Ansible for DevOps
$9.99
Minimum price
$9.99
Suggested price

Ansible for DevOps

Server and configuration management for humans
  • 48,553

    Readers

  • 468

    Pages

  • 91,481

    Words

  • English

  • PDF

  • EPUB

  • MOBI

  • WEB

About the Book

Ansible is a simple, but powerful, server and configuration management tool (with a few other tricks up its sleeve). This book helps those familiar with the command line and basic shell scripting start using Ansible to provision and manage anywhere from one to thousands of servers.

The book begins with fundamentals, like installing Ansible, setting up a basic inventory file, and basic concepts, then guides you through Ansible's many uses, including ad-hoc commands, basic and advanced playbooks, application deployments, multiple-provider server provisioning, and even Docker orchestration! Everything is explained with pertinent real-world examples, often using Vagrant-managed virtual machines.

Examples in the book are tested with the latest version of Ansible (2.x as of this writing).

About the Author

Jeff Geerling
Jeff Geerling

Jeff Geerling is a developer who has worked in programming and devops for companies with anywhere between one to thousands of servers. He also manages many virtual servers for services offered by Midwestern Mac, LLC, and has been using Ansible to manage infrastructure since early 2013.

Bundles that include this book

Vagrant Ansible
2 Books
$32.98
Suggested Price
$26.99
Bundle Price
Ansible Bundle
2 Books
$39.98
Suggested Price
$29.97
Bundle Price
Automated Servers
2 Books
$64.99
Suggested Price
$44.99
Bundle Price
PHP DevOps
2 Books
$34.98
Suggested Price
$19.99
Bundle Price

Table of Contents

  • Foreword
  • Preface
    • Second Edition
    • Who is this book for?
    • Typographic conventions
    • Please help improve this book!
      • Current Published Book Version Information
    • About the Author
  • Introduction
    • In the beginning, there were sysadmins
    • Modern infrastructure management
    • Ansible and Red Hat
    • Ansible Examples
    • Other resources
  • Chapter 1 - Getting Started with Ansible
    • Ansible and Infrastructure Management
      • On snowflakes and shell scripts
      • Configuration management
    • Installing Ansible
    • Creating a basic inventory file
    • Running your first Ad-Hoc Ansible command
    • Summary
  • Chapter 2 - Local Infrastructure Development: Ansible and Vagrant
    • Prototyping and testing with local virtual machines
    • Your first local server: Setting up Vagrant
    • Using Ansible with Vagrant
    • Your first Ansible playbook
    • Cleaning Up
    • Summary
  • Chapter 3 - Ad-Hoc Commands
    • Conducting an orchestra
    • Build infrastructure with Vagrant for testing
    • Inventory file for multiple servers
    • Your first ad-hoc commands
      • Discover Ansible’s parallel nature
      • Learning about your environment
      • Make changes using Ansible modules
    • Configure groups of servers, or individual servers
      • Configure the Application servers
      • Configure the Database servers
      • Make changes to just one server
    • Manage users and groups
    • Manage packages
    • Manage files and directories
      • Get information about a file
      • Copy a file to the servers
      • Retrieve a file from the servers
      • Create directories and files
      • Delete directories and files
    • Run operations in the background
      • Update servers asynchronously with asynchronous jobs
    • Check log files
    • Manage cron jobs
    • Deploy a version-controlled application
    • Ansible’s SSH connection history
      • Paramiko
      • OpenSSH (default)
      • Faster OpenSSH with Pipelining
    • Summary
  • Chapter 4 - Ansible Playbooks
    • Power plays
    • Running Playbooks with ansible-playbook
      • Limiting playbooks to particular hosts and groups
      • Setting user and sudo options with ansible-playbook
      • Other options for ansible-playbook
    • Real-world playbook: CentOS Node.js app server
      • Add extra repositories
      • Deploy a Node.js app
      • Launch a Node.js app
      • Node.js app server summary
    • Real-world playbook: Ubuntu LAMP server with Drupal
      • Include a variables file, and discover pre_tasks and handlers
      • Basic LAMP server setup
      • Configure Apache
      • Configure PHP with lineinfile
      • Configure MySQL
      • Install Composer
      • Create a Drupal project with Composer
      • Install Drupal with Drush
      • Drupal LAMP server summary
    • Real-world playbook: Ubuntu server with Solr
      • Include a variables file, and more pre_tasks
      • Install Java
      • Install Apache Solr
      • Apache Solr server summary
    • Summary
  • Chapter 5 - Ansible Playbooks - Beyond the Basics
    • Handlers
    • Environment variables
      • Per-task environment variables
    • Variables
      • Playbook Variables
      • Inventory variables
      • Registered Variables
      • Accessing Variables
      • Host and Group variables
        • Automatically-loaded group_vars and host_vars
        • Magic variables with host and group variables and information
      • Facts (Variables derived from system information)
        • Local Facts (Facts.d)
      • Ansible Vault - Keeping secrets secret
      • Variable Precedence
    • If/then/when - Conditionals
      • Jinja Expressions, Python built-ins, and Logic
      • register
      • when
      • changed_when and failed_when
      • ignore_errors
    • Delegation, Local Actions, and Pauses
      • Pausing playbook execution with wait_for
      • Running an entire playbook locally
    • Prompts
    • Tags
    • Blocks
    • Summary
  • Chapter 6 - Playbook Organization - Roles, Includes, and Imports
    • Imports
      • Includes
      • Dynamic includes
      • Handler imports and includes
      • Playbook imports
      • Complete includes example
    • Roles
      • Role scaffolding
      • Building your first role
      • More flexibility with role vars and defaults
      • Other role parts: handlers, files, and templates
        • Handlers
        • Files and Templates
      • Organizing more complex and cross-platform roles
    • Ansible Galaxy
      • Getting roles from Galaxy
        • Using role requirements files to manage dependencies
      • A LAMP server in nine lines of YAML
      • A Solr server in seven lines of YAML
      • Helpful Galaxy commands
      • Contributing to Ansible Galaxy
    • Summary
  • Chapter 7 - Ansible Plugins and Content Collections
    • Creating our first Ansible Plugin — A Jinja Filter
    • The history of Ansible Content Collections
    • The Anatomy of a Collection
      • Putting our Plugin into a Collection
      • Going deeper developing collections
    • Collections on Automation Hub and Ansible Galaxy
      • Collection version constraints
      • Where are collections installed?
    • Summary
  • Chapter 8 - Inventories
    • A real-world web application server inventory
      • Non-prod environments, separate inventory files
    • Inventory variables
      • host_vars
      • group_vars
    • Ephemeral infrastructure: Dynamic inventory
      • Dynamic inventory with DigitalOcean
        • DigitalOcean account prerequisites
        • Connecting to your DigitalOcean account
        • Creating a droplet with Ansible
        • DigitalOcean dynamic inventory with digital_ocean.py
      • Dynamic inventory with AWS
      • Inventory on-the-fly: add_host and group_by
      • Multiple inventory sources - mixing static and dynamic inventories
      • Creating custom dynamic inventories
        • Building a Custom Dynamic Inventory in Python
        • Building a Custom Dynamic Inventory in PHP
        • Managing a PaaS with a Custom Dynamic Inventory
    • Summary
  • Chapter 9 - Ansible Cookbooks
    • Highly-Available Infrastructure with Ansible
      • Directory Structure
      • Individual Server Playbooks
      • Main Playbook for Configuring All Servers
      • Getting the required roles
      • Vagrantfile for Local Infrastructure via VirtualBox
      • Provisioner Configuration: DigitalOcean
      • Provisioner Configuration: Amazon Web Services (EC2)
        • AWS EC2 Dynamic inventory plugin
      • Summary
    • ELK Logging with Ansible
      • ELK Playbook
      • Forwarding Logs from Other Servers
      • Summary
    • GlusterFS Distributed File System Configuration with Ansible
      • Configuring Gluster - Basic Overview
      • Configuring Gluster with Ansible
      • Summary
    • Mac Provisioning with Ansible and Homebrew
      • Running Ansible playbooks locally
      • Automating Homebrew package and app management
      • Configuring Mac OS X through dotfiles
      • Summary
  • Chapter 10 - Deployments with Ansible
    • Deployment strategies
    • Simple single-server deployments
      • Provisioning a Ruby on Rails server
      • Deploying a Rails app to the server
      • Provisioning and Deploying the Rails App
      • Deploying application updates
    • Zero-downtime multi-server deployments
      • Ensuring zero downtime with serial and integration tests
      • Deploying to app servers behind a load balancer
    • Capistrano-style and blue-green deployments
    • Additional Deployment Features
    • Summary
  • Chapter 11 - Server Security and Ansible
    • A brief history of SSH and remote access
      • Telnet
      • rlogin, rsh and rcp
      • SSH
      • The evolution of SSH and the future of remote access
    • Use secure and encrypted communication
    • Disable root login and use sudo
    • Remove unused software, open only required ports
    • Use the principle of least privilege
      • User account configuration
      • File permissions
    • Update the OS and installed software
      • Automating updates
      • Automating updates for RHEL systems
      • Automating updates for Debian-based systems
    • Use a properly-configured firewall
      • Configuring a firewall with ufw on Debian or Ubuntu
      • Configuring a firewall with firewalld on RHEL, Fedora, or CentOS
    • Make sure log files are populated and rotated
    • Monitor logins and block suspect IP addresses
    • Use SELinux (Security-Enhanced Linux) or AppArmor
    • Summary and further reading
  • Chapter 12 - Automating Your Automation with Ansible Tower and CI/CD
    •  
      • Installing Ansible AWX
      • Using AWX
      • Uninstalling AWX
      • Other Tower Features of Note
      • Tower Alternatives
    • Jenkins CI
      • Build a local Jenkins server with Ansible
      • Create an Ansible playbook on the Jenkins server
      • Create a Jenkins job to run an Ansible Playbook
    • Summary
  • Chapter 13 - Testing and CI for Ansible Content
    • Unit, Integration, and Functional Testing
    • Debugging and Asserting
      •  
        • The debug module
      • The fail and assert modules
    • Linting YAML with yamllint
    • Performing a --syntax-check
    • Linting Ansible content with ansible-lint
    • Automated testing and development with Molecule
      • Testing a role with Molecule
      • Testing a playbook with Molecule
        • Adjusting Molecule to use more flexible test containers
        • Verifying a playbook with Molecule
        • Adding lint configuration to Molecule
      • Molecule Summary
    • Running your playbook in check mode
    • Automated testing on GitHub using GitHub Actions
      • Automated testing in other CI environments
      • Real-world examples
    • Functional testing using serverspec or testinfra
    • Summary
  • Chapter 14 - Automating HTTPS and TLS Certificates
    • Generating Self-Signed Certificates with Ansible
      • Idempotent Nginx HTTPS playbook with a self-signed cert
    • Automating Let’s Encrypt with Ansible for free Certs
      • Use Galaxy roles to get things done faster
      • Create the playbook
      • Create a server and configure DNS
      • Point the playbook inventory at the server
      • Access your server over HTTPS!
    • Configuring Nginx to proxy HTTP traffic and serve it over HTTPS
      • Modify the Nginx configuration to proxy traffic
    • Summary
  • Chapter 15 - Docker and Ansible
    • A brief introduction to Docker containers
    • Using Ansible to build and manage containers
    • Building a Flask app with Ansible and Docker
      • Data storage container
      • Flask container
      • MySQL container
      • Ship it!
    • Building containers with Ansible from the outside
      • Build a Hubot Slack bot container with ansible_connection: docker
        • Hubot and Slack
        • Building a Docker container with Ansible
        • Building the hubot-slack role
        • Building and running the Hubot Slack bot container
      • Summary
    • Summary
  • Afterword
  • Appendix A - Using Ansible on Windows workstations
    • Method 1 - Use the Windows Subsystem for Linux
      • Installing Ansible inside WSL
    • Method 2 - When WSL is not an option
      • Prerequisites
      • Set up an Ubuntu Linux Virtual Machine
      • Log into the Virtual Machine
      • Install Ansible
    • Summary
  • Appendix B - Ansible Best Practices and Conventions
    • Playbook Organization
      • Write comments and use name liberally
      • Include related variables and tasks
      • Use Roles to bundle logical groupings of configuration
      • Use role defaults and vars correctly
    • YAML Conventions and Best Practices
      • YAML for Ansible tasks
      • Three ways to format Ansible tasks
        • Shorthand/one-line (key=value)
        • Structured map/multi-line (key:value)
        • Folded scalars/multi-line (>)
      • Using | to format multiline variables
    • Using ansible-playbook
    • Use Ansible Tower
    • Install Galaxy dependencies local to your playbook
      • Discriminate wisely when choosing community dependencies
    • Specify --forks for playbooks running on > 5 servers
    • Use Ansible’s Configuration file
    • Summary
  • Notes

Other books by this author

Ansible for Kubernetes
Jeff Geerling

Authors have earned$9,695,075writing, publishing and selling on Leanpub, earning 80% royalties while saving up to 25 million pounds of CO2 and up to 46,000 trees.

Learn more about writing on Leanpub

The Leanpub 45-day 100% Happiness Guarantee

Within 45 days of purchase you can get a 100% refund on any Leanpub purchase, in two clicks.

See full terms

Free Updates. DRM Free.

If you buy a Leanpub book, you get free updates for as long as the author updates the book! Many authors use Leanpub to publish their books in-progress, while they are writing them. All readers get free updates, regardless of when they bought the book or how much they paid (including free).

Most Leanpub books are available in PDF (for computers), EPUB (for phones and tablets) and MOBI (for Kindle). The formats that a book includes are shown at the top right corner of this page.

Finally, Leanpub books don't have any DRM copy-protection nonsense, so you can easily read them on any supported device.

Learn more about Leanpub's ebook formats and where to read them

Write and Publish on Leanpub

You can use Leanpub to easily write, publish and sell in-progress and completed ebooks and online courses! Leanpub is a powerful platform for serious authors, combining a simple, elegant writing and publishing workflow with a store focused on selling in-progress ebooks. Leanpub is a magical typewriter for authors: just write in plain text, and to publish your ebook, just click a button. It really is that easy.

Learn more about writing on Leanpub

Top Books

  1. #1

    Ansible for Kubernetes

    Jeff Geerling

    Ansible is a powerful infrastructure automation tool. Kubernetes is a powerful application deployment platform. Learn how to use these tools to automate massively-scalable, highly-available infrastructure.

  2. #2

    Practical FP in Scala: A hands-on approach

    Gabriel Volpe

    A practical book aimed for those familiar with functional programming in Scala who are yet not confident about architecting an application from scratch.

    Together, we will develop a purely functional application using the best libraries in the Cats ecosystem, while learning about design patterns and best practices.

  3. #3

    Functional Design and Architecture

    Alexander Granin

    Software Design in Functional Programming, Design Patterns and Practices, Methodologies and Application Architectures. How to build real software in Haskell with less efforts and low risks. The first complete source of knowledge.

  4. #4

    Production Haskell

    Matt Parsons

    Are you excited about Haskell, but don't know where to begin? Are you thrilled by the technical advantages, but worried about the unknown pitfalls? This book has you covered.

  5. #5

    Tame your Work Flow

    Steve Tendon and Daniel Doiron

    Do you need a high performance enterprise governance approach improving management, execution and delivery while dealing with multiple projects/products, events, stakeholders and teams? Giving you better bottom line results, faster time to market, less work, better predictability, happier employees, and delighted clients? Then learn about TameFlow!

  6. #6

    Ansible for DevOps

    Jeff Geerling

    Ansible is a simple, but powerful, server and configuration management tool. Learn to use Ansible effectively, whether you manage one server—or thousands.

  7. #7

    Machine Learning Engineering

    Andriy Burkov

    "If you intend to use machine learning to solve business problems at scale, I'm delighted you got your hands on this book."

    —Cassie Kozyrkov, Chief Decision Scientist at Google

    "Foundational work about the reality of building machine learning models in production."

    —Karolis Urbonas, Head of Machine Learning and Science at Amazon

  8. #8

    C++ Best Practices

    Jason Turner

    Level up your C++, get the tools working for you, eliminate common problems, and move on to more exciting things!

  9. #9

    Composing Software

    Eric Elliott

    All software design is composition: the act of breaking complex problems down into smaller problems and composing those solutions. Most developers have a limited understanding of compositional techniques. It's time for that to change.

  10. #10

    El Manual del Manager

    Keyvan Akbary, Félix López, and Álvaro Salazar

    ¿Has deseado alguna vez el haber tenido una buena introducción al rol del Engineering Manager? En este libro aprenderás lo necesario para ejercer el rol de una manera efectiva: Expectativas y Responsabilidades del Rol, 1-1s, Ayudar a Crecer, Objetivos, Planes de Carrera, Cultura, Feedback, Contratación, Cultura de Producto y mucho más.

Top Bundles

  1. #1

    The Tester's Library

    8 Books

    The Tester's Library consists of eight five-star books that every software tester should read and re-read. As bound books, this collection would cost over $200. Even as e-books, their price would exceed $80, but in this bundle, their cost is only $49.99. Here are the books, and why they should be in your library: Perfect Software and Other...
  2. #2

    agile

    11 Books

    In this bundle, you will find 10 different agile books. They are about different aspects of being agile. - finding a job - doing coding dojo's - Retrospectives - Personal kanban - a non-typical coaching book and even a book that gives you an insight in the lives of some agile people.
  3. #3

    WTFlop 6M + HU - Beta Bundle

    6 Books

  4. #4

    Marionette.js A to Z

    3 Books

    Marionette.js has become a popular Backbone-based javascript library, because it helps you avoid boiler-plate code and focus on what makes your app special. But how do you get started?Whether you want to finally get started with dynamic client-side programming (like one reader did), or are an experienced front-end dev who has inherited a...
  5. #5

    Build A Better Backbone App

    3 Books

    The best way to learn new development skills is through experience, but that takes time you don't have.Get the best of both worlds with this bundle: you'll learn how to produce modern web applications by learning from experienced developers like Derick Bailey and David Sulc. BackboneJS is one of the favorite tools on the web today, but it...
  6. #6

    General Systems Thinker Bundle

    5 Books

    The General Systems Thinker Bundle is just that: a bundle of five books to advance the reader one giant step toward improved thinking, based on General Systems principles. Four of the books are the complete General Systems Series. The fifth is fictional piece which shows some general systems thinkers in action. It's a mystery in which a group of...
  7. #7

    Experiential Learning Bundle

    4 Books

    This bundle provides all four volumes of the popular Experiential Learning Series at a savings of $20 over the price if purchased separately.
  8. #8

    Ansible Bundle

    2 Books

    After getting up and running with Ansible in Jeff Geerling's Ansible for DevOps, strengthen your skills managing tens to thousands of instances and services in Amazon's AWS cloud with Yan Kurniawan's Ansible for AWS.
  9. #9

    Learn ECMAScript 6 inside and out

    2 Books

    For any technology, it helps to get multiple points of view on the functionality to get the best possible understanding. For ECMAScript 6/2015, no two resources are recommended more frequently thanExploring ES6by Dr. Axel Rauschmayer andUnderstanding ECMAScript 6by Nicholas C. Zakas. These two points of view, investigating the specification and...
  10. #10

    Software architecture, for systems old and new

    2 Books

    This bundle includes books about hands-on software architecture.

Publish Early, Publish Often

  • Path
  • There are many paths, but the one you're on right now on Leanpub is:
  • › Ansible-for-devops

Leanpub is copyright © 2010-2020 Ruboss Technology Corp. All rights reserved.