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Day 55 & 56: Configuration Management with Ansible

Day 55 & 56: Configuration Management with Ansible

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Arjun Menon
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Table of contents

Introduction

Ansible is a powerful open-source automation tool that simplifies IT infrastructure management and application deployment. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the process of setting up Ansible on a master EC2 instance and using it to ping two host instances. Additionally, we will cover some essential Ansible ad-hoc commands.

Prerequisites

  1. EC2 Instances:

    • Create three EC2 instances on Amazon AWS: one as the Ansible master and two as hosts.

  2. SSH to Master Instance:

    • Connect to the Ansible master instance using SSH.
ssh -i "your-key.pem" ubuntu@your-master-ip

Installing Ansible

  1. Install Ansible:

    • Add the Ansible repository and install Ansible.
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ansible/ansible
sudo apt update
sudo apt install ansible

  1. Verify Installation:

    • Confirm that Ansible is installed successfully.
ansible --version

Setting Up Ansible Configuration

  1. Transfer PEM File:

    • Copy the PEM file from your local machine to the master instance.
scp -i "your-key.pem" your-key.pem ubuntu@your-master-ip:/home/ubuntu/keys

  1. Edit Ansible Hosts File:

    • Open the Ansible hosts file for editing.
sudo vim /etc/ansible/hosts

  1. Configure Hosts:

    • Add the following lines to the hosts file to define the hosts in a group named 'servers.'
[servers]
host_1 ansible_host=your-host-1-ip
host_2 ansible_host=your-host-2-ip

[all:vars]
ansible_user=ubuntu
ansible_ssh_private_key_file=/home/ubuntu/keys/your-key.pem
ansible_python_interpreter=/usr/bin/python3

  1. Change PEM File Permissions:

    • Restrict permissions on the PEM file.
chmod 400 your-key.pem

  1. Ping Hosts:

    • Verify connectivity by pinging the hosts in the 'servers' group.
ansible -m ping servers
  • The ping should be successful.

Ansible Ad-hoc Commands

Ping Multiple Servers

  1. Ad-hoc Ping Command:

    • Use the following Ansible ad-hoc command to ping three servers from the inventory file.
ansible -m ping -i /etc/ansible/hosts host_1 host_2 another_host

Check Uptime

  1. Ad-hoc Uptime Command:

    • Check the uptime of the servers using the ad-hoc command.
ansible -m command -a "uptime" -i /etc/ansible/hosts servers

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have successfully configured Ansible on a master EC2 instance and pinged two host instances. Additionally, you've learned how to execute Ansible ad-hoc commands to perform tasks on multiple servers. Ansible's simplicity and power make it an invaluable tool for automating infrastructure management tasks. Explore further to harness its full potential in your environment.

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