Here is the command

ansible-playbook playbook.yml

• When the playbook is run it includes the tasks in apache/tasks/main.yml and runs them

Ansible Galaxy
What is Ansible Galaxy
• Ansible a website where users can share roles.

• It also refers command line tool that is installed with Ansible.

• The command called with the following format

• ansible-galaxy
[delete|im port|info|init|install|list|login|remove|search|setup] [--
help] [options] .

• By default, roles are downloaded to the /etc/ansible/roles folder. If you want to store them
there you may need to preface the command with sudo

• You can change where the role is installed by useing the -p option when you use the command

• Roles can have dependancies, but those will automatically be installed

• You don't need an Ansible Galaxy profile to download. If you wish to contribute roles, then you will
need a profile on the site.
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• The URL for the Ansible Galaxy site is https://galaxy.ansible.com/

An Example of Using Ansible Galaxy

• To use Ansible Galaxy you need to find a role you wish to download

• You can use ansible-galaxy search to search for roles or you can search from the Ansible
Galaxy website

• To install a role from Ansible Galaxy you specify the download option

• Here is an example:

• ansible-galaxy install bennojoy.nginx -p Roles

• The output

- downloading role 'nginx', owned by bennojoy

- downloading role from https://github.co m/bennojoy/ngin x/archive/
master.tar.gz
- extracting bennojoy.nginx to Roles/bennojoy.nginx
- bennojoy.nginx was installed successfully

• The command installed the role into the Here is the tree to show you format:

└── Roles
├── bennojoy.nginx
│ ├── defaults
│ │ └── main.yml
│ ├── files
│ │ └── epel.repo
│ ├── handlers
│ │ └── main.yml
│ ├── meta
│ │ └── main.yml
│ ├── README.md
│ ├── tasks
│ │ └── main.yml
│ ├── templates
│ │ ├── default.conf.j2
│ │ ├── default.j2
│ │ ├── nginx.conf.j2
│ │ └── site.j2
│ └── vars
│ └── main.yml

• You would use the role in a playbook the same as a normal role.

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Parallelism
What is Parallelism in Ansible?
• It's how many processes that Ansible uses to talk to the server to perform its tasks. By default, it's 5,
but that can be changed

• You can change it in the config file, on the command line or in a playbook.

How to Change It
• Ansible calls its forks; here changed to 20:

• In a config file:

• forks = 20

• On the command

• ansible centos -m ping -f 20

• In a playbook:

---
- hosts: ec2
serial: 20

Ansible Vault
What is Ansible Vault?
• Ansible V encrypted store

• It's used for storing variables or passwords or files in an encrypted format

• It uses an AES-256 cipher

• The command line tool, ansible-vault, is used to work on the files

• When using an encrypted file in a playbook, you need to use the following options when running
the playbook:

• --ask-vault-pass

• --vault-password-file

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Ansible Vault Commands

• Here is an example of using vault to encrypt a file

ansible-vault encrypt Roles/apache-install/vars/main.yml

Vault password:
Encryption successful

How You Use It

• When you call a play that has an ecrypted you need to let Ansible know to ask for the
decryption key. If you don't, then below:

ansible-playbook testplay1.yml
ERROR! Decryption failed on /home/ansible/roles/Roles/apache-install/
vars/main.yml

• To run the playbook following:

• ansible-playbook testplay1.yml --ask-vault-pass

Ansible Tower
What is Ansible Tower?
• Ansible T is a web-based solution that designed to help you manage your Ansible
installation.

• Ansible T provides access control over playbooks, inventory, SSH credentials. It can
manage access to those credentials. has logging that helps you your systems.

• Find out Tower features and how to download it on the Ansible webpage. Tower
is free for to 10 nodes.

• https://ansible.com/tower

Further Information
Where Can You Go from Here
• If you want to learn more about Ansible, Linux Academy has several other courses about Ansible
you may be interested in:

• Ansible Quick Start: https://linuxacademy.com/cp/modules/view/id/87

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• Using Ansible for Configuration Management and Deployments: https://linuxacademy.com/cp/

modules/view/id/59

• Deploy to AWS with Ansible and Terraform: https://linuxacademy.com/cp/modules/view/id/104

• Ansible and Amazon Web Services: https://linuxacademy.com/cp/modules/view/id/63

Links to Other Resources

• Developing your own modules: http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/dev_guide/developing_modules.
html

• Jinja2 templating system: http://jinja.pocoo.or

• Ansible website about http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/intro_dynamic_

inventory.html

• Information .html

• Write your http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/dev_guide/developing_modules.html

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