THE COMPLETE ANSIBLE GUIDE

ARE YOU STILL CONFIGURING SERVERS BY HAND?
Every manual change is a chance for a typo, a missed step, or a server that no longer matches the rest. Repeating the same tasks across machines costs you time, and it costs you sleep when something breaks at 2 a.m.
This book is a user guide written for educational purposes only. It is an independent publication and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Red Hat, Inc. or the Ansible project. Ansible, Linux, and all other product names and trademarks belong to their respective owners. Always test commands and playbooks in a safe environment before using them on production systems. The author and publisher accept no liability for any loss or damage resulting from the use of the information in this book.
THE COMPLETE ANSIBLE GUIDE: Automate Linux Administration, Configure Servers, Manage Infrastructure, and Build Repeatable Workflows is a practical user guide that takes you from your first install to automation you can trust. It teaches Ansible step by step, in plain language, for beginners and working administrators alike. Ansible is agentless and works over the SSH access you already have, so you can start without installing anything on your servers.
Inside this user guide, you will learn how to:

• Install Ansible and build inventories, ad hoc commands, and your first playbooks
• Use variables, facts, Jinja2 templates, conditionals, loops, roles, and collections
• Manage users, packages, services, storage, networks, firewalls, web servers, and TLS
• Protect secrets with Ansible Vault and harden your systems
• Run multiple environments, rolling updates, Git workflows, and CI/CD pipelines
• Troubleshoot and optimize playbooks, and explore AWX and advanced features
• Apply everything in five real-world projects, then keep your automation maintainable over the long term