In this lab journal, we document the process of setting up Ansible for automation tasks, preparing Linux and Windows hosts for automation, and managing Ansible-specific configuration files and playbooks. In here are commands used to install Ansible on the controller, configure hosts, and necessary files for automation.

Ubuntu -

adduser <user>

usermod -aG sudo <user>

CentOS 7 & Rocky -

useradd <user>

usermod -aG wheel <user>

Create users 'deployer' on all systems with the same password, I used 'ansible' for the password.

refer to my 00-installer-config.yaml file for Ubuntu setup, CentOS & Rocky just uses nmtui for network setup.

On controller-yourname type:

sudo apt install ansible sshpass python3-paramiko

• ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "sys265" - Generates an RSA keypair. Make sure to include a passphrase for this lab. Do this on controller-firstname

• ssh-copy-id [email protected] - Copies the public key over to ansible1 and ansible2 machines

• eval $(ssh-agent) - Tests to see if ssh-agent is running, and if not, it will run it.

• ssh-add -t 14400 - Adds a lifetime of 14400 seconds to not have to use RSA passphrase

• 7zip & Firefox

• Notepad++

• If windows' chocolatey doesn't exist on your system (i.e. cannot find choco.exe) you can manually download it on each Windows system by typing:

Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://community.chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))

• 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

• Ensure Windows Update Service is enabled and running, then proceed to download OpenSSH Server through Apps & features > Manage optional features > Add a feature > OpenSSH Server