Ansible Roles and Variables

Configuring Ansible, Provisioning

AWS Resources

Learning Outcome

Topic Name-Recall(Slide3)

Previously, we learned about Ansible roles, variables, and templates used for organizing and reusing automation tasks.

Hook/Story/Analogy(Slide 4)

Imagine a remote control system that can set up servers, networks, and storage in the cloud without manually logging into each service.

Transition from Analogy to Technical Concept(Slide 5)

Ansible can be configured to connect with cloud platforms like Amazon Web Services and automatically provision infrastructure resources.

Configuring Ansible

Before using Ansible to manage infrastructure, the control node must be configured properly.

Steps to Configure AnsibleSteps to Configure Ansible

1. Install Ansible

Ansible is installed on the control node, which is the system that manages automation tasks.

Example installation on Ubuntu:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install ansible

2. Verify Ansible Installation

After installation, verify Ansible using:

ansible --version

This confirms that Ansible is installed and ready to use.

3. Configure Inventory

The inventory file contains the list of managed hosts.

Example inventory:

[webservers]

192.168.1.10

192.168.1.11

This tells Ansible which servers should receive automation tasks.

4. Configure SSH Access

Ansible connects to managed nodes using SSH.

The control node must have SSH access to the target servers.

Example:

ssh user@server-ip

This ensures the control node can communicate with managed nodes.

Provisioning AWS Resources Using Ansible

Ansible can also automate cloud infrastructure provisioning.

It can create resources such as:

• Virtual machines
   

• Storage buckets
   

• Networking components

These resources can be provisioned on Amazon Web Services.

Required Configuration for AWS

To interact with AWS, Ansible requires:

• AWS credentials
   

• Python libraries for AWS integration
   

• Appropriate modules for AWS services

Ansible uses AWS modules to interact with cloud services.

Example: Creating an EC2 Instance

Example Ansible task to create an instance using Amazon EC2:

- name: Launch EC2 instance

 hosts: localhost

 tasks:

   - name: Create EC2 instance

     ec2:

       key_name: mykey

       instance_type: t2.micro

       image: ami-123456

       region: us-east-1

This task instructs Ansible to create an EC2 instance in AWS

Benefits of Using Ansible for AWS Provisioning

Using Ansible with AWS provides several advantages:

• Automates infrastructure creation
   

• Reduces manual cloud configuration
   

• Ensures consistent infrastructure setups
   

• Allows infrastructure management using code
   

Key Points

Important steps for configuring Ansible:

• Install Ansible on the control node
   

• Configure the inventory file
   

• Set up SSH access for managed nodes
   

• Use AWS modules to provision cloud resources

Summary

Where is Ansible installed in the architecture?

Where is Ansible installed in the architecture?