Mastering Ansible: Effectively automate configuration management and deployment challenges with Ansible 2.7, 3rd Edition, Edition 3

James Freeman · Jesse Keating

Mar 2019 · Packt Publishing Ltd

About this ebook

Design, develop, and solve real-world automation and orchestration problems by unlocking the automation capabilities of Ansible.Key FeaturesTackle complex automation challenges with the newly added features in Ansible 2.7Book Description

Automation is essential for success in the modern world of DevOps. Ansible provides a simple, yet powerful, automation engine for tackling complex automation challenges.

This book will take you on a journey that will help you exploit the latest version's advanced features to help you increase efficiency and accomplish complex orchestrations. This book will help you understand how Ansible 2.7 works at a fundamental level and will also teach you to leverage its advanced capabilities. Throughout this book, you will learn how to encrypt Ansible content at rest and decrypt data at runtime. Next, this book will act as an ideal resource to help you master the advanced features and capabilities required to tackle complex automation challenges. Later, it will walk you through workflows, use cases, orchestrations, troubleshooting, and Ansible extensions. Lastly, you will examine and debug Ansible operations, helping you to understand and resolve issues.

By the end of the book, you will be able to unlock the true power of the Ansible automation engine and tackle complex, real- world actions with ease.

What you will learnGain an in-depth understanding of how Ansible works under the hoodFully automate Ansible playbook executions with encrypted dataAccess and manipulate variable data within playbooksUse blocks to perform failure recovery or cleanupExplore the Playbook debugger and the Ansible ConsoleTroubleshoot unexpected behavior effectivelyWork with cloud infrastructure providers and container systemsDevelop custom modules, plugins, and dynamic inventory sourcesWho this book is for

This book is for Ansible developers and operators who have an understanding of its core elements and applications but are now looking to enhance their skills in applying automation using Ansible.

About the author

James Freeman is an accomplished IT consultant with over 20 years' experience in the technology industry. He has more than 5 years of first-hand experience of solving realworld enterprise problems in production environments using Ansible, frequently introducing Ansible as a new technology to businesses and CTOs for the first time. In addition, he has authored and facilitated bespoke Ansible workshops and training sessions, and has presented at both international conferences and meetups on Ansible. Jesse Keating is an accomplished Ansible user, contributor, and presenter. He has been an active member of the Linux and open source community for over 15 years. He has firsthand experience involving a variety of IT activities, software development, and large-scale system administration. He has presented at numerous conferences and meetups, and has written many articles on a variety of topics.