Ansible offers open-source automation. This entry will go over how to install ansible as well as some information on ansible-galaxy, and installing ansible roles. Here are some reading sources for Ansible:

• (https://docs.ansible.com/)[https://docs.ansible.com/]
• (https://galaxy.ansible.com/ui/)[https://galaxy.ansible.com/ui/]

Use the following command to install ansible on any Debian based system

sudo apt install ansible sshpass python3-paramiko

You can confirm a successful install by running the ansible --version command.

ansible --version

In order for Ansible to run elevated playbooks the following changes must be made to the /etc/sudoers.d dir on the ansible targets. Make a new file in the directory with the following contents:

<username>     ALL=(ALL)     NOPASSWD: ALL

For password-less ssh & password-less scripts, make sure to make and distribute keys for your controller system

Ansible uses a host file to locate systems on the network. Here is the example of inventory.txt, my host file for this lab:

ansible01-devin
[webmin]
ansible02-devin
[windows]
mgmt01-devin
wks01-devin
[windows:vars]
ansible_shell_type=powershell

We can now run a test using ansible ping. In this command I will ping the webmin system from the inventory.txt file:

ansible webmin -m ping -i inventory.txt

If the command is successful you should get the following output:

ansible02-devin | SUCCESS => {
     "ansible_facts": {
          "discovered_interpreter_python": "/usr/libexec/platform-python"
     },
     "changed": false,
     "ping": "pong"

Note that the python interpreter will be different based on the installed distro

Ansible Galaxy is a place where ansible users can upload things like roles. Check the documentation of the role to see install instructions. For this example I will outline how to install the apache02 role.

To organize roles, I would recommend making a role directory on the controller system.

To install roles on a target system, a playbook is needed, here is my playbook for the apache02 role:

---
- hosts: ansible01-devin
  vars_files:
    - /home/deployer/ansible/roles/geerlingguy.apache/defaults/main.yml
  become: true
  roles:
    - geerlingguy.apache

  tasks:
    - name: add firewall rule
      firewalld:
        port: 80/tcp
        permanent: true
        state: enabled 

Link To Raw

Setting up ansible for windows requires a little more than linux. The fist thing to do on windows is install openssh server.

If you instillation has turned off updates, you will run into a problem here, I recommend doing a manual install from openssh: https://github.com/PowerShell/Win32-OpenSSH/releases

For normal installation run the following commands as administrator in the windows host:

Add-WindowsCapability -Online -Name OpenSSH.Server~~~~0.0.1.0

Start-Service sshd

Set-Service -Name sshd -StartupType 'Automatic'

These commands install openssh, start the service, and add an entry so it start on bootup.

I would also recommend setting the default ssh prompt to Powershell. Run the following in admin powershell window:

Set-ItemProperty "HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Powershell\1\ShellIds" -Name ConsolePrompting -Value $true

New-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\SOFTWARE\OpenSSH -Name DefaultShell -Value "C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" -PropertyType String -Force

Running Ansible playbooks on windows is exactly the same on linux, however we will need to use the chocolatey package manager. Here is my example of the windows playbook used in the lab:

---
- name: install windows applications
  hosts: windows
  tasks: 
    - name: Install firefox and 7zip
      win_chocolatey:
        name:
        - firefox 
        - 7zip
        - notepadplusplus
        state: present

Raw code can be found here: windows_software.yml - This playbook installs firefox, 7zip, and notepad ++.

Installed Windows packages can be listed by running the following command:

C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\bin\choco.exe list