Vagrant Ansible Lab

The lab will implement the following configuration:

Machine Name	Role	Network Configuration	OS
control	Ansible host	private_network, ip: 192.168.135.10	Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
app01	web server 1	private_network, ip: 192.168.135.111	Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
app02	web server 2	private_network, ip: 192.168.135.112	Rocky Linux 9
app03	web server 3	private_network, ip: 192.168.135.113	Windows Server 2016

Prerequisites

Install the Vagrant 2.2.15 from https://www.vagrantup.com/downloads
Install the Virtualbox 6.1.18 from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads if it is not installed already.

Download the Vagrant boxes for your preferred hypervisor:

$ vagrant box add generic/ubuntu2204
$ vagrant box add rockylinux/9
$ vagrant box add peru/windows-server-2016-standard-x64-eval

Clone this repo
Ensure you have installed Vagrant and Virtualbox(check Prerequisites section)
Run vagrant up from the root of the cloned repo (the folder with Vagrantfile in it)
Once the VMs are built, type vagrant ssh control to login to the ansible controller from within your vagrant project folder.
Change directories cd /vagrant/ansible which is the ansible subfolder of your vagrant project for this lab (the vagrant project folder is mounted within the VMs as /vagrant during provisioning)

./hosts: File defining the servers to be managed
./ansible.cfg: Ansible supports several sources for configuring its behavior, including an ini file named ansible.cfg, environment variables, command-line options, playbook keywords, and variables. Changes can be made and used in a configuration file which will be searched for in the following order(Ansible will process the below list and use the first file found, all others are ignored.):
- ANSIBLE_CONFIG (environment variable if set)
- ansible.cfg (in the current directory)
- ~/.ansible.cfg (in the home directory)
- /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
./group_vars/all/main.yml: Global variables file for all of the host groups
./group_vars/nginx/main.yml: Global variables file for nginx host group
./group_vars/prometheus/main.yml: Global variables file for prometheus host group
./playbooks: Playbook folder for Ansible lab
./roles: Role folder for Ansible lab

List all hosts:

$ ansible --list-hosts all
$ ansible --list-hosts "*"

List hosts from specific group:

$ ansible --list-hosts loadbalancer

List hosts using wildcard filter

$ ansible --list-hosts "app*"

List hosts from multiple groups

$ ansible --list-hosts database,control

List first node in webserver group:

$ ansible --list-hosts webserver[0]

List hosts not in control group:

$ ansible --list-hosts \!control

Ping all of the hosts:

$ ansible -m ping all

Run hostname command on target hosts:

$ ansible -m command -a "hostname" all

Run hostname command on target hosts(here we are not passing module, command module is the default one):

$ ansible -a "hostname" all

Simple playbook that executes "hostname" command:

$ ansible-playbook -i /vagrant/ansible/hosts /vagrant/ansible/playbooks/hostname.yml

Show what hosts are involved in this playbook:

$ ansible-playbook -i /vagrant/ansible/hosts /vagrant/ansible/playbooks/hostname.yml --list-hosts

Show what tags are involved in this playbook:

$ ansible-playbook -i /vagrant/ansible/hosts /vagrant/ansible/playbooks/hostname.yml --list-tags

Run only steps in a playbook that have a tag called "packages" defined:

$ ansible-playbook -i /vagrant/ansible/hosts /vagrant/ansible/playbooks/site.yml --tags "packages"

Run only steps in a playbook that DON'T have a tag called "packages" defined:

$ ansible-playbook -i /vagrant/ansible/hosts /vagrant/ansible/playbooks/site.yml --skip-tags "packages"

Step through tasks and be prompted whether to run each step or not:

$ ansible-playbook -i /vagrant/ansible/hosts /vagrant/ansible/playbooks/site.yml --step

Show all tasks that will be executed by the playbook:

$ ansible-playbook -i /vagrant/ansible/hosts /vagrant/ansible/playbooks/site.yml --list-tasks

Skip over steps in a playbook and start at a specific task:

$ ansible-playbook -i /vagrant/ansible/hosts /vagrant/ansible/playbooks/stack_status.yml --start-at-task "verify end-to-end response"

Verify syntax:

$ ansible-playbook --syntax-check /vagrant/ansible/playbooks/site.yml

Do a simulated run of the playbook:

$ ansible-playbook --check -i /vagrant/ansible/hosts /vagrant/ansible/playbooks/site.yml