Mastering Ansible : automate configuration management and overcome deployment challenges with Ansible

Cover
Title page
Copyright and Credits
Dedications
Contributors
Table of Contents
Preface
Section 1: Ansible Overview and Fundamentals
Chapter 1: The System Architecture and Design of Ansible
	Technical requirements
	Ansible versions and configurations
	Inventory parsing and data sources
		Static inventories
		Inventory ordering
		Inventory variable data
		Dynamic inventories
		Runtime inventory additions
		Inventory limiting
	Playbook parsing
		The order of operations
		Relative path assumptions
		Play behavior directives
		Execution strategies
		The host selection for plays and tasks
		Play and task names
	Module transport and execution
		The module reference
		Module arguments
		Module blacklisting
		Module transport and execution
	Variable types and location
		Variable types
		Magic variables
	Accessing external data
	Variable precedence
		Precedence order
		Variable group priority ordering
		Merging hashes
	Summary
	Questions
Chapter 2: Migrating from Earlier Ansible Versions
	Technical requirements
	Changes in Ansible 4.3
		Ansible Content Collections
	Upgrading from earlier Ansible installations
		Uninstalling Ansible 3.0 or older
	Installing Ansible from scratch
	What are Ansible Collections?
		The anatomy of an Ansible collection
	Installing additional modules with ansible-galaxy
	How to port legacy playbooks to Ansible 4.3 (a primer)
	Summary
	Questions
Chapter 3: Protecting Your Secrets with Ansible
	Technical requirements
	Encrypting data at rest
		Vault IDs and passwords
		Things Vault can encrypt
	Creating and editing encrypted files
		Encrypting existing files
		Editing encrypted files
		Password rotation on encrypted files
		Decrypting encrypted files
	Executing ansible-playbook with encrypted files
	Mixing encrypted data with plain YAML
	Protecting secrets while operating
		Secrets transmitted to remote hosts
		Secrets logged to remote or local files
	Summary
	Questions
Chapter 4: Ansible and Windows – Not Just for Linux
	Technical requirements
	Running Ansible from Windows
		Checking your build
		Enabling WSL
		Installing Linux under WSL
	Setting up Windows hosts for Ansible control using WinRM
		System requirements for automation with Ansible using WinRM
		Enabling the WinRM listener
		Connecting Ansible to Windows using WinRM
	Handling Windows authentication and encryption when using WinRM
		Authentication mechanisms
		A note on accounts
		Certificate validation over WinRM
	Setting up Windows hosts for Ansible control using OpenSSH
	Automating Windows tasks with Ansible
		Picking the right module
		Installing software
		Extending beyond modules
	Summary
	Questions
Chapter 5: Infrastructure Management for Enterprises with AWX
	Technical requirements
	Getting AWX up and running
	Integrating AWX with your first playbook
		Defining a project
		Defining an inventory
		Defining credentials
		Defining a template
	Going beyond the basics
		Role-based access control (RBAC)
		Organizations
		Scheduling
		Auditing
		Surveys
		Workflow templates
		Notifications
		Using the API
	Summary
	Questions
Section 2: Writing and Troubleshooting Ansible Playbooks
Chapter 6: Unlocking the Power of Jinja2 Templates
	Technical requirements
	Control structures
		Conditionals
		Loops
		Macros
	Data manipulation
		Syntax
		Useful built-in filters
		Useful Ansible provided custom filters
		Omitting undefined arguments
		Python object methods
	Comparing values
		Comparisons
		Logic
		Tests
	Summary
	Questions
Chapter 7: Controlling Task Conditions
	Technical requirements
	Defining a failure
		Ignoring errors
		Defining an error condition
	Defining a change
		Special handling of the command family
		Suppressing a change
	Error recovery
		Using the rescue section
		Using the always section
		Handling unreliable environments
	Iterative tasks with loops
	Summary
	Questions
Chapter 8: Composing Reusable Ansible Content with Roles
	Technical requirements
	Task, handler, variable, and playbook inclusion concepts
		Including tasks
		Task inclusions with loops
		Including handlers
		Including variables
		Including playbooks
	Roles (structures, defaults, and dependencies)
		Role structure
		Role dependencies
		Role application
		Role sharing
	Summary
	Questions
Chapter 9: Troubleshooting Ansible
	Technical requirements
	Playbook logging and verbosity
		Verbosity
		Logging
	Variable introspection
		Variable subelements
	Debugging code execution
		Playbook debugging
		Debugging local code
	Summary
	Questions
Chapter 10: Extending Ansible
	Technical requirements
	Developing modules
		The basic module construct
		Custom modules
		Example – simple module
	Developing plugins
		Connection-type plugins
		Shell plugins
		Lookup plugins
		Vars plugins
		Fact-caching plugins
		Filter plugins
		Callback plugins
		Action plugins
		Distributing plugins
	Developing dynamic inventory plugins
		Listing hosts
		Listing host variables
		Simple inventory plugin
	Contributing to the Ansible project
		Contribution submissions
	Summary
	Questions
Section 3: Orchestration with Ansible
Chapter 11: Minimizing Downtime with Rolling Deployments
	Technical requirements
	In-place upgrades
	Expanding and contracting
	Failing fast
		The any_errors_fatal option
		The max_fail_percentage option
		Forcing handlers
	Minimizing disruptions
		Delaying a disruption
		Running destructive tasks only once
	Serializing single tasks
	Summary
	Questions
Chapter 12: Infrastructure Provisioning
	Technical requirements
	Managing an on-premise cloud infrastructure
		Creating servers
		Using OpenStack inventory sources
	Managing a public cloud infrastructure
	Interacting with Docker containers
		Building images
		Building containers without a Dockerfile
		Docker inventory
	Building containers with Ansible
	Summary
	Questions
Chapter 13: Network Automation
	Technical requirements
	Ansible for network management
		Cross-platform support
		Configuration portability
		Backup, restore, and version control
		Automated change requests
	Handling multiple device types
		Researching your modules
		Configuring your modules
		Writing your playbooks
	Working with the cli_command module
	Configuring Arista EOS switches with Ansible
	Configuring Cumulus Networks switches with Ansible
		Defining our inventory
		Practical examples
	Best practices
	Summary
	Questions
About Packt
Other Books You May Enjoy
Index