Lab 5 - Configuration Management with Ansible - Day 78

Hello and welcome back to our #90DaysOfDevOps Series. In previous discussions, we looked at Ansible, a widely used configuration management tool designed to automate the setup and configuration of IT infrastructure. Utilizing a straightforward language known as YAML, Ansible allows users to outline tasks, subsequently executed on remote hosts through SSH. In this blog post, we will engage in hands-on exercises, focusing on the installation and practical application of Ansible through a basic project.

Installing Ansible

Ansible can be installed on a variety of operating systems, including Linux, macOS, and Windows. The installation instructions can be found on the Ansible website.

Writing an Ansible playbook

An Ansible playbook is a YAML file that defines the tasks that Ansible will execute on remote hosts. Playbooks can be as simple as a single task, or they can be complex multi-task workflows.

To write an Ansible playbook to install and configure Nginx on a virtual machine, we can use the following YAML code:

---
- hosts: all
  become: true
  tasks:
    - name: Install Nginx
      package:
        name: nginx
        state: present

    - name: Start Nginx service
      service:
        name: nginx
        state: started

This playbook defines two tasks:

1. Install the Nginx package.

2. Start the Nginx service.

Here's what each line does:

• hosts: all specifies the target hosts for the playbook.

• become: true grants elevated privileges to Ansible for task execution.

• tasks: defines a list of tasks to be executed.

• Each task has a name and a module.

• package module installs the Nginx package.

• service module starts the Nginx service.

Running the playbook

To run the playbook, we can use the following command:

ansible-playbook -i inventory.txt nginx.yml

The -i option specifies the inventory file, which is a list of the remote hosts that Ansible will execute tasks on.

If everything went smoothly, you should see a success message in your terminal. Your Nginx web server is now installed and running on your virtual machine! Open your web browser and navigate to the IP address of your virtual machine. If you see the default Nginx welcome page, congratulations! You've successfully automated the installation and configuration of Nginx using Ansible.

The above example demonstrates how to use Ansible to install and configure Nginx on a virtual machine. However, Ansible can be used to manage a wide variety of other tasks, such as installing software, configuring services, and deploying applications.

I hope this blog has ignited your interest in Ansible. Remember, automation is the key to efficiency and scalability in today's dynamic IT landscape. So, keep learning, keep exploring, and keep automating!

Thank you for reading!

*** Explore | Share | Grow ***