Book Image

Learning Ansible 2.7 - Third Edition

By : Fabio Alessandro Locati
Book Image

Learning Ansible 2.7 - Third Edition

By: Fabio Alessandro Locati

Overview of this book

Ansible is an open source automation platform that assists organizations with tasks such as application deployment, orchestration, and task automation. With the release of Ansible 2.7, even complex tasks can be handled much more easily than before. Learning Ansible 2.7 will help you take your first steps toward understanding the fundamentals and practical aspects of Ansible by introducing you to topics such as playbooks, modules, and the installation of Linux, Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), and Windows support. In addition to this, you will focus on various testing strategies, deployment, and orchestration to build on your knowledge. The book will then help you get accustomed to features including cleaner architecture, task blocks, and playbook parsing, which can help you to streamline automation processes. Next, you will learn how to integrate Ansible with cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) before gaining insights into the enterprise versions of Ansible, Ansible Tower and Ansible Galaxy. This will help you to use Ansible to interact with different operating systems and improve your working efficiency. By the end of this book, you will be equipped with the Ansible skills you need to automate complex tasks for your organization.

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Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Preface
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Get in touch
Free Chapter
1
Section 1: Creating a Web Server Using Ansible
Section 1: Creating a Web Server Using Ansible
2
Getting Started with Ansible
Getting Started with Ansible
Technical requirements
IT automation
What is Ansible?
Why Ansible?
Installing Ansible
Creating a test environment with Vagrant
Version control systems
Using Ansible with Git
Summary
3
Automating Simple Tasks
Automating Simple Tasks
Technical Requirement
YAML
Working with playbooks
Ansible verbosity
Variables in playbooks
Creating the Ansible user
Configuring a basic server
Installing and configuring a web server
Publishing a website
Jinja2 templates
Summary
4
Section 2: Deploying Playbooks in a Production Environment
Section 2: Deploying Playbooks in a Production Environment
5
Scaling to Multiple Hosts
Scaling to Multiple Hosts
Technical requirements
Working with inventory files
Working with variables
Summary
6
Handling Complex Deployment
Handling Complex Deployment
Technical requirements
Working with the local_action feature
Delegating a task
Working with conditionals
Working with include
Working with handlers
Working with roles
Organizing a project
Anatomy of a role
Transforming your playbooks in a full Ansible project
Transforming a playbook into a role
Helper files
Transforming the webserver role
Handlers in roles
Execution strategies
The Ansible template – Jinja filters
Formatting data using filters
Defaulting undefined variables
Security management
Using Ansible Vault
Vaults and playbooks
Encrypting user passwords
Hiding passwords
Using no_log
Summary
7
Going Cloud
Going Cloud
Technical requirements
Provisioning resources in the cloud
Provisioning machines in AWS
Provisioning machines in DigitalOcean
Provisioning machines in Azure
Summary
8
Getting Notification from Ansible
Getting Notification from Ansible
Technical requirements
Sending emails with Ansible
XMPP
Slack
Rocket Chat
Internet Relay Chat
Amazon Simple Notification Service
Nagios
Summary
9
Section 3: Deploying an Application with Ansible
Section 3: Deploying an Application with Ansible
10
Creating a Custom Module
Creating a Custom Module
Prerequisite
Using Python to write modules
Using bash modules
Using Ruby modules
Testing modules
Summary
11
Debugging and Error Handling
Debugging and Error Handling
Technical requirements
Syntax checking
The check mode
Indicating differences between files using --diff
Functional testing in Ansible
Testing with tags
Managing exceptions
Trigger failure
Summary
12
Complex Environments
Complex Environments
Technical requirements
Code based on the Git branch
Software distribution strategy
Preparing the environment
Deploying a web app with a revision control system
Deploying a web app with RPM packages
Building compiled software with RPM packaging
Deployment strategies
Optimizations
Summary
13
Section 4: Deploying an Application with Ansible
Section 4: Deploying an Application with Ansible
14
Introducing Ansible for Enterprises
Introducing Ansible for Enterprises
Technical requirements
Ansible on Windows
Ansible Galaxy
Ansible Tower and AWX
Summary
15
Getting Started with AWX
Getting Started with AWX
Technical requirements
Setting up AWX
Creating new AWX projects
Using AWX inventories
Understanding AWX job templates
Using AWX jobs
Summary
16
Working with AWX Users, Permissions, and Organizations
Working with AWX Users, Permissions, and Organizations
Technical requirements
AWX users and permissions
AWX organizations
Summary
17
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Ansible Tower and AWX

Ansible Tower is a web-based GUI that was developed by Red Hat. Ansible Tower provides you with an easy-to-use dashboard where you can manage your nodes and role-based authentication to control access to your Ansible Tower dashboard. The biggest features of Ansible Tower are as follows:

  • LDAP/AD integration: You can import (and give privileges to) users based on the result of LDAP/AD queries that Ansible Tower performs on your LDAP/AD server.
  • Role-based access control: It limits the users to only run the playbooks they are authorized to run and/or target only a limited amount of hosts.
  • REST API: All Ansible Tower capabilities are exposed via a REST API.
  • Job scheduling: Ansible Tower allows us to schedule jobs (playbook execution).
  • Graphical inventory management: Ansible Tower manages the inventory in a more dynamic way than Ansible.
  • Dashboard: Ansible Tower...
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