Ansible: IT Automation for Beginners 2025

Launch Ubuntu virtual machines with a single command using Multipass. Provision on Linux, Windows, and macOS with snap installations and a Docker image.

Install multipass on Windows to provision Ubuntu VMs with a single command, guided by prerequisites and choosing Hyper-V or VirtualBox.

Install and configure the Ansible control node on Unix-like systems with Python 3.9+, using apt or pip/pipx. Learn to run ansible and playbooks to manage nodes and servers.

Set up two Ubuntu managed nodes with multipass, generate an ed25519 SSH key, place the public key in each user's authorized_keys, and enable passwordless SSH for the Ansible control.

Test connectivity between Ansible and Linux hosts by creating an inventory.yaml with a host group ubuntu_vms, transferring the private ssh key to the control node, and validating with ansible-inventory.

Create and run your first Ansible playbook to upgrade Ubuntu hosts, using VS Code over SSH on a control node with the apt module and become for privileges.

Discover how the Ansible package module automatically selects the right package manager across Debian-based and Red Hat–based systems, installing and upgrading packages like Apache or httpd with a single task.

Manage files and directories on Linux hosts with Ansible using the file, line-in-file, and block-in-file modules to edit content, set permissions, and support idempotent configurations.

Learn how to use Ansible's command and shell modules to run commands on Linux hosts, compare when to use each, and rely on built-in modules to achieve idempotent, desired-state configurations.

Automate user and group management with Ansible using the user and group modules, create and delete accounts, manage password hashes, and distribute ssh keys via the authorized key module.

Learn to manage Linux services with the Ansible service module, supporting multiple init systems, starting and enabling services like unattended-upgrades, and updating configurations with playbooks.

Install nginx with the package module, update apt cache, copy an index.html to the www.html directory, and reload nginx to verify the demo page.

Learn how to define and reference variables in Ansible playbooks, use vars and vars files, register outputs, and loop over lists to install packages like tree.

Structure Ansible projects with roles and a standardized folder layout for tasks, then use a site.yaml demo to manage file servers, web servers, and Windows clients.

Encrypt sensitive data with ansible-vault to protect passwords and API keys, then run encrypted playbooks at runtime with interactive prompts and AES-256 encryption support.

Learn to prepare Windows hosts for Ansible by configuring SSH or WinRM, installing OpenSSH, and testing connectivity with a WinPing playbook.

Learn to automate Windows software deployment with Ansible using the Chocolaty and WinChocolaty modules to install, upgrade, and manage apps like Git across many hosts from a central playbook.

Explore the ansible.windows collection of windows-specific modules, learn to automate tasks like hostname changes, registry edits, notifications, reboots, and software installations with winget and winpackage.

Automate certificate deployment on Windows hosts using Ansible, leveraging the WinCertificateStore module to import, export, and remove certificates in the trusted root store, and validate deployment across multiple machines.

Use an Ansible Windows playbook to deploy VLC via MSI, and configure a WinFirewallRule to allow ICMP echo requests on all network profiles.

Connect to a remote system via the remote ssh extension in Visual Studio Code, work with remote directories as if local, and set up an Ansible development environment.

Validate ansible tasks by simulating runs with check mode and viewing exact before-and-after changes with diff mode, demonstrated on an nginx deployment.

Master practical troubleshooting for Ansible playbooks using verbose outputs (-v to -vvvv), full tracebacks, the built-in debugger, and strategies like linear, debug, and free.

Explore what an Ansible collection is, how to install and use collections from Ansible Galaxy, including built-in collection, and the Ansible Galaxy collection install command for listing and installing requirements.yaml.

Learn to run only specific parts of a long ansible playbook by tagging tasks, using the tags flag and skip tags, and discover always and never tags for selective execution.

Explore how to use loops in Ansible to run commands over lists and dictionaries, and migrate from with statements to the loop keyword for cleaner playbooks.

Learn to use conditionals in Ansible playbooks with the when keyword, demonstrated by checking testdir with the stat module and printing debug messages.

Configure Ansible Lint with YAML files in the project or .config, choose profiles from minimal to production, and selectively skip rules like the FQCN to enforce team standards.

Configure git pre-commit hooks to automatically run Ansible Lint on playbooks before each commit. Set up the .precommitconfig.yaml, install pre-commit, and verify commits fail until issues are fixed.

Learn to validate a demo Ansible playbook with Ansible Lint, implement the recommended fixes in VS Code on a Linux system, and use the fully qualified collection name for modules.

Explore how to use Jinja templates with Ansible to generate an html page from a J2 template, render Ansible hostname variables, and serve it via Nginx using the template module.

Learn to implement if-else constructs and loops in Jinja templates within Ansible, generating dynamic html pages by iterating over AnsiblePlayHosts and applying filters and tests.

Consolidate dependencies like roles and collections in a requirements.yaml file and install them with a single Ansible Galaxy command, whether via command line or through AWX or Ansible Automation Platform.

explore using ansible in pull mode to automatically fetch and run playbooks from a GitHub repository, with options for inventory, branch, and ssh key authentication, enabling offline or cron-based automation.

Learn to build dynamic inventories with Ansible using inventory plugins. Explore integrating Proxmox, AWS, Azure, and more to avoid static inventories and simplify host provisioning.

Explore how to redirect Ansible playbook output and errors to external log files, configure YAML-formatted stdout, and improve automated runs, traceability, and debugging during HAProxy setup.

Explore the built-in Ansible debugger to troubleshoot and fix errors during playbook execution without rewriting code; trigger it per task or playbook, adjust task arguments live, and rerun immediately.

Recap the lab setup, install Ansible, and provision a control node to automate tasks on Linux and Windows with playbooks, embracing infrastructure as code for efficiency.