Exchange SSH Keys and Run Ansible Playbooks

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Exchange SSH Keys and Run Ansible Playbooks

Ansible allows you to manage the configuration of your hardware and software. Since Ansible is agentless, it can be run from any system that has account credentials on any other system using standard SSH credentials and commands. In this hands-on lab, we will practice running a small playbook on a remote host to install a web server and then test it on our primary server.

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Lab Info

Level

Intermediate

Last updated

Sep 23, 2025

Duration

1h 0m

Challenge

Create the SSH Keys for Exchanging between Master and Client Servers
1. Create a new user called ansible and set the password.
```
adduser ansible
passwd ansible
```
1. Add the ansible user to the sudoers file and make sure that it can use sudo without a password.
```
visudo
```
1. While logged in as ansible user, create the necessary keys.
```
ssh-keygen
```
1. Exchange the key with the remote client server.
```
ssh-copy-id 10.0.1.101
```
1. Add the client to the Ansible host file.
```
vi /etc/ansible/hosts
```
Challenge

Install the Elinks Package on the Remote Client Server
1. Run the playbook on the master.
```
ansible-playbook /home/cloud_user/playbook.yml
```
1. Once the software is installed (it should show a success message), log in to the remote system and run the following:
```
elinks
```
1. You should see an About screen on your console.

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