Practical Ansible Automation Handbook: an Ultimate Guide to Innovate, Accelerate, and Maximize Efficiency of IT Infrastructure on Windows and Linux

Cover Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication Page
About the Author
Technical Reviewer
Preface
Errata
Table of Contents
1. Getting Started
   Introduction
   Structure
   Modern Datacenter
   Introduction to Ansible
   Linux and macOS Target
   Windows Target
   Ansible Community
   Ansible Architecture
   Ansible Installation
   Ansible Core vs. Ansible Community Packages
   Linux
   PIP
   macOS
   Windows
   Ansible Ad-hoc Commands
   Conclusion
   Points to Remember
   Multiple Choice Questions
   Answers
   Questions
   Key Terms
2. Ansible Language Core
   Introduction
   Structure
   Ansible Inventory
      Inventory
      INI inventory
      YAML inventory
      The Ansible-inventory tool
      The “all” keyword
      List view
      Graph list view
      Ranges of hosts
      Host in Multiple Groups
      Host and group variables
      Local inventory
      Multiple inventories
      Dynamic inventory
      Windows inventory
   Ansible Playbook
      YAML Syntax
      First playbook
      Check
      Debug
      Multiple play
      Includes
   Ansible Variables
      Unpermitted variable names
      User-defined variables
      Multiline
      Extra variables
      Host and group variables
         Host variable in the INI inventory
         Host variables
         Host variable in the file system
         Group variables
         Group variable in the file system
      Array variables
      Registered variables
      Writing a variable to a file
   Ansible Facts
      Ansible ad-hoc
      Facts in playbook
      Single fact
      Temporary facts
      Custom facts
   Ansible Magic Variables
      Common magic variables
      Ansible version
   Ansible Conditional
      Basic conditionals with “when”
      Conditionals based on Ansible facts
   Ansible Loop
      Loop statements
         The loop statement
   Conclusion
   Points to Remember
   Multiple Choice Questions
      Answers
   Questions
   Key Terms
3. Ansible Language Extended
   Introduction
   Structure
   Ansible Vault
      Creating an encrypted file
      Encrypting using a password file
      Viewing an encrypted file
      Editing an encrypted file
      Encrypting a file
      Decrypting a file
      Changing the password
      Include vault in playbook
      Inline vault in playbook
      Troubleshooting
   Ansible Handler
      Multiple handlers
   Code Reuse
      Include and import
      Role and collection
   Ansible Role
      Directories tree
      Usage in playbook
      Order of execution
      Ansible galaxy for roles
      Manual installation
      Automated installation
      Configuration
   Ansible Collection
      Ansible galaxy for collections
      The community.general collection
      Installing Ansible collection
         Manual installation
      Automated installation
      Python dependencies
      List collections
      Configuration
   Ansible Filter
   Ansible Template
      Control statement
      Loop statement
      Nested control statement
      Template filters
      Template extension
   Ansible Plugin
      Lookup plugin
      Copy multiple files to remote hosts
   Conclusion
   Points to Remember
   Multiple Choice Questions
      Answers
   Questions
   Key Terms
4. Ansible For Linux
   Introduction
   Structure
   Configuring Linux Target
      OpenSSH configuration
      Host variables
      Group variables
      Inheriting variable values
      Password authentication
      SSH key authentication
   Testing Host Availability
      Ansible ping module
      Data parameter ping
      Data parameter custom
      Data parameter crash
   Printing Text During Execution
      Ansible debug module
      The verbosity parameter
      Show Ansible version
   Configuration Management
      Single line edit
         Ansible lineinfile module
      Edit OpenSSH configuration
      Create text file
   File System
      Check file exists
      Creating an empty file
      Creating a directory
      Soft and hard link
      Deleting a file
      Copying local files to remote hosts
      Copying remote files to local
      File download
      Backup with rsync
      Checkout a GIT repository
   Installing Packages and Rolling Update
      Ansible package module
      Ansible yum module
      Ansible apt module
      Ansible zypper module
   Linux System Roles
   User Management
      Linux aging policy
      Group management
   Executing Commands
      Ansible command module
      Ansible shell module
      Uptime playbook
      Listing files
      Wrong module
   Conclusion
   Points to Remember
   Multiple Choice Questions
      Answers
   Questions
   Key Terms
5. Ansible for Windows
   Introduction
   Structure
   Configuring Windows Target
   Creating the Ansible User
      Verifying PowerShell, .NET and setting up WinRM
      PowerShell
      .NET
      Installing WinRM
      Windows collections
      Manual
      Automated
      Inventory
      Testing the host availability
   Configuration Management
      Editing single-line test
      Creating text file
      Checkout a GIT Repository
   File System
      Check file exists
      Creating an empty file
      Creating a directory
      Deleting a file
      Copying local files to remote hosts
      Copying remote files to local
      Downloading a file
      Backup with robocopy
   Installing Packages
   Rolling Update
   User Management
      Group management
   Windows Registry
      Checking registry
      Adding Windows registry
      Removing Windows registry
      Executing commands
      Netstat playbook
      Get-Date playbook
      Wrong module
   Conclusion
   Points to Remember
   Multiple Choice Questions
      Answers
   Questions
   Key Terms
6. Ansible Troubleshooting
   Introduction
   Structure
   Ansible Troubleshooting
   Ansible Debugging
   Ansible Syntax
   Troubleshooting Tools
      Errors playbook
      Fixed playbook
      Visual Studio code
      Ansible custom plugins
      CI/CD pipeline
   Ansible Connection
      The error
      Example
      Password authentication
   Ansible Vault
      Create
      Encrypt
      View
      Playbook
      Inline Vault
   Ansible Modules
      Missing module parameter
      Ansible service
      Ansible template
      Ansible command
   Ansible Role
      Molecule
   Ansible Collection
      Missing collection
      Missing Python library
   Ansible for Linux
   Ansible for Windows
      Ansible facts
      Module failure
      Windows subsystem for Linux
      Ansible Windows command
   Conclusion
   Points to Remember
   Multiple Choice Questions
      Answers
   Questions
   Key Terms
7. Ansible Enterprise
   Introduction
   Structure
   Ansible use cases
   GitOps
   Ansible Automation Platform
      Ansible Automation Hub
      Ansible execution environment
      Ansible Automation Mesh
      Role-based access control (RBAC)
   Morpheus
   Configuration Management (CM)
   Graphical User Interface
      Ansible Semaphore
      ARA records
      Installation
      Customization
      Steampunk Spotter
   Conclusion
   Points to Remember
   Multiple Choice Questions
      Answers
   Questions
   Key Terms
8. Ansible Advanced
   Introduction
   Structure
   Third-party integrations, fragility, and agility
      Callback plugin
      Dynamic inventories
      VMware
      Citrix
      Amazon Web Services
      Dynamic inventory
      Idempotence
      Amazon EC2
      Google Cloud Platform and Azure
      API integration
      GET method
      JSON and YAML
      Bearer token
      POST and PUT methods
      PATCH and DELETE methods
      Zuul
   Ansible Orchestration
      Fork versus serial
      Kubernetes
      Namespace
      Pod
   Ansible Configuration Settings
      Custom verbosity
      Custom role path
      Custom collection path
      Custom username
      Custom temporary directory
      Enable Ansible pipelining
      SSH and Paramiko
      Host key check
      Fact caching
      Fork
      Ansible managed
   Latest Trends
      Event-driven Ansible
      Ansible Lightspeed
   Conclusion
   Points to Remember
   Multiple Choice Questions
      Answers
   Questions
   Key Terms
Index