shamain anjum

Posted on May 7

Getting Started with Ansible on Red Hat Linux

#cloudwhistler #devops #linux #redhat

Welcome to Day 23 of the 30 Days of Linux Challenge!

Today we’re entering the world of automation using one of the most powerful tools available in the Red Hat ecosystem: Ansible.

Ansible lets you automate repetitive tasks — like updating systems, installing packages, configuring files, and managing entire server fleets — using simple, human-readable YAML files.

What is Ansible?

Ansible is a declarative automation engine:

Uses YAML playbooks
Connects over SSH (agentless)
Scales from single node to 1000s of systems
Works perfectly with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, Fedora, and more

Install Ansible on Red Hat Linux

sudo subscription-manager repos --enable codeready-builder-for-rhel-9-x86_64-rpms
sudo subscription-manager repos --enable ansible-2.9-for-rhel-9-x86_64-rpms

Verify version:

ansible --version

Configure Local Inventory

Create an inventory file:

mkdir ~/ansible
cd ~/ansible
nano hosts

Add this to target your own machine:

localhost ansible_connection=local

Test connection:

ansible localhost -m ping -i hosts

Expected result:

json
Copy
localhost | SUCCESS => {
"changed": false,
"ping": "pong"
}

Run Ad-Hoc Commands

List all users:

ansible localhost -m command -a "whoami" -i hosts

Install a package:

ansible localhost -m dnf -a "name=htop state=present" -i hosts --become

Write Your First Playbook
Create a YAML file:
nano setup.yml

Example playbook:

yaml

Copy

name: Basic Setup Playbook hosts: localhost become: true

tasks:
- name: Install htop
dnf:
name: htop
state: present

- name: Ensure NTP is installed
  dnf:
    name: chrony
    state: present

- name: Start and enable NTP service
  service:
    name: chronyd
    state: started
    enabled: true

Run the Playbook

ansible-playbook -i hosts setup.yml

This will:

Install htop and chrony

Start and enable the chronyd time service

Try It Yourself

🧪 Practice tasks:

Install another package using a playbook (e.g. git, tree)
Use Ansible to start or restart a service
Create a user with the user module
Run an ad-hoc uptime or df -h check across multiple hosts

Why This Matters

With Ansible, you can:

✅ Eliminate repetitive manual tasks
✅ Maintain consistency across systems
✅ Automate patching, provisioning, and configuration
✅ Scale easily from local to cloud infrastructure

Whether you’re a sysadmin or DevOps engineer, Ansible is your command center for intelligent automation.

DEV Community