My Skill Lab
Cloud & DevOpsIntermediate

Ansible Configuration Management

Playbooks, roles, inventories and automating server setup.

Taught by Suman Ghimire · DevOps Engineer

What you'll learn

  • Install Ansible and manage servers over SSH with static YAML inventories and ad-hoc commands
  • Write idempotent playbooks that install packages, manage services and edit configuration safely
  • Use variables, facts, handlers and Jinja2 templates to configure hosts differently from one codebase
  • Structure automation as reusable roles and install collections from Ansible Galaxy
  • Encrypt secrets with Ansible Vault and keep them out of version control in plain text
  • Lint, test and roll out changes safely with ansible-lint, Molecule, check mode and serial updates

About this course

This course is for system administrators, developers and junior DevOps engineers who configure Linux servers by hand and want to automate that work reliably. You will learn Ansible from the ground up: installing it on a control node, writing inventories, running ad-hoc commands, and building YAML playbooks that install packages, manage services and harden SSH. You will master idempotency, handlers, variables, facts and Jinja2 templates, then organise your automation into reusable roles and collections from Ansible Galaxy. Finally you will protect secrets with Ansible Vault, lint and test your code with ansible-lint and Molecule, and run safe rolling updates across real fleets. You should be comfortable with the Linux command line and SSH; no programming background is needed. By the end you will have a working, version-controlled Ansible project that configures a web server from a blank machine in a single command.

Course content

7 lessons
  1. 1Why Ansible: Agentless Automation Over SSHWhat configuration management solves, how Ansible works without agents, and your first command.Preview
  2. 2Inventories and Ad-Hoc CommandsOrganise hosts into groups with YAML inventories and run quick one-off tasks across a fleet.
  3. 3Writing Your First PlaybookStructure plays and tasks in YAML to install nginx, start it and open the firewall, then run it safely.
  4. 4Idempotency, Handlers and Safe ChangesKeep playbooks idempotent, restart services only when needed, and control what counts as a change.
  5. 5Variables, Facts and Jinja2 TemplatesConfigure hosts differently from one codebase with variables, gathered facts and templated files.
  6. 6Roles, Collections and Ansible GalaxyPackage automation into reusable roles, pull in collections, and structure a real project.
  7. 7Vault, Testing and Running Ansible in ProductionProtect secrets with Ansible Vault, test with ansible-lint and Molecule, and roll out changes safely.