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Sireesharaju Kamparaju
Sireesharaju Kamparaju

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Automating Linux & Windows Server Setup with Ansible: My DevOps Journey

#ansible #devops

I started this project because managing servers manually was getting repetitive — especially when it came to setup and configuration across both Linux and Windows machines.

So I decided to automate the whole workflow using Ansible. The goal wasn’t just to “use Ansible,” but to actually standardize how servers are configured and reduce the amount of manual SSH and RDP work I was doing every time a new system came up.

In this blog, I’ll walk through how I used Ansible playbooks and roles to automate server setup, including SSH configuration on Linux and basic provisioning tasks across Windows systems.

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Why I Chose Ansible for This

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Before I started using Ansible, server setup meant logging into each machine manually, running the same commands over and over, and hoping nothing was missed. One wrong step and the configuration was inconsistent across environments. Sound familiar?
What drew me to Ansible was its simplicity — no agents to install, no complex setup. Just SSH into Linux, WinRM into Windows, and you're managing your entire fleet from a single control node. That agentless architecture was a game changer for me.

Project Overview

The goal was straightforward: automate the initial setup of both Linux and Windows servers using a clean, reusable Ansible structure. Here's what I set out to configure:

  • SSH hardening and configuration on Linux servers
  • WinRM configuration to enable Ansible to talk to Windows servers
  • Reusable roles for both OS types
  • A master playbook to tie everything together.

Setting Up the Project Structure
The first thing I did was organize everything into roles. Roles keep your code clean, reusable, and easy to share across projects. Here's the structure I used:

ansible-server-setup/
├── inventory/
│   ├── hosts.yml
├── roles/
│   ├── linux_ssh/
│   │   ├── tasks/main.yml
│   │   ├── templates/sshd_config.j2
│   │   ├── handlers/main.yml
│   │   └── defaults/main.yml
│   ├── windows_setup/
│   │   ├── tasks/main.yml
│   │   └── defaults/main.yml
├── playbooks/
│   ├── linux_setup.yml
│   ├── windows_setup.yml
└── site.yml
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Keeping Linux and Windows roles separate made everything much easier to maintain and debug independently.

The Inventory

I defined both Linux and Windows hosts in a single YAML inventory, with the right connection settings for each:

all:
  children:
    linux_servers:
      hosts:
        linux-01:
          ansible_host: 10.0.1.10
          ansible_user: ec2-user
          ansible_ssh_private_key_file: ~/.ssh/id_rsa
    windows_servers:
      hosts:
        win-01:
          ansible_host: 10.0.2.10
          ansible_user: Administrator
          ansible_password: "{{ vault_win_password }}"
          ansible_connection: winrm
          ansible_winrm_transport: ntlm
          ansible_port: 5985
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Notice I vaulted the Windows password using ansible-vault — never hardcode credentials in plain text. Learned that lesson early!

SSH Hardening Role for Linux
This was the core of my Linux setup. The linux_ssh role handles SSH daemon configuration to make servers secure and consistent from day one.
roles/linux_ssh/defaults/main.yml

ssh_port: 22
permit_root_login: "no"
password_authentication: "no"
max_auth_tries: 3
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roles/linux_ssh/templates/sshd_config.j2

Port {{ ssh_port }}
PermitRootLogin {{ permit_root_login }}
PasswordAuthentication {{ password_authentication }}
MaxAuthTries {{ max_auth_tries }}
PubkeyAuthentication yes
AuthorizedKeysFile .ssh/authorized_keys
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---
- name: Deploy SSH configuration
  ansible.builtin.template:
    src: sshd_config.j2
    dest: /etc/ssh/sshd_config
    owner: root
    group: root
    mode: "0600"
  notify: Restart SSH

- name: Ensure SSH service is running and enabled
  ansible.builtin.service:
    name: sshd
    state: started
    enabled: true
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roles/linux_ssh/handlers/main.yml


---
- name: Restart SSH
  ansible.builtin.service:
    name: sshd
    state: restarted
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The handler ensures SSH only restarts when the config actually changes — not on every run. That small detail matters a lot in production.

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