Practical Ansible
Description
Go from the basics of using Ansible to becoming proficient at implementing configuration management in your projects. This book uses a unique approach to teaching Ansible and configuration management while including realistic examples in its day-to-day use from server-based infrastructure to Amazon cloud-based deployments.
Practical Ansible is separated into seven chapters that allow you to build your knowledge with each chapter, developing further as we move through the examples provided. It 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.
The book then shows you how to extend playbooks further, using roles and templates within the configuration code. Then, it 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 extend Ansible roles with the use of Ansible Galaxy to reuse existing roles other users have created.
The second half of the book moves configuration management to the Amazon cloud providing an introduction on what Amazon Web Services are, and how you can start to work with Ansible roles in AWS. The AWS examples use EC2 and CloudFormation services with Ansible template functions, Ansible Pull, and Ansible Git code deployment.
The final part of the book includes a demonstration on how to use the numerous tools available to both Ansible and supporting libraries and modules to allow you to troubleshoot and test your configuration code before you deploy your changes to production systems.
By the end of this book, you will have the skills for managing technology configuration management. You will be ready to work on real-world projects and be able to implement Ansible in your own technology projects.What You Will Learn
- Understand the basics of Ansible and how to install and configure the application on your system
- Make changes to your system using Ansible directly in the command line using some of the more common Ansible modules
- Group your modules together as tasks in Ansible playbooks for more efficient deployment of configuration changes
- Use Ansible roles to help group and reuse configuration management changes and deployments
- Search for community-created roles using Ansible Galaxy and how you can also host your own Ansible roles
- Deploy code to Amazon Web Services and how to utilize different AWS services in your deployment projects
- Use external modules and libraries such as Molecule and Ansible Lint to help test your configurations before the configuration code is deployed
Who This Book Is For
System administrators, DevOps engineers, software engineers, and developers wanting to extend their current knowledge of computer systems and incorporate Ansible as a configuration management tool within them.
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Person
Vincent Sesto is a DevOps engineer, endurance athlete and author.
As a DevOps engineer Vince specializes in Linux, Amazon Web Services, and open source applications. He is particularly interested in developing his skills in DevOps, continuous integration, security, log aggregation (management, UI, and reporting), and Python development. In his spare time, you'll find him running or cycling for long periods of time, making the most of his time outdoors.
Feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn.
Content
Chapter Goal: Introduce configuration management and automation, introduce Ansible
No of pages : 20 - 25
Sub -Topics
1. Introduce Ansible to readers and installation onto your system.
2. Start with the basic configurations of Ansible and basic command line options.
3. Introduce working with Ansible on the command line, and demonstrate the basics of Ansible Playbooks.
4. Introduce common Ansible Modules used in day to day configuration management.
5. Introduce the projects we are going to work with during this book. A LAMP Stack for the first part of the book and a Splunk Server towards the end of the book when deploying to AWS.
Chapter 2: Ansible PlaybooksChapter Goal: Expand knowledge of Ansible with an in depth look at Ansible Playbooks
No of pages : 20 - 25
Sub - Topics
1. Start with a brief discussion on YAML Syntax and how it relates to Ansible Playbooks.
2. Demonstrate how we can join numerous modules together to create larger project Ansible Playbooks
3. Expand Playbook functionality with import, include, loops and variables.
4. Start creating the Ansible Playbook for our first project of the book the LAMP Stack.
Chapter 3: Expanding Playbooks With Roles and TemplatesChapter Goal: Expand the LAMP Stack project further expanding the readers knowledge on the use of Ansible Playbooks
No of pages : 20 - 25
Sub - Topics:
1. Introduce Ansible Roles and create roles for the LAMP Stack including Web Server, Database and Django Server.
2. Provide a discussion on how to use command line options and variables with Ansible Playbooks.3. Configuring Playbooks using conditional tasks and tags to limit what changes are made by the Ansible Playbook.
Chapter 4: Custom Ansible Modules, Vaults And Galaxay's
Chapter Goal: Provide an introduction to using Ansible Vault to manage their system secrets, as well as exploring Ansible Galaxy to help them fast track their project deployments.
No of pages : 20 - 25
Sub - Topics:
1. Provide the reader with a demonstration on how to use Ansible Vault to help manage secrets within your Ansible Projects.
2. Provide an introduction to Ansible Galaxy getting the reader familiar with searching and using third party roles in Ansible Galaxy.
3. Demonstrate to the reader how they can start to create their own roles in Ansible Galaxy.
4. Demonstrate to the user how with some basic Python skills, they can create their own Ansible Modules if they need to.
Chapter 5: Working with Ansible In The Cloud
Chapter Goal: The goal of this chapter is to provide a brief introduction to Amazon Web services and get the reader to implement Ansible Playbooks that deploy to AWS.
No of pages : 20 - 25
Sub - Topics:
1. Introduce Amazon Web Services to the reader provide a brief discussion on what it is and how you can create your own AWS account.
2. Discuss how to allow Ansible and your playbooks to interact with AWS and deploy services to the cloud.
3. Introduce the reader to the modules you will be using to create your new services on AWS.
4. Create our new project playbook for our second project to deploy a Splunk Server to AWS.
Chapter 6: AWS Templates and CloudFormation Scripts
Chapter Goal: Expand the readers knowledge further on deploying to their projects to AWS using templates, working with Ansible Pull and using GitHub repository deployments.
No of pages : 20 - 25
Sub - Topics:
1. Working with Ansible templates in AWS Instances.
2. Using Ansible Pull and GitHub repository deployments.
3. Provide a demonstration on how to build AWS Images in your projects to improve the speed of your deployments.
4. Combining CloudFormation and Ansible in our projects.
Chapter 7: Ansible Testing And Variables
Chapter Goal: Finish up our work with some finer points on how we can reduce potential issues from arising in our playbooks and ensure things run as smoothly as possible.
No of pages : 20 - 25
Sub - Topics:
1. Start with a brief discussion on why modules in AWS work differently than modules in dedicated hardware.2. Provide details on how to use the Debug Module in your Playbooks to provide clarity on your running playbooks.
3. Working with Ansible Facts.
4. Using functions like Ansible Lint to help troubleshoot and ensure you are limiting the chance of your playbooks failing.