Michael Sargent SYS-265-01, 2/24/2025

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Automation and Ansible ,Tech Journal

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Overview: within this lab the following machines were set up, Controller, ansible01, and ansible02. Then I configured them to function with the program ansible as well as made users for them ( Deployer ).

Logins for future labs:`

deployer: username: deployer password: Dep0.10g1n

Trouble Shooting:`

Issues with wks not communicating properly with controller, ended up being that wks had the firewall blocking ICMP communication that was not allowing controller to properly reach wks.

Issues with the login for the command : ansible windows -i inventory.txt -m win_ping -u [email protected] --ask-pass , this caused one of the machines to fail as they had different login usernames. The solution was to remove the -u [email protected] portion of the command and rely on the windows category to determine the machines that would be affected.

What to learn more about:`

1. Ansible Installation on the Controller

Operating System: [Ubuntu]

Installation Method:

sudo apt install ansible sshpass python3-paramiko

Verification: A brief explanation of how you verified that Ansible was installed correctly (e.g., running ansible --version). Provide the output of the command.

2. Linux Host Preparation (ansible1 and ansible2)

Operating System: [Rocky Linux]

User Creation:

sudo useradd deployer

sudo passwd deployer  # Set the password

sudo usermod -aG wheel deployer #add the user to the wheel group

SSH Key Configuration:

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 

create an RSA key pair if you don't already have one

ssh-copy-id deployer@ansible1

ssh-copy-id deployer@ansible2

Passwordless Sudo: Creation of /etc/sudoers.d/sys265 on all Linux systems.

deployer ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL

OpenSSH Installation:

powershell Run as Administrator in PowerShell

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

Start-Service sshd

Set-Service -Name sshd -StartupType 'Automatic'

PowerShell as Default Shell:

Run as Administrator in PowerShell

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

3. Ansible Configuration Files

Location: ansible/ansible.cfg

ansible.cfg:

Inventory File:

4. Playbooks

webmin.yml: Provide the complete contents of your webmin.yml playbook.

windows_software.yml: Provide the complete contents of your windows_software.yml playbook.

Other Playbooks (Deliverable 7):