GL380 · 3 days · 7+ hrs hands-on labs

Ansible

Available for RHEL

Learn to automate Linux infrastructure using Ansible's agentless, SSH-based architecture for provisioning, configuration management, and orchestration. Working through an infrastructure-as-code approach, students progress from ad-hoc commands through multi-role playbook deployments that manage real RHEL 9 systems.

Topics span the complete Ansible automation workflow: installation and configuration, inventory management with static and dynamic sources, YAML playbook development, variable management and fact gathering, Jinja2 templating with filters and control structures, task control with loops and conditionals, reusable roles and Ansible Galaxy, performance tuning with parallelism strategies and delegation, and securing credentials with Ansible Vault. An appendix introduces network device automation with Cisco IOS modules.

Every chapter pairs instructor-led demonstrations with guided lab exercises where students apply Ansible to manage packages, configure services, provision storage, manage user accounts, enforce SELinux policies, deploy containers, and build complete automation workflows on live systems.

Who Should Attend

System administrators, DevOps engineers, and IT operations professionals responsible for managing Linux infrastructure who want to automate provisioning, configuration management, and service deployment using Ansible.

Skills You'll Gain

Deploy and configure Ansible on a control node with managed host connectivity
Build and manage static and dynamic host inventories with groups, patterns, and inventory plugins
Write and execute Ansible playbooks using core modules for system administration tasks
Define and manage variables across playbooks, inventories, and facts with proper precedence
Create Jinja2 templates with filters, tests, lookups, and control structures
Implement task control using loops, conditionals, handlers, tags, and error handling blocks
Develop and deploy reusable Ansible roles using Ansible Galaxy
Optimize Ansible execution with parallelism strategies, connection types, and callback plugins
Secure sensitive data using Ansible Vault encryption and vault IDs
Execute ad-hoc commands and use ansible-console for interactive infrastructure management
Manage files, packages, storage, user accounts, SELinux, firewall rules, and services through Ansible modules

Chapters & Labs

14 labs · 7+ hours hands-on
  1. Ansible Overview
  2. Deploying Ansible 3 labs · 50 min
  3. Playbooks Basics 3 labs · 100 min
  4. Variables and Inclusions 2 labs · 45 min
  5. Jinja2 Templates 2 labs · 70 min
  6. Task Control 1 lab · 60 min
  7. Roles 1 lab · 20 min
  8. Optimizing Ansible 1 lab · 20 min
  9. Ansible Vault 1 lab · 15 min

Appendices

  • Network Automation

Prerequisites

Experience with the Linux command line, text editing, and basic systems administration. GL120 (Linux Fundamentals) or equivalent experience recommended.