Set Up and Manage a Multi-Node Environment with Ansible

Here are the initial instructions and explanation of the lab environment. Read this while your environment is busy creating itself from nothing. Yes, this violates physics; we know. How fun!

You will first learn how to manage an Ansible control node and a managed node by establishing secure communication between them. You will enable password authentication on the managed hosts by modifying the SSH daemon configuration file. Then, you will configure "passwordless" authentication by generating an SSH key and setting up SSH key-based authentication. Finally, you will then verify the connection between the host and the node.

Learn how to automate key system administration tasks on managed hosts using Ansible. You will create and execute Ansible playbooks to check system updates, configure users and groups, manage firewall settings, and control system services. Additionally, you will verify configurations using ad-hoc commands.

In this challenge, you will create an Ansible playbook to automate the deployment of the Apache web server across managed nodes. You will configure virtual hosts using Jinja2 templates, ensuring that each host serves static content from a specified document root. Additionally, you will implement service management to ensure that Apache starts automatically after a reboot. Finally, you will verify the deployment by accessing the configured web servers through a browser, confirming that the virtual hosts are correctly set up and serving content.

Welcome to the final challenge! This is your last chance to experiment in the environment. Clicking Finish Lab will end this little world that flittered into existence just for you.