Ansible

What is this?

This is a repositry containing ansible theory and exercises
See the below instructions for a basic ansible set up.
Beyond this the ADVANCED_SETUP.md for more information about
- This includess setting up a web app and further theory such as ansible modules
For the theory behind see see ANSIBLE_THEORY.md

Dependencies

Git Bash

This is used to access and manipulate the machines
Download it here (alongside other git software): https://git-scm.com/downloads

Python

This is auto installed with Git Bash and Linx often however
This shows the simplicity of Ansible as there is minimal dependencies

Steps

1. Clone this repositry

As per GitHub commands, fork then download.

2. Run vagrant file

vagrant up

This may take a while on the first go

3. Once the machines are up enter each and update them

vagrant status
vagrant ssh web/aws/db
sudo apt-get update

Run the update command for each machine

4. Make the AWS server the controller server

A. Install ansible (within the AWS server)

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common -y
sudo apt-add-repository --yes --update ppa:ansible/ansible
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ansible

B. Check installation

ansible --version

C. Install tree

This is a package manager

sudo apt-get install tree

D. Examine tree

cd /etc/ansible
tree

This will display files in user friendly way

5. Test connection to other VMs

ping 192.168.33.10
ping 192.168.33.11

This should show bytes coming from the IPs
However you do not have access to the servers yet
Press ctrl + c to cancel the ping

6. Set up access to the servers from the controller server (aws)

sudo nano hosts

Add the below text into the file
This creates hosts for connections to other servers

[web]
192.168.33.10 ansible_connection=ssh ansible_ssh_user=vagrant ansible_ssh_pass=vagrant

[db]
192.168.33.11 ansible_connection=ssh ansible_ssh_user=vagrant ansible_ssh_pass=vagrant

# [aws]
# 192.168.33.12 ansible_connection=ssh ansible_ssh_user=vagrant ansible_ssh_pass=vagrant

7. Connect to the other machines

ssh vagrant@192.168.33.10

Enter password as "vagrant".
- You will not be able to see the password entered
This should give you access to the machine
Repeat for the DB machine

ssh vagrant@192.168.33.11

8. Ping machines with Ansible command

ansible all -m ping

This will ping connection to web and db
If succesful it will display a green message saying success

9. Interact with other servers and get information

Run commands from the Anisble Controller server

ansible web -a "date"
ansible db -a "uname -a"

Gets date and time of the web server
Then current operating system of machine
"-a" gets all information

ansible all -m shell -a "ls -a"

Goes into all servers and runs command in shell (bash) format
Returns result of command being run in each server

10. Create playbook

sudo su
nano filename.yml

Start file with comment, then ---
Identation very important
Follow example of install_nginx_web.yml

11. Run playbook

You have to exit root mode

exit
ansible-playbook install_nginx_web.yml

You have now install nginx on your web server and can access the nginx test page
- Use your web IP, in this case 192.168.33.10
- Input into into a browser and the nginx test page should appear

Lycurgus1/Ansible