This chapter will serve as a high-level overview of Ansible 2.0 and components that make up this open source configuration management tool. We will cover the definition of the Ansible components and their typical use. Also, we will discuss how to define variables for the roles and defining/setting facts about the hosts for the playbooks. Next, we will transition into how to set up your Ansible environment and the ways you can define the host inventory used to run your playbooks against. We will then cover some of the new components introduced in Ansible 2.0 named Blocks and Strategies. We will also discuss the cloud modules natively part of the Ansible framework. Finally, the chapter will finish up with a working example of a playbook that will confirm the required host connectivity needed to use Ansible. The following topics will be covered:
Ansible 2.0 overview.
What are playbooks, roles, and modules?
Setting up the environment.
Variables and facts.
Defining...