Speaker 1: Ever feel like you're just drowning and repetitive it tasks,
Speaker 1: always fighting the clock.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, configuration drift, endless deployment cycles. It's a common
Speaker 2: pain point.
Speaker 1: It really is. Yeah, you almost wish for a magic
Speaker 1: wand sometimes, well we don't have magic, but we do
Speaker 1: have antsable.
Speaker 2: It's pretty close. Sometimes it's this fantastic automation tool, hugely
Speaker 2: popular now for everything from simple server set up to
Speaker 2: really complex cloud stuff.
Speaker 1: And the community support is just massive. So today we're
Speaker 1: doing a deep dive aiming to make antsable really clear
Speaker 1: and practical for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're leaning heavily on practical antsable dot pdf Here.
Speaker 2: It's like a condensed guide and we're pulling out the
Speaker 2: absolute essentials, the core ideas.
Speaker 1: Think of it as your shortcut. We're not just reading
Speaker 1: a manual or getting straight to the key concepts exactly.
Speaker 2: We'll cover getting it installed, the fundamentals like modules and playbooks,
Speaker 2: managing different osias, Linux, Windows, Mac.
Speaker 1: Os right and inventories, variables, plus how it plugs into
Speaker 1: cloud platforms, containers, all that good stuff.
Speaker 2: Our goal to give you a really solid grasp of
Speaker 2: ansable's basics so you can see how it could genuinely
Speaker 2: streamline your own work.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's jump in. First things. First installation, the book
Speaker 1: talks about the control node. What's the main takeaway there?
Speaker 2: The big thing is the control node is your command center.
Speaker 2: It's where Ansable lives, where you run your commands, your playbooks. Okay,
Speaker 2: but crucially, Ansable itself doesn't need to be installed on
Speaker 2: the machines you're managing the managed nodes.
Speaker 1: Ah. Okay, So the control node just needs what Python.
Speaker 2: Python three point nine or newer, and it's typically Linux
Speaker 2: or maybe FreeBSD. That agentless design is a really big deal,
Speaker 2: much simpler.
Speaker 1: Right, agentless less stuff to manage everywhere else. So installing
Speaker 1: on that control node looks like there are a few ways.
Speaker 1: Package manager versus PAP.
Speaker 2: Exactly your system package manager like APPED or you DNF.
Speaker 2: It's off for the quickest way to get going, super simple.
Speaker 2: But the book also highlights PIP, the Python installed The
Speaker 2: advantage there is consistency. You get the same install process
Speaker 2: regardless of the Linux distro or even on mac os
Speaker 2: if you have Python.
Speaker 1: Ah so PIP gives you more control, maybe across different systems.
Speaker 2: Precisely, especially if you need specific Ansible versions just one
Speaker 2: thing to remember. If you use PIP, you manage ansable
Speaker 2: updates yourself separately from system updates.
Speaker 1: Got it. So if I go to the PIP route,
Speaker 1: what's the command?
Speaker 2: First check your Python version Python three version, make sure
Speaker 2: it's three point nine plus. Okay, Then you probably need
Speaker 2: PIP itself, maybe apped install Python three PIP or similar
Speaker 2: depending on your US. Right, and then the magic pseudo
Speaker 2: Python three dash meter pip install antsable. That should do.
Speaker 1: It pretty straightforward. And if I need, say an older
Speaker 1: version for.
Speaker 2: Some reason, GIP handles that too. Just add the version
Speaker 2: like a Python three dol meter PIP install antsable eight
Speaker 2: point zero twenty zero. You pin it right there. Super
Speaker 2: useful for project consistency.
Speaker 1: Okay. Now the book brings up virtual environments or VENs.
Speaker 1: Why bother with those? Seems like an extra step?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it might seem like it, but they're really valuable.
Speaker 2: Think of them as like little sandboxes for your Python projects.
Speaker 1: Sandbox.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you can have Project A needing ansile eight
Speaker 2: and Project B needing anspell nine, each in its own vents.
Speaker 2: They don't interfere with each other or with your main
Speaker 2: system Python.
Speaker 1: Ah. Okay, so it stops dependency conflicts.
Speaker 2: Keeps things clean exactly, keeps things clean, reproducible. It's definitely
Speaker 2: the best practice. You create one with Python three nine
Speaker 2: ers venvev my ansle project or whatever, then activate it
Speaker 2: like source my ansable project by activate. Then your PIP
Speaker 2: install antsable just installs it inside that environment.
Speaker 1: Okay, that makes sense, avoids headaches down the line. What
Speaker 1: about mac os? Is installation simple there? Usually? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Homebrew is the popular way. Just brew install ansable pretty easy.
Speaker 1: All right, let's tackle Windows. The book says direct install
Speaker 1: isn't really the thing, So how do we manage Windows hosts?
Speaker 2: Right? Yeah, direct install isn't recommended. Two main paths. One
Speaker 2: is WSL Windows subsystem for Linux. Okay, US install Linux
Speaker 2: inside Windows, then install ansable and Linux like normal.
Speaker 1: Works great, so you get a proper Linux environment for
Speaker 1: antsable and the other way.
Speaker 2: The other way is agentless using win RM Windows Remote Management.
Speaker 2: It's built into Windows. Ansable talks to it using PowerShell
Speaker 2: underneath win RM.
Speaker 1: Okay, so what needs to be set up on the
Speaker 1: Windows side for that to work?
Speaker 2: Good question. You need a supported Windows version obviously Windows
Speaker 2: eight point one, Server twenty twelve R two or newer. Basically,
Speaker 2: you need PowerShell three point zero or later, dot Net
Speaker 2: four point zero plus and the big one. You need
Speaker 2: a win RM listener configured and running.
Speaker 1: It's not on by default right security default, So how
Speaker 1: do you actually enable that listener?
Speaker 2: There are PowerShell commands for it. The book gives some
Speaker 2: examples for basic authentication, which is okay for maybe local
Speaker 2: accounts are testing.
Speaker 3: But for production.
Speaker 2: For production, Caberro's authentication is strongly recommended, much more secure.
Speaker 2: The Ansible docs have detailed guides on setting that up
Speaker 2: with WinRM. Okay, and you'll almost certainly need to configure
Speaker 2: the Windows Firewall two to allow connections on the Winter
Speaker 2: imports usually foy to ninet eighty five for HTCP five
Speaker 2: nine eighty six for hgdps. Definitely use HTTPS.
Speaker 1: Okay, Https for encryption makes sense. So we've got Ansible installed,
Speaker 1: we know how to prep Windows. Let's dig into how
Speaker 1: ancible actually works. That agentless architecture keeps coming up. Why
Speaker 1: is that such a big deal.
Speaker 2: It's really fundamental, no agents to install or maintain on
Speaker 2: your managed nodes. That's the core idea.
Speaker 3: So simpler setup, much simpler and.
Speaker 2: Arguably more secure. Fewer moving parts less attack surface on
Speaker 2: those nodes. Ansible just uses standard protocols SSH for Linux, Unix,
Speaker 2: WinRM for Windows.
Speaker 1: And how does it execute tests?
Speaker 2: Then it pushes small bits of code the modules over
Speaker 2: that connection. The module runs, does its thing, returns the result,
Speaker 2: and then it's removed clean.
Speaker 1: Keeps the managed nodes tidy.
Speaker 2: Nice.
Speaker 1: Now, how about anspble's own settings the ansible dot cfg file.
Speaker 2: Right, ansible dot cfg. That's where you tweak Ansble's behavior.
Speaker 2: The key thing is the precedence order. Precedence yeah, answer
Speaker 2: looks for it several places. First environment variable ansable can
Speaker 2: fig if not found to check the current directory you're
Speaker 2: running from, then your home directory like dot ansable dot cfg.
Speaker 2: And finally the system wide location at cancible saveable dot
Speaker 2: cfg uses the first one it finds.
Speaker 1: So you can have project specific settings, or user settings
Speaker 1: or system defaults.
Speaker 3: Flexible, exactly, very flexible.
Speaker 1: What if I just installed it and I don't have
Speaker 1: an ansible dot cfg.
Speaker 2: Common situation. Yeah, especially with PIP installs. You can easily
Speaker 2: generate a template. The command is ansable canfig in it
Speaker 2: disabled ansable dot cfg.
Speaker 1: Ah.
Speaker 2: That gives you a file with all the possible settings
Speaker 2: commented out the defaults. You usually find a start, but
Speaker 2: it's good to know how to generate and customize.
Speaker 1: This good tip. Okay, config file covered. What about just
Speaker 1: running quick one off commands? The book mentions ad hoc commands.
Speaker 2: Ad hoc commands are brilliant for quick tasks, simple immediate.
Speaker 2: You use the ansable command directly.
Speaker 1: So not writing a full playbook exactly.
Speaker 2: Just a single task. Yeah, you use for the module
Speaker 2: name and A for the arguments of that module.
Speaker 1: What would you use them for? Like, give me an example.
Speaker 2: Okay, so you want to quickly check a servers or
Speaker 2: online ansable my d servers, ansible dot built in dot ping.
Speaker 2: You'll get a pong back if they're.
Speaker 1: Up simple enough.
Speaker 2: What else, Maybe grab a specific fact like the OS
Speaker 2: version ansable, some host ansable dot built in dot set
Speaker 2: up a filter ansible distribution it turns just that info. Okay,
Speaker 2: Or install a package quickly ansible webservers, danceable, dot built
Speaker 2: in dot app FIM and the antivic state latest become
Speaker 2: to become is for running with pseudo or root.
Speaker 1: Privileges right for privileged escalation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and if you're just curious ansible all m ansable
Speaker 2: dot built in dot setup dumps all the facts ansable
Speaker 2: knows about all your hosts. It's a lot, but useful.
Speaker 3: Sometimes ad hoc.
Speaker 1: Sounds super handy for poking around and quick fixes. Now
Speaker 1: ancible needs to know which machines to manage. That's inventories, right,
Speaker 1: what's the core idea?
Speaker 2: The inventory is simply your list of target machines where
Speaker 2: ansable should go.
Speaker 3: That's it, and how do you define that list?
Speaker 2: Most commonly with static files either IONI format, which is
Speaker 2: simple key value pairs and sections, or yamal format, which
Speaker 2: is more structured and there's always a default group call.
Speaker 2: All that well includes everything in your inventory. It just
Speaker 2: tells ansable who to talk to.
Speaker 1: Can you show me a really basic I NI example?
Speaker 2: Sure, super simple? Could be dot any, dot webservers, dot
Speaker 2: web one, dot example, dot com, web two, dot example,
Speaker 2: dot com, databases, dB one, dot example, dot com.
Speaker 1: Okay, just groups and host names. Can you put connection
Speaker 1: details in there too?
Speaker 2: Yep. If a host needs a specific user or port,
Speaker 2: you can add it right on the line, like web one,
Speaker 2: dot example, dot com, ansable port twenty two, twenty two, antsples.
Speaker 1: Or bob gotcha and yamlinventories. When would I use those?
Speaker 2: Jamal's great. When things get more complex, it's more structured,
Speaker 2: maybe easier to read. For larger setups. You can embed
Speaker 2: variables directly within the ammal structure two, which is handy.
Speaker 1: Okay, So inventory's point to the wear Now configuring those machines.
Speaker 1: Different settings, software versions. That's host and group variables exactly variables.
Speaker 1: Let you define settings that antsable can use in its tasks.
Speaker 1: You can define them for a specific host or for
Speaker 1: a whole group of hosts. What's that The main benefit.
Speaker 2: Reasonability and specificity. Define common settings at the group level,
Speaker 2: then override them for specific hosts if needed. Host variables
Speaker 2: always win over group variables if there's a conflict. Make
Speaker 2: things really flexible.
Speaker 1: The book mentions host bars and group bars directories. How
Speaker 1: do they help?
Speaker 2: Ah? Yeah. Instead of stuffing everything into the main inventory file,
Speaker 2: which gets messy fast, you create these directories. Ancible automatically
Speaker 2: looks for them. Inside group fars you have files named
Speaker 2: after your groups like webservers dot EML. Inside host fars
Speaker 2: files named after hosts like dB one, dot example, dot com,
Speaker 2: dot IML.
Speaker 1: So it keeps the variable definitions separate and organized.
Speaker 2: Totally, much cleaner, much more scalable. And another detail. Variables
Speaker 2: in child groups override parent groups, so you layers of configuration.
Speaker 1: Okay, inventories for targets, variables for configurations specifics now modules.
Speaker 2: What are the exact modules? Are the actual tools Ansible
Speaker 2: uses to get things done. They're pre built units of
Speaker 2: code for specific.
Speaker 1: Tasks like what kind of tasks?
Speaker 2: Oh? Tons of stuff? Managing packages apped, yeah, managing services,
Speaker 2: service system, creating files, file copy, user management, user interacting
Speaker 2: with databases, cloud resources, hundreds and hundreds of them.
Speaker 1: So you don't have to script everything from scratch.
Speaker 2: Right, you just call the module you need. That's the
Speaker 2: power leverage the community's work.
Speaker 1: How do you find the right module though? If there
Speaker 1: are so many?
Speaker 2: The official Ansible documentation is the best place. It's searchable,
Speaker 2: well organized, okay, or on the command line ansible doc
Speaker 2: slake lists all in sold modules. You can pipe that
Speaker 2: top to.
Speaker 1: Search antsable doc sl grip database maybe exactly.
Speaker 2: And once you find one answable doc module name like
Speaker 2: ansible doc ansble dot built in dot appt give you
Speaker 2: all the details, parameters, examples, return values, essential reading.
Speaker 1: Okay, modules do the work What about plugins? How are
Speaker 1: they different?
Speaker 2: Plugins? Extend ansables core functionality modules perform tasks on managed nodes.
Speaker 2: Mostly plugins change how ansable itself behaves or interacts with things.
Speaker 2: Extend filters for manipulating data and templates. Look up plugins
Speaker 2: to fetch data from external sources, connection plugins to talk
Speaker 2: to different kinds of devices, stuff like that.
Speaker 3: Can you create your own absolutely?
Speaker 2: If you need some very specific data transformation or connection method,
Speaker 2: you can write a custom plug in. Usually in Python
Speaker 2: you put them in special directories like filter.
Speaker 1: Plugins, got it modules, act plugins enhanced now orchestrating sequences
Speaker 1: of these actions. That's playbooks right the core automation definition.
Speaker 2: Playbooks are absolutely central. They're Yamel files where you define
Speaker 2: your automation workflow.
Speaker 1: How are they structured?
Speaker 2: They consist of one or more plays. Each play targets
Speaker 2: a set of hosts from your inventory and contains a
Speaker 2: list of.
Speaker 3: Tasks and tasks use modules exactly.
Speaker 2: Each task typically calls one answable module to perform an
Speaker 2: action on the targeted hosts. The playbook defines the sequence
Speaker 2: that targets the whole flow.
Speaker 1: Can you limit which hosts of playbook runs on?
Speaker 2: YEP? The limit flag is your friend. There answable, dash playbooksite,
Speaker 2: dot EML limit webservers runs it only on the webservers group.
Speaker 2: Even if the playbook targets all great.
Speaker 1: For testing, and when it runs, it tells you what happened.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you get output for each task on each host. Okay,
Speaker 2: if nothing changed changed, if it made a modification failed,
Speaker 2: something went wrong. Unreachable gives you good visibility.
Speaker 1: The book stresses naming tasks and playbooks. Why is that important?
Speaker 2: Readability? Seriously, when the playbook runs or if you're troubleshooting,
Speaker 2: seeing installed Jink's web server is way more helpful than
Speaker 2: just seeing antsable dot built in dot app makes your
Speaker 2: playbooks self documenting almost makes sense.
Speaker 1: Now, variables Again, we talked about inventory variables. Can you
Speaker 1: define them right inside a playbook too?
Speaker 2: You sure can. Playbooks have a VARs section for defining
Speaker 2: variables specific to that playbook's execution. Useful for things only
Speaker 2: needed right there?
Speaker 1: How do you use them in tasks?
Speaker 2: With jing two temp double curly braces? Can use them
Speaker 2: in module arguments, file names anywhere you need dynamic values.
Speaker 1: And JINGA two. The book mentions JINGA two filters as well.
Speaker 1: What do they do.
Speaker 2: Filters let you manipulate data right inside your templates. Convert
Speaker 2: data types, format strings, extract parts of data structures, parse
Speaker 2: json or YAML stored in variables.
Speaker 1: Very powerful like transforming data on the fly within the
Speaker 1: playbook exactly.
Speaker 2: The book shows examples like from Yamel to parse yaml,
Speaker 2: or items to Dick to create dictionaries. Lots of built
Speaker 2: in filters, and you can use custom ones too.
Speaker 1: Okay, playbooks organized tasks. But what if I have a
Speaker 1: common set of tasks, like setting up a standard web
Speaker 1: server that I need in multiple playbooks. Copy paste seems bad.
Speaker 2: Very bad. That's precisely where roles come in. They are
Speaker 2: the solution for reusable antsiple code. Reusable how you bundle
Speaker 2: up a related set of tasks, variables, handlers, even files
Speaker 2: and templates into a standard directory structure.
Speaker 1: That's a role like a self contained automation unit.
Speaker 2: Pretty much. You define the role once a common role
Speaker 2: for a basic server setup or an injin's role. Then
Speaker 2: in your playbook you just list the roles you want
Speaker 2: to apply to a set of hosts. So roles common
Speaker 2: jinks exactly like that, ansable knows how to find the
Speaker 2: role if it's in a standard location or defined path
Speaker 2: and executes its tasks. Hugely improves the organization and avoids repetition.
Speaker 2: Roles can even have dependencies on other roles.
Speaker 1: Roles sound essential for anything non trivial. Now, controlling of
Speaker 1: a task runs conditionals.
Speaker 2: The when keyword. You add when to a task followed
Speaker 2: by an expression. The task only runs if that expression
Speaker 2: evaluates to true.
Speaker 1: What kind of expression?
Speaker 2: Usually based on ansible facts, the data gathered about the host,
Speaker 2: or your own variables like when answible facts off family.
Speaker 2: Red Hat ensures a task only runs on red Hat
Speaker 2: based systems. Critical for handling differences in your environment.
Speaker 1: And doing the same task many times with different inputs,
Speaker 1: like creating several users.
Speaker 2: That's loops. Using the loop keyword, you provide a list
Speaker 2: of items and the task runs once for each item,
Speaker 2: usually substituting the item into the tasks parameters super efficient
Speaker 2: for repetitive actions.
Speaker 1: Automation isn't always perfect. Errors happen. How do blocks help
Speaker 1: with that?
Speaker 2: Blocks? Blocks block that up let you group tasks and
Speaker 2: add error handling. You can have a rescue section that
Speaker 2: runs only if a task within the block.
Speaker 1: Fails for cleanup or roll back.
Speaker 2: Exactly and an always section runs regardless of success or
Speaker 2: failure in the block. Good for final cleanup tasks like
Speaker 2: even get temp files or logging. Completion gives you much
Speaker 2: more robust error handling than just letting the playbook crash.
Speaker 1: And if the playbook does crash or just isn't working right,
Speaker 1: is there a debugger?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 2: Ansable has a built in debugger. Run your playbook with
Speaker 2: step It pauses it each task, or you can set
Speaker 2: it to pause only on failure.
Speaker 1: What can you do in the debugger?
Speaker 2: You can inspect variables, p task dot orgs, rerun the
Speaker 2: failed task with changes, continue executions step by step. It's
Speaker 2: incredibly helpful for figuring out why something failed.
Speaker 1: Okay, the book mentions asynchronous tasks too. When would you
Speaker 1: run something async for.
Speaker 2: Long running tasks you don't want to wait for kicking
Speaker 2: off a system update, a backup job, maybe provisioning a
Speaker 2: slow cloud resource.
Speaker 1: How does it work?
Speaker 2: You use the acink keyword on a task with a
Speaker 2: time limit and poll set to zero. Antsable starts the
Speaker 2: task in the background and moves on immediately.
Speaker 1: How do you know when it's done?
Speaker 2: You can use another task later with the ansable dot
Speaker 2: built in dot acing status module to check up on
Speaker 2: the jobs progress or completion.
Speaker 1: Right, what about updating lots of servers safely.
Speaker 2: Ruling updates essential for minimizing downtime. The serial dot keyword
Speaker 2: in a play lets you control how many hosts antsable
Speaker 2: works on simultaneously. Cereal one does one at a time,
Speaker 2: Cereal five does batches of five okay, And you can
Speaker 2: combine that with max fail percentage. If say twenty percent
Speaker 2: of hosts in a batch fail, antsable can stop the
Speaker 2: rollout before it affects more machines, much safer deployments.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you need a task to run somewhere else, right,
Speaker 1: not on the target host.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's task delegation. Using delegates frecho, you tell a
Speaker 2: task to run on a different host specified in your inventory.
Speaker 2: Common for interacting with load balancers or monitoring systems from
Speaker 2: an app server, for example.
Speaker 1: And ensuring a task runs only once total, no matter
Speaker 1: how many hosts.
Speaker 2: That's ronounce true, useful for things like initializing a database
Speaker 2: schema or registering with the central service. Just be aware
Speaker 2: if you use cereal, it runs once per batch.
Speaker 1: Can I use ansable to manage the machine I'm running
Speaker 1: it from? The control nerd itself.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, you don't target local hosts necessarily, though you can.
Speaker 2: The key is setting Ansible connection local for that host
Speaker 2: in your inventory. It tells Ansible run these tasks right here.
Speaker 2: No SSH needed. Good for local setup or bootstrapping.
Speaker 1: Tag team handy for big playbooks. How do they work?
Speaker 2: Tag? Let you label plays or tasks. Just add tags
Speaker 2: some tag another tag. Then when you run answable playbook
Speaker 2: you can use tags some tag to only run things.
Speaker 3: With that tag or skip tags.
Speaker 2: Yeah, skip tags. Another tag does the opposite, and list
Speaker 2: tasks shows you all tasks and their tags for running
Speaker 2: specific parts of a large workflow.
Speaker 1: Finally, for fundamentals, Ansible vault. What problems that solve?
Speaker 2: Secrets management? Storing sensitive stuff like passwords, API keys securely
Speaker 2: within your ansable project instead of in plain text. Not
Speaker 2: vaulting crypts files or individual variable strings. You need a
Speaker 2: password to encrypt and decrypt them. Ansible automatically decrypts them
Speaker 2: during playbook execution when needed. If you provide the password,
Speaker 2: it keeps your secrets safe at rest.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's a solid foundation. Let's shift to how Ansible
Speaker 1: fits with modern tech containers. First, Docker Podman.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Antsible integrates really well. There are dedicated modules like
Speaker 2: community at Docker, dot Docer container and containers dot Podman
Speaker 2: dot Podman containers.
Speaker 1: What can you do with them?
Speaker 2: Manage the whole container life cycle? Start stop, build images,
Speaker 2: create networks, volumes, run containers with specific commands. Basically anything
Speaker 2: you do with the Docker or Podman coli you can
Speaker 2: automate with antsible.
Speaker 1: So you can orchestrate container setups directly.
Speaker 2: You can. It's great for simpler setups or integrating container
Speaker 2: management into broader automation.
Speaker 1: Works Loose and the big orchestrator kubernetesay Ansible play there too.
Speaker 2: Definitely. There's a Kubernetes dot core dot kights module, among others.
Speaker 2: It lets you manage Kubernetes resources directly using ansable.
Speaker 1: Like creating deployments or services exactly.
Speaker 2: You can define namespaces, deployments, services, can fig maps, secrets,
Speaker 2: pretty much any Kubernetes object using familiar ansable playbook syntax.
Speaker 2: It's another way to manage your kid's infrastructure's code.
Speaker 1: Moving to the cloud. Now, aws what are the basics
Speaker 1: for ansable?
Speaker 2: First, you need the AWSSDK for Python Voto three. Pipinstall
Speaker 2: Voto three okay. Authentication usually just uses your standard AWSCLI credentials,
Speaker 2: dot OUs credentials or environment variables. Then you use AWS
Speaker 2: specific modules to manage resources.
Speaker 1: Like launching an EC two instance.
Speaker 2: YEP modules for EC two, vpcs, S three, security groups,
Speaker 2: load balancers. The book shows launching an instance specifying the
Speaker 2: AMI instance type, keypair, network settings all defined in the playbook.
Speaker 1: How about Google Cloud GCT.
Speaker 2: Similar story need Python libraries, requests and Google off plus
Speaker 2: the Google dot Cloud Ansamble collection. Authentication Service accounts are
Speaker 2: typical for automation, or you can use the machine's credentials.
Speaker 2: If running on a GCP instance, then use GCP modules.
Speaker 2: For compute engine, CLOUDSEQL, networking, et cetera, and Azure install
Speaker 2: the Azure dot as collection. Authentication often uses the Azure
Speaker 2: credentials file dot az your credentials.
Speaker 1: And managing resources.
Speaker 2: Again specific modules for VMS, storage, networks databases. The book
Speaker 2: mentions creating a VM often needing to create the supporting
Speaker 2: network and storage resources first using other Edjure modules okay.
Speaker 1: Lastly, for cloud open Stack.
Speaker 2: For open stack you need the open stacked x K
Speaker 2: library and the OpenStack dot Cloud collection. Authentication usually goes
Speaker 2: in a clouds, dot YAMO file.
Speaker 1: What kind of tasks?
Speaker 2: The book gives a good example ensuring an SSH key exists,
Speaker 2: uploading an image, setting up networking, and launching an instance
Speaker 2: a full provisioning flow.
Speaker 1: So ansable really spans all these major platforms. Let's talk
Speaker 1: advanced use and best practices network devices. How does ansiple
Speaker 1: handle switches and routers?
Speaker 2: It's a growing area, huge shift from manual COLI canfig
Speaker 2: to automation. Key difference. Network modules often run on the
Speaker 2: control node, not the device itself.
Speaker 1: How do they connect?
Speaker 2: Usually via SSH? Network collection plug in is common, sometimes
Speaker 2: net con for rest APIs. Depending on the device, you
Speaker 2: define connection details like device type, igsiscod on iOS dot
Speaker 2: iOS often in groupvars.
Speaker 1: And you can gather facts or push can figs.
Speaker 2: Exactly, gather operational state, can figure interfaces, vlands, routing protocols.
Speaker 2: The book shows gathering iOS facts, but also mentions things
Speaker 2: like Cumulus Linux, which behaves more like a server, making
Speaker 2: automation easier.
Speaker 1: Good point. Thinking about general best practices as ansable use grows,
Speaker 1: organization seems key.
Speaker 2: Absolutely crucial. The book recommends a standard directory structure, separate
Speaker 2: folders for inventories, group cars, hosts, fars, roles, maybe library
Speaker 2: for custom modules and.
Speaker 1: A main playbook.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Having a top level site dot mL or main
Speaker 2: dot EML is the entry point is good practice. Makes
Speaker 2: it clear where to start.
Speaker 3: Version control, get non negotiable.
Speaker 2: Really, treat your antiple code like any other code. Use
Speaker 2: GIT or similar for tracking changes, collaboration, rollbacks, clone, change,
Speaker 2: ad commit, push pull the standard workflow.
Speaker 1: How about dealing with different operating systems within one playbook?
Speaker 2: Leverage ansible facts, use when conditions based on ansible fax
Speaker 2: house family or antible fax distribution, or even better, use
Speaker 2: the groupie module to dynamically create groups based on facts,
Speaker 2: then target plays at those specific OS groups very clean.
Speaker 1: Other best practices upgrading antsable, error handling, Yeah, have.
Speaker 2: A plan for upgrades, check release notes, think about poll
Speaker 2: intervals for acing tasks, use error handling robustly, ignore errors,
Speaker 2: carefully failed when for custom failure conditions, block rescue WASS
Speaker 2: for complex recovery, and for deployments readfourre or it's using
Speaker 2: serial and max fil percentage for controlled safer rollouts. Don't
Speaker 2: update everything at once in production unless you have a
Speaker 2: very good reason.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's talk troubleshooting. What are the go to techniques
Speaker 1: when things break.
Speaker 2: First, check the facts ansible host dash M setup. See
Speaker 2: what ansable thinks the state is often reveals the problem. Else,
Speaker 2: use check mode checked or NEXTC to see what would change.
Speaker 3: Great sanity, check connection issues.
Speaker 2: Increase verbosity, dash V, dash VV, dash VV. The triple
Speaker 2: V gives you detailed SSH debugging, double check credentials, host
Speaker 2: names ports, firewall.
Speaker 1: Rules, the basics, any other useful flag.
Speaker 2: To pass extra variables on the command line, limit to
Speaker 2: focus on one host. Sometimes flush cash helps if ansable
Speaker 2: seems stuck on old code, and always run syntax check
Speaker 2: before committing major changes.
Speaker 1: Good list Now for larger environments, the book mentions Ansible
Speaker 1: Automation Controller or AWX. What's the benefit there.
Speaker 2: It's a web UI and API for managing antsable at scale,
Speaker 2: centralized execution scheduling, inventory management, credential storage, logging, and importantly,
Speaker 2: role based access control RBAS.
Speaker 1: SO teams can use ansable more easily and securely.
Speaker 2: Exactly you define projects linking to get repos Inventories can
Speaker 2: be dynamic and job templates. How to run a playbook.
Speaker 2: Users get permissions to run specific templates against specific inventories.
Speaker 2: Much more governed.
Speaker 1: The book also mentions execution environments. What problem do they solve?
Speaker 2: Dependency, management and consistency. An execution environment is basically a
Speaker 2: container image that bundles ansable itself. Any media collections, Python libraries,
Speaker 2: system dependencies, everything are required to run.
Speaker 1: Your playbook, so it runs the same everywhere.
Speaker 2: That's the goal. Avoids the works on my machine issue.
Speaker 2: You build the environment once using ansable builder quich to
Speaker 2: a registry, and then your controller or ansible navigator tool
Speaker 2: pulls and uses that environment for runs, ensures predictability and
Speaker 2: isolates runs.
Speaker 1: Wow. Okay, we have really covered a ton of ground here,
Speaker 1: diving deep into practical ansmble dot P from install to
Speaker 1: advanced stuff.
Speaker 2: We definitely have installation, the core concepts, ad hoc inventories, playbooks, roles, variables, modules, plugins,
Speaker 2: than cloud and containers, network devices, best practices, troubleshooting, and
Speaker 2: the bigger management tools like controller and execution environments.
Speaker 1: It's really clear how powerful ansable is automating all sorts
Speaker 1: of it tasks, saving time, improving consistency. The value is definitely.
Speaker 2: There, absolutely, and like we said, this is just scratching
Speaker 2: the surface. Really Hopefully it gives you a solid base
Speaker 2: to explore further.
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely check out the official ansable docs and the
Speaker 1: community resources. They are fantastic for digging into specific areas
Speaker 1: you need.
Speaker 2: For sure, there's always more to learn.
Speaker 1: So as we wrap up, here's something to think about.
Speaker 1: How could bringing antsable into your world really change how
Speaker 1: you manage your infrastructure today and how you plan for tomorrow.
Speaker 1: What specific, maybe annoying, manual tasks are you doing right
Speaker 1: now that seem like prime candidates for your first ansable
Speaker 1: automation project. That's your next step