Book Image

Ansible for Real-Life Automation

By : Gineesh Madapparambath
Book Image

Ansible for Real-Life Automation

By: Gineesh Madapparambath

Overview of this book

Get ready to leverage the power of Ansible’s wide applicability to automate and manage IT infrastructure with Ansible for Real-Life Automation. This book will guide you in setting up and managing the free and open source automation tool and remote-managed nodes in the production and dev/staging environments. Starting with its installation and deployment, you’ll learn automation using simple use cases in your workplace. You’ll go beyond just Linux machines to use Ansible to automate Microsoft Windows machines, network devices, and private and public cloud platforms such as VMWare, AWS, and GCP. As you progress through the chapters, you’ll integrate Ansible into your DevOps workflow and deal with application container management and container platforms such as Kubernetes. This Ansible book also contains a detailed introduction to Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform to help you get up to speed with Red Hat AAP and integration with CI/CD and ITSM. What’s more, you’ll implement efficient automation solutions while learning best practices and methods to secure sensitive data using Ansible Vault and alternatives to automate non-supported platforms and operations using raw commands, command modules, and REST API calls. By the end of this book, you’ll be proficient in identifying and developing real-life automation use cases using Ansible.

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Table of Contents (22 chapters)
Preface
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Download the example code files
Download the color images
Conventions used
Get in touch
Share Your Thoughts
1
Part 1: Using Ansible as Your Automation Tool
Part 1: Using Ansible as Your Automation Tool
Free Chapter
2
Chapter 1: Ansible Automation – Introduction
Chapter 1: Ansible Automation – Introduction
Technical requirements
Hello engineers!
What is Ansible? Where should I use this tool?
Installing Ansible
Configuring your managed nodes
Summary
Further reading
3
Chapter 2: Starting with Simple Automation
Chapter 2: Starting with Simple Automation
Technical requirements
Identifying manual tasks to be automated
Finding the Ansible modules to use
Configuring your text editor for Ansible
Connecting to remote nodes
Summary
Further reading
4
Chapter 3: Automating Your Daily Jobs
Chapter 3: Automating Your Daily Jobs
Technical requirements
Using Ansible to collect server details
Collecting system information
System scanning and remediation using Ansible
Automated weekly system reboot using Ansible
Automating notifications
Summary
Further reading
5
Chapter 4: Exploring Collaboration in Automation Development
Chapter 4: Exploring Collaboration in Automation Development
Technical requirements
The importance of version control in IT automation
Where should I keep automation artifacts?
Managing automation content in a Git server
Collaboration is the key to automation
Summary
Further reading
6
Part 2: Finding Use Cases and Integrations
Part 2: Finding Use Cases and Integrations
7
Chapter 5: Expanding Your Automation Landscape
Chapter 5: Expanding Your Automation Landscape
Technical requirements
Finding your automation use cases in your day-to-day work
Automation feasibility and usability
Involving teams in the automation journey
Ansible dynamic inventory
Summary
Further reading
8
Chapter 6: Automating Microsoft Windows and Network Devices
Chapter 6: Automating Microsoft Windows and Network Devices
Technical requirements
Ansible remote connection methods
Automating Microsoft Windows servers using Ansible
Introduction to network automation
VyOS information gathering using Ansible
Creating ACL entries in a Cisco ASA device
Summary
Further reading
9
Chapter 7: Managing Your Virtualization and Cloud Platforms
Chapter 7: Managing Your Virtualization and Cloud Platforms
Technical requirements
Introduction to Infrastructure as Code
Managing cloud platforms using Ansible
Automating VMware vSphere resources using Ansible
Using Ansible as an IaC tool for AWS
Creating resources in GCP using Ansible
Summary
Further reading
10
Chapter 8: Helping the Database Team with Automation
Chapter 8: Helping the Database Team with Automation
Technical requirements
Ansible for database operations
Installing database servers
Creating and managing databases using Ansible
Automating PostgreSQL operations
Automating a password reset using ITSM and Ansible
Summary
Further reading
11
Chapter 9: Implementing Automation in a DevOps Workflow
Chapter 9: Implementing Automation in a DevOps Workflow
Technical requirements
A quick introduction to DevOps
Serving applications using a load balancer
Rolling updates using Ansible
Using Ansible as a provisioning tool in Terraform
Summary
Further reading
12
Chapter 10: Managing Containers Using Ansible
Chapter 10: Managing Containers Using Ansible
Technical requirements
Managing the container host
Ansible, containers, and CI/CD
Managing containers using Ansible
Managing container images using Ansible
Managing multi-container applications using Ansible
Summary
Further reading
13
Chapter 11: Managing Kubernetes Using Ansible
Chapter 11: Managing Kubernetes Using Ansible
Technical requirements
An introduction to Kubernetes
Managing Kubernetes clusters using Ansible
Configuring Ansible for Kubernetes
Deploying applications to Kubernetes using Ansible
Scaling Kubernetes applications
Executing commands inside a Kubernetes Pod
Summary
Further reading
14
Chapter 12: Integrating Ansible with Your Tools
Chapter 12: Integrating Ansible with Your Tools
Technical requirements
Introduction to Red Hat AAP
Red Hat AAP components
Database management using Red Hat AAP
Integrating Jenkins with AAP
Integrating an automation controller with Slack and notification services
Summary
Further reading
15
Chapter 13: Using Ansible for Secret Management
Chapter 13: Using Ansible for Secret Management
Technical requirements
Handling sensitive data in Ansible
Managing secrets using Ansible Vault
Using secrets in Ansible playbooks
Using Vault credentials in the Ansible Automation Platform
Summary
Further reading
16
Part 3: Managing Your Automation Development Flow with Best Practices
Part 3: Managing Your Automation Development Flow with Best Practices
17
Chapter 14: Keeping Automation Simple and Efficient
Chapter 14: Keeping Automation Simple and Efficient
Technical requirements
Utilizing surveys and automated inputs
Integrating Ansible with monitoring tools
Ansible for security automation
Ansible workflow templates
Summary
18
Chapter 15: Automating Non-Standard Platforms and Operations
Chapter 15: Automating Non-Standard Platforms and Operations
Technical requirements
Executing low-down raw commands
Using raw commands for network operations
Using API calls for automation
Creating custom modules for Ansible
Summary
Further reading
19
Chapter 16: Ansible Automation Best Practices for Production
Chapter 16: Ansible Automation Best Practices for Production
Technical requirements
Organizing Ansible automation content
Storing remote host information – inventory best practices
Ansible host variables and group variables
Ansible credentials best practices
Ansible playbook best practices
Summary
Further reading
20
Index
Index
Why subscribe?
21
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Preface

Automation is the key to IT modernization, and using the right automation tool is a crucial step in the automation journey for organizations. Ansible is an open source automation software that you can use for automating most of your operations with IT and application infrastructure components including servers, storage, network, and application platforms. Ansible is one of the most well-known open source automation tools in the IT world right now and has strong community support, with more than 5,000 active contributors around the world.

Ansible is not a learn-by-reading technology. This book will help you to understand and practice the automation capabilities of Ansible with actual playbooks, configurations, and practical examples. It will help you to understand the basics of Ansible automation and slowly, you will learn how to use Ansible for automating your day-to-day tasks.

You will learn real-life IT automation use cases with practical examples, such as simple system reports, security scanning, and weekly rebooting Linux machines. After that, the book will teach you how to implement collaboration in Ansible automation and how to automate other devices and platforms, such as Microsoft Windows, network devices, VMware, AWS, and GCP. You will also learn how to use Ansible in a DevOps workflow with Jenkins integration and container and application management on Kubernetes. To expand your knowledge further on enterprise automation, the book will also teach you about Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, secret management, and Ansible integration with other tools, such as Jira and ServiceNow. There are chapters in this book that cover how to automate non-supported devices and platforms using raw commands and API calls using Ansible. Before the book concludes, you will also explore the Ansible best practices for storing managed node information, variables, credentials, and playbooks for production environments.

Upon finishing Ansible for Real-Life Automation, you will have the skills to find automation use cases in your work environment and design and deploy automation solutions using Ansible.

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