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Quick Start

Quick Start

Learn core Ansible concepts and automation patterns to build infrastructure automation. This Quick Start teaches essential Ansible concepts.

🎯 What You’ll Learn

By the end of this tutorial, you’ll understand:

  • Inventory management
  • Playbooks, tasks, and modules
  • Variables and templates
  • Roles and best practices

📋 Prerequisites

  • Ansible installed (see Initial Setup)
  • Basic Linux command line knowledge

📦 Inventory

Create inventory.ini:

[webservers]
web1 ansible_host=192.168.1.10
web2 ansible_host=192.168.1.11

[databases]
db1 ansible_host=192.168.1.20

[all:vars]
ansible_user=ubuntu
ansible_ssh_private_key_file=~/.ssh/id_rsa

🔧 Playbooks and Tasks 

---
- name: Configure Web Servers
  hosts: webservers
  become: yes
  tasks:
    - name: Install nginx
      ansible.builtin.apt:
        name: nginx
        state: present
        update_cache: yes

    - name: Start nginx service
      ansible.builtin.service:
        name: nginx
        state: started
        enabled: yes

    - name: Copy config file
      ansible.builtin.copy:
        src: nginx.conf
        dest: /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
        owner: root
        group: root
        mode: "0644"
      notify: Restart nginx

  handlers:
    - name: Restart nginx
      ansible.builtin.service:
        name: nginx
        state: restarted

📊 Variables and Templates 

---
- name: Deploy Application
  hosts: webservers
  vars:
    app_name: myapp
    app_port: 8080
  tasks:
    - name: Deploy from template
      ansible.builtin.template:
        src: app.conf.j2
        dest: "/etc/{{ app_name }}/config.conf"

🎨 Roles 

ansible-galaxy init webserver

# Creates:
webserver/
├── tasks/
│   └── main.yml
├── handlers/
│   └── main.yml
├── templates/
├── files/
├── vars/
│   └── main.yml
└── defaults/
    └── main.yml

✅ Next Steps

You now understand Ansible essentials! To deepen your knowledge:

  1. Try the examples: Execute each playbook
  2. Explore By Example: Ansible By Example

🎯 Self-Assessment

After completing this Quick Start, you should be able to:

  • Define inventory files
  • Write playbooks with tasks and modules
  • Use variables and templates
  • Understand handlers and notifications
  • Organize automation with roles
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Initial Setup