Day 57 - Ansible Hands-on with video

Introduction: In our previous articles, we've explored the simplicity and ease of Ansible. Today, we're taking it a step further and adding a touch of fun to our learning experience with a video tutorial. Follow along as we guide you through the exciting process of setting up a master server, creating instances, and using Ansible for efficient server management.

Step 1: Creating the Master Server

The journey begins with setting up a master server on an EC2 instance. Here's a quick rundown of the steps:

1. Create a Key Pair:Generate a key pair for secure communication.This step ensures a secure connection between the master server and other instances.

Step 2: Installing Ansible on the Master Server

Connect to the master server via SSH and install Ansible using the following commands:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ansible/ansible
sudo apt update
sudo apt install ansible        

Now, your master server is equipped with Ansible, ready to orchestrate your infrastructure.

Step 3: Creating and Connecting Other Instances

1. Create Additional Instances:Spawn new instances using the same key pair created for the master server.This ensures a uniform and secure connection across all servers.
2. Copy Private Key to Master Server:Transfer the private key to the master server using the scp command.sudo scp -i "Ansible-all.pem" Ansible-all.pem [email protected]:/home/ubuntu/ cp Ansible-all.pem /home/ubuntu/.ssh/

Step 4: Creating an Ansible Inventory File

1. Create an Inventory File:Develop an Ansible inventory file (ansible/hosts) with the server details.[servers] server1 ansible_host=public_ip_of_server1 server2 ansible_host=public_ip_of_server2 server3 ansible_host=public_ip_of_server3 [all:vars] ansible_python_interpreter=/usr/bin/python3 ansible_ssh_private_key_file=/home/ubuntu/.ssh/private_key
2. Give Permissions:Ensure the key file has the necessary permissions using the chmod command.

Step 5: Testing Ansible Connectivity

Execute the following command to test Ansible connectivity to the nodes:

ansible -i ansible/hosts all -m ping --private-key=/path/to/private_key        

Step 6: Running Ad Hoc Commands

Try out some ad hoc commands to check server details:

1. Check Free Memory:ansible -i ansible/hosts all -a "free -m" --private-key=/path/to/private_key
2. Check Uptime:ansible -i ansible/hosts all -a "uptime" --private-key=/path/to/private_key

Conclusion:

Congratulations! You've successfully set up a master server, connected additional instances, and used Ansible to manage them seamlessly. With this video tutorial and hands-on guide, we hope you find Ansible both fun and powerful in your automation endeavors. Thank you for joining us on this exciting Ansible adventure! Happy learning!

I'm confident that this article will prove to be valuable, helping you discover new insights and learn something enriching .

thank you : )