Practical Ansible : Configuration Management From Start to Finish

Table of Contents About the Author About the Technical Reviewer Preface Introduction Chapter 1: Configuration Management with Ansible Getting Started with Configuration Management Why Ansible? Getting Started with Ansible Installing Ansible Ansible Support for SSH Finally, Our First Ansible Command Basic Ansible Playbooks Ansible Configuration and Inventory Files Running Ansible Modules Ping Setup Git Shell Apt (or Yum) Package Service Get_url File User Find Running Ansible on Different Servers Different Versions of Ansible Ansible Projects Basic LAMP Stack Splunk Server Environment Summary Chapter 2: Ansible Playbooks Ansible and YAML Syntax Command-Line Modules to Ansible Playbooks Ansible Playbook Verbose Output Ansible Syntax in Finer Detail Hosts and Remote Users Tasks Notify Adding More Playbook Functionality with Variables and Loops Plugging In Our LAMP Stack Organizing Larger Playbooks with Include and Import Summary Chapter 3: Extending Playbooks with Roles and Templates Ansible Roles Creating the Web Server Role Creating the Database Server Role Ansible Command-Line Variables and Options Expanding Our LAMP with Django Conditional Tasks in Ansible Using Tags to Run Specific Tasks Summary Chapter 4: Custom Ansible Modules, Vaults, and Galaxies Keeping Secrets with Ansible Vault Ansible Galaxy Searching and Working with Ansible Galaxy Roles Downloading and Installing Multiple Roles from Galaxy Moving Further with Ansible Galaxy Contributing to Ansible Galaxy Building Your Own Ansible Modules Summary Chapter 5: Working with Ansible in the Amazon Cloud So Why Amazon Web Services? AWS Is Not Free AWS Pricing Gaining Access to AWS Using Environment Variables to Access AWS Ansible AWS Modules to Implement Our New Project Our New Splunk Implementation Project Creating Our AWS Instance Deploying Splunk with User Data Failures on Amazon Web Services Summary Untitled Chapter 6: Ansible Templates and CloudFormation Scripts One Final Word on AWS Costs Ansible Templates in AWS Instances Pulling Code with Ansible Ansible Pull GitHub Repository Deployment Explained Build AWS Images for Quicker Deployments Using CloudFormation with Ansible Summary Chapter 7: Ansible Troubleshooting and Variables AWS Modules Run Differently Using the Debug Module with Registered Variables Ansible Facts Ansible Galaxy README Files Testing Ansible As You Develop Ansible Start At Option Ansible Step Ansible Lint List Ansible Tasks Ansible Check Mode Ansible Playbook Syntax Check Ansible Connections Without SSH Migrating to Ansible Summary Chapter 8: Testing Ansible with Molecule Ansible Testing with the Molecule Testing Framework Using Molecule with Code Deployed to AWS Update Tests to Match Our AWS Instance CICD with TravisCI Using AWS on TravisCI Summary Chapter 9: Managing Large Server Environments Managing Inventory and Hosts Files Using Multiple Hosts Files Using Ranges in Hosts Files Adding Variables in Hosts Files Working with Dynamic Inventory Introducing Ansible Tower Installing AWX Ansible Tower Getting Started with AWX Ansible Tower Main Dashboard The AWX Ansible Tower Main Menu Set Up Your Organization and Users Introducing Projects Setting Up a Project Inventories and Hosts Creating Templates for a Project Running Your Job for a Project Summary Get ready to go from the basics of using Ansible to becoming proficient at implementing configuration management in your projects. This book begins with the basics of Ansible, providing you with details on how to install and configure your environment while working with different Ansible modules from the command line. Next, it introduces you to working with Ansible tasks and organizing configuration code into playbooks. You’ll then learn how to extend playbooks further, using roles and templates within the configuration code. Author Vincent Sesto then extends your knowledge further by covering custom Ansible modules using Python and Linux shell scripts and demonstrating how you can start to keep your secret values encrypted and secure using Ansible Vault. You’ll also develop Ansible roles with the use of Ansible Galaxy to reuse existing roles that others have created. This updated edition reflects changes added in the latest version of Ansible (2.9). It also includes an expanded chapter on testing Ansible using Molecule and managing large server environments using applications like Ansible Tower. What Will You Learn Understand what Ansible is and how to install and run your first basic command line commands Expand your configuration management using Ansible playbooks, roles and templates Customize your code further using Ansible Vault and third-party roles in Ansible Galaxy. Work with Ansible in managing cloud infrastructure, specifically in Amazon Web Services Troubleshoot your Ansible code and use frameworks like Molecule and Testinfra to help test your code changes Manage large server environments using real-world examples and extend your configurations using an application like Ansible Tower Who This Book Is For Systems Engineers, Developers, DevOps Engineers and Software Administrators. Get ready to go from the basics of using Ansible to becoming proficient at implementing configuration management in your projects. This book begins with the basics of Ansible, providing you with details on how to install and configure your environment while working with different Ansible modules from the command line. Next, it introduces you to working with Ansible tasks and organizing configuration code into playbooks. Youll then learn how to extend playbooks further, using roles and templates within the configuration code. Author Vincent Sesto then extends your knowledge further by covering custom Ansible modules using Python and Linux shell scripts and demonstrating how you can start to keep your secret values encrypted and secure using Ansible Vault. Youll also develop Ansible roles with the use of Ansible Galaxy to reuse existing roles that others have created. This updated edition reflects changes added in the latest version of Ansible (2.9). It also includes an expanded chapter on testing Ansible using Molecule and managing large server environments using applications like Ansible Tower. You will: Understand what Ansible is and how to install and run your first basic command line commands Expand your configuration management using Ansible playbooks, roles and templates Customize your code further using Ansible Vault and third-party roles in Ansible Galaxy. Work with Ansible in managing cloud infrastructure, specifically in Amazon Web Services Troubleshoot your Ansible code and use frameworks like Molecule and Testinfra to help test your code changes Manage large server environments using real-world examples and extend your configurations using an application like Ansible Tower