Intro to Ansible

Overview

This course features Coursera Coach! A smarter way to learn with interactive, real-time conversations that help you test your knowledge, challenge assumptions, and deepen your understanding as you progress through the course. Learn the fundamentals of Ansible and how to use it to automate and manage your infrastructure. You'll begin by setting up Ansible on your control machine and progressing through creating reproducible configurations, installing packages, managing users, and services. As you advance, you'll dive into more complex tasks like creating Ansible playbooks, handling variables, using control flow, and templating configurations. The course also covers organizing your playbooks with roles for better reusability and efficiency. From creating a static site deployment using NGINX to setting up a Network File System (NFS), you will gain hands-on experience with real-world use cases. This course is perfect for anyone looking to streamline system administration tasks, automate repetitive processes, and master the power of Ansible for configuration management.

Syllabus

Introduction and Setup

In this module, we will introduce Ansible, a powerful automation tool for managing infrastructure. You’ll learn how to set up Ansible on your control machine, create a test environment using Vagrant and VirtualBox, and run basic Ansible commands to manage systems efficiently.

Basic Operations

In this module, we will dive into Ansible's core functionality, focusing on package installation, user management, and service control. You'll gain hands-on experience with basic system administration tasks, learning the best practices and pitfalls when automating these operations with Ansible.

Core Concepts

In this module, we will explore advanced Ansible concepts, including playbooks, tasks, and the integration of dynamic variables. You will also learn how to use Jinja2 templating, loops, and decision-making techniques to enhance the flexibility and functionality of your automation scripts.

Working with Roles

In this module, we will focus on organizing playbooks into roles for better reusability and structure. You'll learn how to use tasks, handlers, and templates within roles to create modular and scalable automation solutions.

Static Site Deployment

In this module, we will cover how to deploy a static site using Ansible, including setting up and configuring NGINX. You'll learn to automate the entire deployment process and structure it into reusable roles for future projects.

Network File System (NFS) Setup

In this module, we will walk through the process of planning, setting up, and automating NFS server and client configurations using Ansible. You'll learn how to structure these tasks into roles for easier management and scalability.