Ansible syllubus

Course description-

Learn how to automate administration on Windows Server to enable your DevOps workflow Microsoft Windows Automation with Red Hat Ansible (DO417) is designed for Windows Server professionals without previous Ansible® experience. You will use Ansible to write automation playbooks for Microsoft Windows systems to perform common system administration tasks reproducibly at scale. You will also learn to use Red Hat® Ansible Tower to securely manage and run your Ansible playbooks from a central web-based user interface.

This course is based on Red Hat Ansible Engine 2.8, Red Hat Ansible Tower 3.5, and Windows Server 2016 and 2019.

Course content summary

Configure Microsoft Windows systems to be managed with Ansible.
Create and manage inventories of managed hosts and provide credentials to manage them to Red Hat Ansible Tower.
Write Ansible playbooks to consistently automate multiple tasks and apply them to managed hosts.
Run individual ad hoc automation tasks and complex playbooks from Red Hat Ansible Tower.
Create survey forms in Red Hat Ansible Tower to simplify playbook operation.
Parameterize playbooks using variables and facts.
Write and reuse existing Ansible roles to simplify playbook creation and reuse code.
Leverage existing PowerShell DSC code to extend the power of Ansible automation.
Automate common Windows Server system administration tasks using Ansible.

Audience for this course

Windows Server administrators interested in automating management tasks and in using automation tools to implement their DevOps workflow.

Prerequisites for this course

You are expected to have experience as Windows Server administrators, but no previous experience with Red Hat Ansible Automation or Linux® is required.

Technical requirements

This class will require internet access.
You will be expected to “bring your own device” (BYOD).
Your device must be installed with a Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).
If you are running Microsoft Windows, you should have Microsoft Remote Desktop installed.
If you are running macOS, you will need to install Microsoft Remote Desktop for Mac (by Microsoft) from the App Store.

What is an ansible?

An ansible is a category of fictional devices or technology capable of near-instantaneous or superluminal communication. It can send and receive messages to and from a corresponding device over any distance or obstacle whatsoever with no delay, even between star systems.

2)How do I get Ansible certification?

Prerequisites for this exam
Successfully complete Automation with Ansible (DO407), or demonstrate equivalent experience working with Ansible to configure systems.
Being a Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA) or higher or having equivalent systems administration experience is recommended, but not required.

3)What is the difference between Ansible and Ansible Tower?

Ansible itself was (and still is) rather new, so most of its users were by definition new users. … Ansible Tower is the easy-to-use UI and dashboard and REST API for Ansible. Centralize your Ansible infrastructure from a modern UI, featuring role-based access control, job scheduling, and graphical inventory management

4)Is Ansible written in Python?

Ansible itself is written in Python and has a fairly minimal learning curve. Ansible follows a simple setup procedure and does not depend on any additional software, servers or client daemons. It manages nodes over SSH and is parallel by default.

5)How long does it take to learn Ansible?

To get familiar(very beginner level) with Ansible it will take a week without any prerequisites. If you have knowledge in Linux OS (especially Administration knowledge or experience) and virtualization, it will take less than 1 week to know what ansible is and what you can do with it practically

6)Is Ansible engine free?

Yes, Ansible is an absolutely free and open source tool that is used for the above-mentioned purposes. Because Ansible adopts the standard GNU (General Public License), it can be used for commercial purposes as well as long as one respects the policies of GNU.

Automating Linux Updates With Ansible And Rundeck

If you are experiencing growth within your organization and find yourself having to make tough decisions in the spirit of progress, solutions for keeping your IT team productive are definitely in order. One of the many ways that you can streamline productivity and limit mundane tasks lie in the ability to create scripts that eliminate repetition..

For example, in most cases, dozens or even hundreds of servers are being used on a daily basis. Each one of those servers has an authentication and login procedure. By creating a script in Ansible, you can automate this process and save valuable time throughout the day. This frees up precious time your employees need to knock out more complicated issues.

Simplifying your cloud provisioning options is a smart strategy because changes and updates happen frequently and upgrades all of your servers to meet those changes is the proverbial “time killer”. Automating this process eliminates the chance for human error and is known to improve employee morale. Incorporating Ansible into your IT department’s daily routine can show immediate results and instantaneously transform the way your team handles its day-to-day activities.

If your engineers are spending too much time performing easy tasks that seem more repetitive than impactful, a switch to Ansible can have the results you seek. What’s even more appealing about Ansible is that the YAML-coded scripts can be as simple or complex, as the experience level of your IT team. Knocking out the basic, everyday tasks will put hours back onto your productivity clock, but having the knowledge to create more challenging scripts that handle multiple-step processes can be a major game changer.

The most important thing your organization has is time. Time means money. Proper usage of time determines productivity and task completion. There are a plethora of options in today’s marketplace. Ansible is a highly attractive alternative to its competitors because it is agentless and doesn’t require you to make manual changes to dozens of nodes. It’s convenient and easy-to-use, not to mention that the software is well-supported with numerous modules for scripting tasks and a development team eager to answer questions.

How Ansible Works

Ansible provides the framework to script your most common and repetitive tasks, into what they call “playbooks”. Once these playbooks are created, they can utilize available modules (ie. Yum or Apt modules), not only for Ansible, but for other modules, as well. These modules plug into available operating system tools to perform tasks on the nodes. If a module is not available, the playbooks can use command syntax to run. Basically, anything that would work on a command line of a node can be scripted into a playbook for Ansible.

How Rundeck Works

If you should decide to incorporate Ansible into your development teams toolbox, you should give serious consideration to using Rundeck in tandem. Rundeck provides the reporting, scheduling and organizational tool that your team needs to stay on-point. If you are a smaller business, you will see other alternatives in the marketplace, but they are cost restrictive and not as much of a “value purchase” as Rundeck.

While Ansible serves as the tool to help you create scripts, Rundeck gives you the slick-looking, front-end platform to make sense of it all. The ability to see historic views of each task, the end result of those tasks and options for job assignments are an effective way to keep your entire team in communication mode and knowing what the team gameplan is at all times.

Automation with Ansible

Learn to write and manage Ansible playbooks and automate system administration tools. Automation with Ansible I (DO407) is designed for system administrators who are intending to use Ansible for automation, configuration, and management. Learn how to install and configure Ansible, create and run playbooks to configure systems, and learn to manage inventories.

COURSE OVERVIEW

Through hands-on labs, students will learn to automate system administration tasks on managed hosts with Ansible, learn how to write Ansible playbooks to standardize task execution, centrally manage playbooks and schedule recurring execution through a web interface with Red Hat® Ansible Tower. Students will also learn to manage encryption for Ansible with Ansible Vault, deploy Ansible Tower and use it to manage systems, and use Ansible in a DevOps environment with Vagrant.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

Through hands-on labs, students will learn to automate system administration tasks on managed hosts with Ansible, learn how to write Ansible playbooks to standardize task execution, centrally manage playbooks and schedule recurring execution through a web interface with Red Hat® Ansible Tower. Students will also learn to manage encryption for Ansible with Ansible Vault, deploy Ansible Tower and use it to manage systems, and use Ansible in a DevOps environment with Vagrant.

Course content summary:

Install and troubleshoot Ansible on central nodes and managed hosts

Use Ansible to run ad-hoc commands and playbooks to automate tasks

Write effective Ansible playbooks

Protect encrypted data needed for tasks with Ansible Vault

Use Ansible Tower to more easily manage enterprise Ansible deployments

Work with Ansible in conjunction with Vagrant in a DevOps environment

1. Course Introduction
2. Introducing Ansible
   Terminology and architecture of Ansible
3. Deploying Ansible
   Install Ansible and run ad hoc commands
4. Implementing Playbooks

Write Ansible plays and execute a playbook

5. Managing Variables and Inclusions
   Variable scope and precedence, manage variables and facts in a play, and manage inclusions
6. Implementing Task Control
   Manage task control, handlers, and tags in Ansible playbooks
7. Implementing Jinja2 Templates
   Implement a Jinja2 template
8. Implementing Roles
   Create and manage roles
9. Configuring Complex Playbooks
   Configure connection types, delegations, and parallelism
10. Implementing Ansible Vault
    Manage encryption with Ansible Vaul
11. Troubleshooting Ansible
    Troubleshoot the Ansible control machine and managed nodes
12. Implementing Ansible Tower
    Implement Ansible Tower
13. Implementing Ansible in a DevOps Environment
    Implement Ansible in a DevOps environment using Vagrant
14. Comprehensive Review
    Review tasks

FOLLOW-ON COURSES

Red Hat Certificate of Expertise in Ansible Automation (EX407, EX407K) exam

The performance-based Red Hat Certified Specialist in Ansible Automation exam (EX407) tests your ability to use Ansible to automate the configuration of systems and applications.

Automation with Ansible II: Ansible Tower (DO409)

Designed for IT professionals who use Ansible and need to centrally manage their Ansible projects in a way that scales to large teams and complex enterprise installations using Red Hat Ansible Tower.

Impact on the organization

This course is intended to develop the skills needed to implement Ansible in an operations or cloud computing environment. These skills are suitable for organizations seeking to gain cost savings and operational efficiency by implementing the DevOps methodology with Ansible.

Red Hat has created this course in a way intended to benefit our customers, but each company and infrastructure is unique, and actual results or benefits may vary.

Impact on the individual

As a result of attending this course, students should be able to implement Ansible for the purpose of automation, configuration, and management in a DevOps environment.

Students should be able to demonstrate the following skills:

Use Ansible to automate system administration tasks on managed hosts.
Write Ansible Playbooks to standardize task executions.
Manage playbook execution centrally, using Ansible Tower.