Getting Started with Ansible

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Getting Started with Ansible

The very first step to harnessing the power of Ansible is configuring your environment. This activity goes over installing Ansible on a control node and configuring two managed servers for use with Ansible. We will also create a simple inventory and run an Ansible command to verify our configuration is correct. *This course is not approved or sponsored by Red Hat.*

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Lab Info

Level

Intermediate

Last updated

Sep 25, 2025

Duration

30m

Challenge

Install Ansible on the control node.

To install Ansible on the control node, run sudo yum install ansible.
Challenge

Configure the `ansible` user on the control node for ssh shared key access to managed nodes. Do not use a passphrase for the key pair.
1. To create a keypair for the ansible user on the control host, run the following:
- sudo su - ansible
- ssh-keygen (accept all defaults: press enter for each prompt)
- Copy the public key to both node1 and node2.
- As the ansible user on the control host:
  
  ssh-copy-id node1 (accept the host key if prompted, authenticate as ansible user)
  
  ssh-copy-id node2 (accept the host key if prompted, authenticate as ansible user)
Challenge

Create a simple Ansible inventory on the control node in `/home/ansible/inventory` containing `node1` and `node2`.
- On the control host:
1. sudo su - ansible (if not already ansible user)
- touch /home/ansible/inventory
- echo "node1" >> /home/ansible/inventory
- echo "node2" >> /home/ansible/inventory
Challenge

Configure sudo access for Ansible on `node1` and `node2` such that Ansible may use sudo for any command with no password prompt.
- Log in to node1 as cloud_user and edit the sudoers file to contain appropriate access for the ansible user:
  
  ssh cloud_user@node1
  
  sudo visudo
  
  Add the following line to the file and save:
  
  ansible ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL
- Repeate these steps for node2.
Challenge

Verify each managed node is able to be accessed by Ansible from the control node using the `ping` module. Redirect the output of a successful command to `/home/ansible/output`.
- To verify each node, run the following as the ansible user from the control host:
  
  ansible -i /home/ansible/inventory node1 -m ping
  
  ansible -i /home/ansible/inventory node2 -m ping
- To redirect output of a successful command to /home/ansible/output:
  
  ansible -i /home/ansible/inventory node1 -m ping > /home/ansible/output

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