Ansible is powerful open source IT automation tool. It allows you to manage IT infrasture and apps deployment easily.

Step 1 - Installing Ansible

To configure the PPA on your machine and install ansible run these commands:

   $ sudo apt-get update
   $ sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
   $ sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ansible/ansible
   $ sudo apt-get update
   $ sudo apt-get install ansible

Check ansible install version

$ ansible –version

Step 2 - Configure Hosts

All host information is kept in the hosts files as follows

$ sudo gedit /etc/ansible/hosts

$ sudo gedit /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg

Remove comment of inventory and the sudo_user Its default but better to change and make it apply

$ cat /etc/ansible/hosts

$ sudo mv hosts hosts.original

$ sudo gedit hosts

Create entries of the hosts which you are going to manage

     [local]
     localhost

     [itlab6]
     10.0.1.198
     10.0.1.197

Note : Better to use Vi than gedit

Ansible Default configuration $ cat /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg

   Keep as it is or you can uncomment following and save
   #inventory      = /etc/ansible/hosts
   #sudo_user      = root

Step 3 - Servers Setup

Install ssh on the server and your host also

$ sudo apt install ssh

Check from your computer to server you can connect using the ssh

$ ssh dbit@10.0.1.198

This will ask username and password

This is not necessary to just for additional information

sshd_config

Change the line “PermitRootLogin” to “yes”

service sshd restart

$ ssh root@192.168.1.101

You will be able to connect to the server using root username

Create ansible user with sudo permissions

On the server where you will be configuring you need to have a user with sudo permissions and authentication method must not need password. i.e use ssh keys

sudo adduser ansible

sudo usermod -aG sudo ansible

Setup ssh keys

 On the OUR computer AND WITH ANSIBLE USER ( Create if not not available )
 from where we will be managing ansible

Swith to the user using following command

 $ su ansible

Then start commands

 $ ssh-keygen
   accept all default options

 $ cd /home/ansible/.ssh/
  you can see all keys here at this place

  Copy the Public Key on server where we created ansible user

  $ ssh-copy-id ansible@192.168.1.101
  Input password

 $ ssh-copy-id tayyabali@localhost
 $ ssh-copy-id ansible@localhost
 $ ssh-copy-id ansible@10.0.1.198
 $ ssh-copy-id ansible@10.0.1.197

 Now try

 $ ssh ansible@192.168.1.198
 $ ssh localhost

 You will be logged in without password

Disable Password Authentication (Recommended) not necessary now

 On Server (Where we have ansible user):
 Now oce you have configured the key based login, now you can disable the password based auth

 $ sudo vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config

 Change follwoing parameter to no as shown below

     PasswordAuthentication no

 $ sudo systemctl reload sshd

Set Up a Basic Firewall

$ sudo ufw app list $ sudo ufw allow OpenSSH $ sudo ufw enable $ sudo ufw status

Now lets configure ansible user to run commands as a root on the remote machine

$ sudo visudo

add following below the User privilege section, just below the root ansible ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

CTRL + O —-> Enter to Save and CTRL + X

and then check if its ok $ sudo visudo -c

Check if you can be root without the password

$ su ansible -

Explore the documentation of the ansible.com

Running Ansible Commands

Make sure you are anisible user Also you have configured ansible user on remote hosts with ssh keys login and sudo commands permissions

Check nodes present in the inventory by using folowing command

$ cat /etc/ansible/hosts

To ping all hosts

$ ansible all -m ping

-m Use following module
ping is a module

To list all files on the nodes

$ ansible all -a "ls -al /home/ansible"

To open syslog file

$ ansible all -a "cat /var/log/syslog"

Copy files to remote machines

On My computer

touch test.txt Enter some text

$ ansible all -m copy -a “src=test.txt dest=/tmp/test.txt”

Install packages

$ ansible ubuntu -m apt -a “name=elinks state=latest”

Whats the difference

$ ansible ubuntu -m apt -a “name=elinks state=present”

Will it run ?

$ ansible ubuntu -s -m apt -a "name=elinks state=present"

-s is become super user and then install

$ ansible ubuntu -s -m apt -a "name=elinks state=absent"

Above command will remove the package

Lets create a user with the user module

$ ansible centos -s -m user -a "name=test"

Check test user on the server , see its home directory

$ ansible centos -s -m user -a "name=test state=abset"

Check User has gone

$ cat /etc/passwd | grep test

Assignment install, upgrade ubunutu
install vlc, install kazam

Playbook Structure

In the ansible user $ mkdir ansible

Use following command to Check the playbook syntex

$ ansible-playbook name.yaml

Execute the following Playbook

From the URL :

    https://github.com/ansible/ansible-examples

Execute and Explain the Structure of the playbook

Gathering the facts

Observe the output

    $ ansible centos -m setup

You can do grep also

      $ ansible centos -m setup | grep ipv4

      $ ansible localhost -m setup -a 'filter=*ipv4*'

To get the facts in to the directory and in separate files

      $ ansible all -m setup -m --tree facts
      $ cd facts
      $ ls

Install httpd on ubuntu

      --- # This is a structure example to install httpd on ubuntu

      - hosts: ubuntu
        remote_user: ansible
        become: yes
        become_method: sudo
        connection: ssh
        gather_factcs: yes
        vars:
          userName:myuser
        tasks:
        - name: Install HTTPD server on ubunutu server
          apt: name:apache2 state:latest
          notify:
          - startservice
        handlers:
         - name : startservice
           service: name:apache2 state:restarted


           ---

           - hosts: ubuntu # hosts to be configured

           sudo: yes # sudo permissions

           tasks:

           - name: update

           apt: update_cache=yes

           - name: install apache2

           apt: name=apache2 state=present

           - name: restart apache2

           service: name=apache2 state=restarted

           - debug: msg="apache has been installed"

           ...

Step 1 - Installing Ansible#

Step 2 - Configure Hosts#

Step 3 - Servers Setup#

Install ssh on the server and your host also#

This is not necessary to just for additional information#

If you want to enable root login on over ssh then follow following commands#

gedit /etc/ssh/sshd_config#

service sshd restart#

Create ansible user with sudo permissions#

sudo adduser ansible#

sudo usermod -aG sudo ansible#

Setup ssh keys#

Disable Password Authentication (Recommended) not necessary now#

Set Up a Basic Firewall#

Running Ansible Commands#

To ping all hosts#

To list all files on the nodes#

To open syslog file#

Copy files to remote machines#

Install packages#

Playbook Structure#

Gathering the facts#

Observe the output#

You can do grep also#

To get the facts in to the directory and in separate files#

Install httpd on ubuntu#