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Lab 26: Ansible Setup and Configuration Management - 1

Objective

  • Install Ansible on the control node (local VM or cloud instance).
  • Configure passwordless SSH authentication.
  • Run first Ansible command.
  • Write and execute a simple playbook to deploy a web server.

Step 1: Install Ansible on Control Node

sudo apt update
sudo apt install ansible -y
ansible --version

sudo yum install epel-release -y
sudo yum install ansible -y

brew install ansible
  • Use WSL2 (Ubuntu) and follow Linux steps.
  • Or use Docker container:
docker run -it --rm williamyeh/ansible ansible --version

Step 2: Configure Target Node(s)

  • Create a second VM (Ubuntu/EC2) as managed node.
  • Ensure it has an SSH server installed:
sudo apt install openssh-server -y

Step 3: Setup SSH Key Authentication

On control node:

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096
ssh-copy-id your_user_name@target-node-ip

# For Virtual Machines on AWS and using Amazon Linux the username is 'ec2-user`
# For Virtual Machines on AWS and using Ubunut the username is 'ubuntu'

Test:

ssh your_user_name@target-node-ip

(No password should be asked now ✅).

Step 4: Verify Setup with Ansible Ad-hoc Command

Create an inventory file inventory.ini:

[web]
192.168.1.20 ansible_user=ubuntu

Run ping:

ansible -i inventory.ini all -m ping

Expected output:

192.168.1.20 | SUCCESS => {
    "changed": false,
    "ping": "pong"
}

Step 5: Write a Simple Playbook

File: webserver.yml

---
- name: Install and start Apache web server
  hosts: web
  become: yes
  tasks:
    - name: Install Apache
      apt:
        name: apache2
        state: present
        update_cache: yes

    - name: Ensure Apache is running
      service:
        name: apache2
        state: started
        enabled: yes

Run it:

ansible-playbook -i inventory.ini webserver.yml

Step 6: Verify Web Server

  • On target node:

systemctl status apache2
* From browser: http://<target-node-ip> → should show Apache default page.

✅ Checkpoint: Students must take a screenshot of the Apache welcome page.