Get started with Ansible

Ansible is a great tool for handling deployment as well as configuration management, providing a lot more functionality than shell scripts. It doesn't require that one learn a new set of abstractions to hide the differences between operating systems. That makes its surface area smaller; there's less you need to know before you get started.

Why is it important?

We're all slowly turning into system engineers. Using a single tool for both configuration management and deployment makes life simpler for the folks responsible for operations. Project goals include a consistent, secure, highly reliable tool that's minimal in nature and has a low learning curve.

What you'll learn—and how you can apply it

Covers the basic concepts of Ansible at a high level, including how it communicates with remote servers and how it differs from other configuration-management tools. You'll learn how to use the Ansible command-line tool to perform simple tasks on a single host

This lesson is for you because…

• You're a developer deploying your code to production
• You're a systems administrator looking for a better way to automate
• You need a quick introduction to leveraging an idempotent resource model for immutable infrastructure

Prerequisites

• Be familiar with at least one Linux distribution (e.g., Ubuntu, RHEL/CentOS, SUSE)
• Be familiar with basic Linux system administration tasks, e.g., know how to:
  • Connect to a remote machine using SSH
  • Interact with the bash command-line shell (pipes and redirection)
  • Install packages
  • Use the sudo command
  • Check and set file permissions
  • Start and stop services
  • Set environment variables
  • Write scripts (any language)
• Learn some YAML and Jinja2

Materials or downloads needed in advance

• Have a Linux server with which to practice

This Lesson is taken from Ansible: Up and Running by Lorin Hochstein.