Setup for Learning Ansible

Ansible

In order to Learn Ansible you'll need to be familiar with at least the basics of Linux on the command line and you'll need to have a few Linux boxes to experiment with.

Minimum Linux knowledge

  • File-system operations: creating, listing, moving, removing, editing files.
  • Using ping, ssh, sudo
  • Configuring Nginx

You can use the Linux mini-series of articles to learn these.

Linux boxes to experiment with

You'll need 3 (or more) Linux machines for each setup to use as host and one machine (either Linux or OSX) to run Ansible.

Your Options: Having a local installation or using machines in the cloud.

MS Windows

If you have MS Windows on your computer:

Option one is to create 4 Virtual Machines on the computer you work on. 1 where you'll install and run Ansible and 3 to act as hosts you manage.

Option two is to create 1 Virtual Machine on the computer you work on and use 3 VPS (Virtual Private Server) in the cloud. On the local Virtual Machine you'll install and run Ansible. You will manage the 3 VPS-es.

OSX or Linux

If you run Linux or OSX then it can be used as the machine where you install and run Ansible so you only need the 3 host machines. Those can be either local, inside Virtual Box, or they can be remote. Using some VPS.

Virtual Linux boxes locally

IMHO The best option is to create the 4 Linux boxes in a VirtualBox image locally. That will allow you to use them anywhere and they don't cost you anything. Follow the Linux mini-series explaining how to install Ubuntu Linux on VirtualBox and how to configure the network. If you already have a Linux Box in VirtualBox then start reading how to setup two Virtual Linux boxes.

Virtual Private Server (VPS)

As for cloud-based VPS, there are several providers. One I use often is Digital Ocean.

Visit Digital Ocean using this ref-code. If you don't have an account yet, sign up. The ref-code is supposed to give you $10 credit which is plenty as you can run a VPS by the hour and pay only $0.007/hr. I might be mistaken, but as I understand at this point you'll either need to pay $5 via PayPal or provide a Credit Card that will be only charged after you run out of the $10 initial credit.

If you don't have yet, create an ssh Private/Public pair on the machine you'll use to run Ansible. (Either your Linux machine or OSX notebook, or the VirtualBox you have created for this.)

Other pages

Ansible

Author

Gabor Szabo (szabgab) Gabor Szabo