Complete Guide to Configuration Management Using Ansible

8h 8mBeginner2025-07-01

Authors

Pearson

Sander van Vugt

Course details

Ansible is the leading solution for configuration management. It can be used to automate the management of many different assets in an IT environment, including Linux, Windows, cloud, network devices, and more. In this course, join instructor Sander van Vugt as he shows you how to get up to speed quickly with Ansible’s core concepts and functionalities. Learn what Ansible is and how to modify and organize your Ansible setup. Explore playbooks, modules, content collections, and how to use each with variables and conditionals. Along the way, find out how to manage files with Jinja2 templates and Ansible roles to include standardized components. By the end of this course, you’ll also be prepared to leverage some of Ansible’s more advanced features, including filters and plugins, to extend functionality with ease.

Skills covered

AnsibleRed HatDevOps ToolsDevOps FoundationsDevOpsOne-Off

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - Ansible core concepts and advanced features - Introduction

Lesson 1 - What Is Ansible

02 - Module 1 - Fundamentals introduction
03 - Learning objectives
04 - What is configuration management
05 - Solutions for configuration management
06 - Configuration as code and devOps
07 - Ansible components
08 - Working with Ansible in small environments
09 - Working with Ansible in large environments

Lesson 2 - Getting Started

10 - Learning objectives
11 - Ansible infrastructure components
12 - Setting up a RHEL Ansible control node
13 - Setting up an Ubuntu Ansible control node
14 - Setting up an Ansible control node with Python pip
15 - Requirements for managing assets
16 - Modules and collections
17 - Using ansible to configure managed nodes, part 1
18 - Using ansible to configure managed nodes, part 2
19 - Using ansible to configure managed nodes, part 3
20 - Defining default settings in ansible.cfg
21 - Managing windows
22 - Using macOS as a control node
23 - Lesson 2 lab - Setting up an Ansible-managed environment
24 - Lesson 2 lab solution - Setting up an Ansible-managed environment

Lesson 3 - Using Ansible in Large Environments

25 - Learning objectives
26 - Centralizing configuration as code using git
27 - Using AWX and ansible automation platform
28 - Configuring ansible-navigator
29 - Working with ansible-navigator
30 - Providing required collections for ansible-navigator
31 - Ansible-navigator configuration
32 - Lesson 3 lab - Using ansible-navigator
33 - Lesson 3 lab solution - Using ansible-navigator

Lesson 4 - Using Ad-Hoc Commands

34 - Learning objectives
35 - Ad-hoc commands versus playbooks
36 - Using ansible content collections
37 - Exploring essential ansible modules
38 - Using module documentation
39 - Using ansible in an idempotent way
40 - Lesson 4 lab - Using Ad-hoc commands
41 - Lesson 4 lab solution - Using Ad-hoc commands

Lesson 5 - Using Ansible Playbooks

42 - Learning objectives
43 - Understanding playbook structure
44 - Running your first playbook
45 - Understanding task execution and errors
46 - Using ansible-navigator to run playbooks
47 - Lesson 5 lab - Using a playbook to deploy a webserver
48 - Lesson 5 lab solution - Using a playbook to deploy a webserver

Lesson 6 - Working with Variables

49 - Module 2 - Developing flexible playbooks introduction
50 - Learning objectives
51 - Separating code from site-specific configuration
52 - Using variables in a playbook
53 - Understanding where to define your variables
54 - Using ansible facts
55 - Using set fact
56 - Understanding different notations for facts and variables
57 - Using multi-valued variables
58 - Using magic variables
59 - Using register
60 - Using vault to store sensitive information
61 - Lesson 6 lab - Making playbooks flexible with variables
62 - Lesson 6 lab solution - Making playbooks flexible with variables

Lesson 7 - Using Conditionals

63 - Learning objectives
64 - Conditionals overview
65 - Using loop to process a list of items
66 - Using handlers for conditional task execution
67 - Using when to run tasks in specific situations
68 - Using register to work with task results
69 - Using blocks
70 - Managing failure with the fail module
71 - Using assert
72 - Lesson 7 lab - Using when to create idempotency
73 - Lesson 7 lab solution - Using when to create idempotency

Lesson 8 - Managing Files

74 - Learning objectives
75 - Manipulating files
76 - Changing file contents
77 - Using the find module
78 - Using templates
79 - Using conditional statements in templates
80 - Lesson 8 lab - Working with files
81 - Lesson 8 lab solution - Working with files

Lesson 9 - Using Roles

82 - Learning objectives
83 - Understanding and using roles
84 - Working with ansible-galaxy
85 - How roles are organized
86 - Writing custom roles
87 - Using system roles
88 - Lesson 9 lab - Working with roles
89 - Lesson 9 lab solution - Working with roles

Lesson 10 - Ansible Best Practices and Optimization

90 - Module 3 - Advanced ansible management introduction
91 - Learning objectives
92 - Using include and import
93 - Configuring security
94 - Using tags
95 - Using delegation
96 - Managing parallelism
97 - Efficiently copying files
98 - Optimizing SSH
99 - Case study - Optimizing Ansible
100 - Lesson 10 lab - Optimizing Ansible
101 - Lesson 10 lab solution - Optimizing Ansible

Lesson 11 - Using Filters

102 - Learning objectives
103 - Understanding filters and plugins
104 - Filters, plugins, and collections
105 - Understanding filters and variable types
106 - Using filters to change variables
107 - Using filters to work with network addresses
108 - Examples of using filters
109 - More examples of using filters
110 - Lesson 11 lab - Using filters
111 - Lesson 11 lab solution - Using filters

Lesson 12 - Using Plugins

112 - Learning objectives
113 - Understanding plugins
114 - Exploring lookup plugins
115 - Common lookup plugins
116 - Using the fileglob plugin
117 - Plugin-based inventory
118 - Fact caching
119 - Creating random passwords
120 - The test plugin
121 - Lesson 12 lab - Using callback plugins
122 - Lesson 12 lab solution - Using callback plugins

Summary

123 - Ansible core concepts and advanced features - Summary