AWS Automation with Ansible

Ansible is an open-source automation tool that simplifies the process of configuring and managing servers, particularly in cloud environments like AWS. This lesson will guide you through the process of automating AWS resources using Ansible.

• Playbook: A YAML file containing a list of tasks to be executed on managed nodes.
• Inventory: A file that lists the hosts on which Ansible will operate.
• Modules: Reusable scripts that perform specific tasks (e.g., installing packages, managing files).
• Roles: A way to group related tasks, handlers, and variables for better organization.

• Basic knowledge of AWS services.
• Familiarity with YAML syntax.
• Ansible installed on your local machine.
• A valid AWS account and IAM user with appropriate permissions.

To install Ansible, you can use pip:

pip install ansible

For AWS support, you need to install the Boto library:

pip install boto boto3

Below is a sample playbook to launch an EC2 instance:

- name: Launch EC2 instance
  hosts: localhost
  gather_facts: no
  tasks:
    - name: Launch instance
      ec2:
        key_name: my-key
        instance_type: t2.micro
        image: ami-0c55b159cbfafe1f0
        wait: yes
        region: us-east-1
        count: 1
      register: ec2

To run the playbook, use the following command:

ansible-playbook launch_ec2.yml

• Use version control for your playbooks.
• Group related tasks into roles for better organization.
• Utilize Ansible Vault to manage sensitive data.
• Test your playbooks in a staging environment before production.