Automate Windows SysAdmin tasks with Ansible in 50+ examples

Name: Automate Windows SysAdmin tasks with Ansible in 50+ examples
Rating: 4.2 (42 reviews)

Learn Ansible with some real-life examples of how to use the most common modules and Ansible Playbook

Created byLuca Berton

Last updated 11/2022

English

English [Auto],

What you'll learn

Automate tasks on Windows
Ansible in real life use cases
Ansible code by modules
Automate System Administrator tasks with Ansible

Course content

7 sections • 50 lectures • 7h 19m total length

Introduction2:24
Learn the basics of an Ansible model and use battle-tested code to automate Windows sysadmin tasks across 50+ examples, with copy-paste steps you can reproduce in the terminal.

What is Ansible10:55
Getting started5:11
Inventory7:47
Ansible Ad-Hoc command - ansible command8:24
How to use the ping module, execute a command and retrieve the Ansible Facts from a target node via the ansible command line.
Ansible terminology - What is an Ansible Playbook?16:16
A step-by-step guide inside the Ansible Playbook anatomy: play, tasks, modules, conditional, loop, handler, variable, list.

Playbooks11:56
Learn to write stable Ansible playbooks with YAML syntax and inventories. Implement idempotent tasks across multiple plays, using modules like copy, service, and users, with privilege escalation.
Variables9:44
Facts and magic variables8:28
Vault8:13
Conditional7:11
Loop4:26
Master loop statements in Ansible to automate repetitive tasks by iterating over lists, dictionaries, and numeric sequences in playbooks, reducing errors and boosting reliability.
Handler2:41
How to Run Only One Task in Ansible Playbook? - Ansible tags statement6:15
How to select single or multiple tasks, include, import, play, block, and role in an Ansible Playbook using tags parameter of ansible-playbook command.
Ansible terminology - What is an Ansible Vault?4:06
How to store variables and files in an encrypted way using the ansible-vault command line utility.

Ansible terminology - ansible vs ansible-core packages11:04
What is ansible-core? What is the ansible community package? What happened to the Ansible project after version 2.9? An overview of the ansible community and ansible-core packages and use-cases nowadays.
How to install Ansible in Windows 10 WSL Windows Subsystem for Linux15:24
How to install and maintain Ansible inside Windows 10 using the Windows Subsystem for Linux and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.
How to install Ansible in Windows 11 WSL: Windows Subsystem for Linux15:29
How to install and maintain up-to-date Ansible inside Windows 11 using the Windows Subsystem for Linux and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.
How to install Ansible with PIP7:04
How to install Ansible with PIP - the Python package manager.

Configure a Windows Host for Ansible - ansible winrm17:58
How to set up step by step on a fresh Windows 10 machine how to configure a "basic" authentication, use a Local Accounts for authentication, and successfully execute a simple "win_ping" Ansible Playbook.
Test Windows host availability - Ansible module win_ping4:33
How to test Windows host availability? Today we’re going to talk about the simplest way to test if a Windows-managed host is available to receive our commands. Ansible module win_ping.
Create an empty file in Windows-like systems - Ansible module win_file6:33
How to automate the creation of an empty “example.txt” in the Desktop of your users in Windows-like systems with Ansible Playbook.
Check if a file exists on Windows-like systems - Ansible module win_stat8:42
How to automate the checking of the “example.txt” file on the Desktop of the user in the Windows system and display a message or execute a task accordingly with Ansible Playbook.
Install Windows software - Ansible module win_chocolatey9:05
How to Install Windows software with Ansible? Today I’m going to reveal a secret to installing software in a Windows-managed host using Chocolatey Package Manager.
Copy files to Windows remote hosts - Local to Remote - Ansible module win_copy9:19
How to copy report.txt file to Windows remote hosts using Ansible module win_copy.
Copy files from Windows remote hosts - Ansible module fetch8:38
How to automate the copy and validate the checksum of example.txt file in the Desktop to a Linux Ansible Controller using Ansible Playbook and fetch module.
Reboot Windows hosts Ansible module win_reboot8:31
How to reboot Windows remote hosts with Ansible specifying the notification message to logged users, the delay seconds, and the verification command.
Install Google Chrome in Windows-like systems - Ansible module win_chocolatey7:02
How to install the latest Google Chrome Stable on a Windows-like workstation using the chocolatey package manager. Included demo in Windows 2019.
Install Docker in Windows-like systems - Ansible module win_chocolatey12:03
How to automate the installation of the latest version of Docker Desktop in your Windows-like system with Ansible Playbook and Chocolatey.
Extract an archive in Windows-like systems - Ansible module win_unzip8:26
How to automate the extraction of an example ZIP compressed archive with a text file inside creating the output directory on a Windows-like system with Ansible module win_unzip.
Download a file in Windows-like systems - Ansible module win_get_url9:47
How to automate the download of a file, verify the checksum and save wherever you want in Windows-like systems with Ansible module win_get_url.
Create a directory on Windows-like systems - Ansible module win_file6:57
How to automate the creation of "example" folder in the user Desktop on Windows-like hosts with Ansible Playbook.
Check if a directory exists on Windows-like systems - Ansible module win_stat8:50
How to automate the checking of the “example” directory/folder in the Desktop of the user on the Windows system and display a message or execute a task accordingly with Ansible Playbook.
Check Registry .NET Framework version on Windows-like systems - Ansible module w10:20
How to automate the check of the .NET Framework version installed in the Windows-like machine using the Windows Registry with Ansible Playbook.
Rolling Update Windows-like systems - Ansible module win_updates10:07
How to automate the Windows Update process and rebook if needed on Windows-like systems using Ansible Playbook and win_updates module.
Add Windows Registry on Windows-like systems - Ansible module win_regedit9:38
How to automate the creation of the Windows Registry key “name” and “value” under a specified “path” on Windows-like systems with Ansible Playbook using win_regedit module.
Remove Windows Registry path or key on Windows-like systems - Ansible module win8:19
How to automate the deletion of the Windows Registry “Test” path with one key “hello” under a specific hive Windows-like systems with Ansible Playbook using win_regedit module.
Create a local user on Windows-like systems - Ansible module win_user11:04
How to automate the creation of the “example” local user member of Users group on Windows-like systems with Ansible Playbook with win_user module.
Create a local group on Windows-like systems - Ansible module win_group7:23
How to automate the creation of the "accounting" local group on Windows-like systems with Ansible Playbook with win_group module.
Remove a local group on Windows-like systems - Ansible module win_group6:24
How to automate the removal of a local user “accounting” on Windows-like systems using the Ansible module win_group.
Remove a local user on Windows-like systems - Ansible module win_user7:31
How to automate the removal of a local user “example” on Windows-like systems using the Ansible module win_user.
Change local user password on Windows-like systems - Ansible module win_user9:40
How to automate the password changing of the local user “example” on Windows-like systems using Ansible Playbook and module win_user.
Backup With Robocopy on Windows - Ansible module win_robocopy9:27
How to automate the backup synchronization of an “examples” folder to “examples-backup” on Windows using RoboCopy with Ansible module win_robocopy.
Ansible modules - win_command vs win_shell11:25

Ansible troubleshooting - PowerShell incompatible with the sudo become plugin5:23
How to reproduce, troubleshoot, and fix the “The PowerShell shell family is incompatible with the sudo become plugin” Ansible runtime error.
Ansible troubleshooting - Windows 10 Error 0x80370102 WSL: WindowsSubsystemLinux9:17
How to troubleshoot the Windows 10 WSL: Windows Subsystem for Linux - Error: 0x80370102 The virtual machine could not be started because a required feature is not installed. How to verify the Windows Feature and workaround using the Windows Subsystem for Linux version 1.
Ansible troubleshooting - Windows 11 Error 0x80370102 WSL: Windows Subsystem for15:29
How to troubleshoot the Windows 11 WSL: Windows Subsystem for Linux - Error: 0x80370102 The virtual machine could not be started because a required feature is not installed. How to verify the Windows Feature and workaround using the Windows Subsystem for Linux version 1.
Ansible troubleshooting - Module Failure on Windows-target7:40
How to reproduce, troubleshoot, and fix the Module Failure Ansible fatal error on Windows-target. Demo code included for download file example.
Ansible troubleshooting - Unhandled exception while executing module win_user9:59
Unhandled exception errors are nasty Ansible problems. In a live demo, we are going to troubleshoot starting from the error message. We are going to investigate the root cause of the problem and fix using the win_user module.

Requirements

Ansible basic knowledge

Description

Learn the Ansible automation technology with some real-life examples.

Every successful IT department needs automation for bare metal servers, virtual machines, cloud, containers, and edge computing. Automate your IT journey with Ansible automation technology.

I'm going to teach you, example by example, how to accomplish the most common System Administrator tasks.

You will start by installing Ansible in Windows 10 and 11 and using the most command package managers and archives.

Each of the 50+ lessons summarizes a module, from the most critical parameter to some live demo of code and real-life usage. Each code is battle-proved in real life. In every video, there is a terminal interaction and verification session. Mundane activities like installing software, verifying a system is up-to-date, rebooting a server, installing Google Chrome, or copying files from the local controller to a remote system could be automated with some lines of code, and these are only some of the long lists included in the course.

Some Ansible codes are usable in all Windows systems, and some are specific to Windows Server.

The Ansible troubleshooting lessons teach you how to read the error message, reproduce it, and the process of troubleshooting and resolution.

Are you ready to automate your day with Ansible?

Who this course is for:

System Administrator
IT Professional
Cloud Engineer
DevOps

Automate Windows SysAdmin tasks with Ansible in 50+ examples

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Introduction1 lecture • 2min

Getting started5 lectures • 49min

Ansible Playbook Statements9 lectures • 1hr 3min

Install Ansible4 lectures • 49min

Ansible Playbook code for Windows25 lectures • 3hr 48min

Ansible Troubleshooting of the most common errors5 lectures • 48min

Thank you1 lecture • 1min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: