Ansible is a powerful automation tool that simplifies configuration management, application deployment, and task automation. In this guide, we will walk you through the installation of Ansible on Rocky Linux 8. Whether you are deploying it on a local server or using a Windows VPS UK, this tutorial covers all the necessary steps.
Step 1: Update Your System
Before installing Ansible, ensure your system is up to date. Run the following commands:
sudo dnf update -y
Keeping your system updated is crucial for security and performance, whether you're setting it up locally or on a VPS Windows Servers platform.
Step 2: Enable EPEL Repository
Ansible is available in the EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux) repository. To enable it, run the following command:
sudo dnf install epel-release -y
Step 3: Install Ansible
Now you can install Ansible using the following command:
sudo dnf install ansible -y
This command will download and install Ansible along with its dependencies.
Step 4: Verify the Installation
To confirm that Ansible is installed correctly, you can check the version by running:
ansible --version
You should see the installed version of Ansible displayed in the terminal.
Step 5: Configure Ansible Hosts
By default, Ansible uses the /etc/ansible/hosts
file to manage host configurations. Open this file for editing:
sudo nano /etc/ansible/hosts
Add your managed nodes to this file. Here’s an example of how to define a group of hosts:
[webservers]
192.168.1.10
192.168.1.11
Replace the IP addresses with those of your managed nodes.
Step 6: Test Ansible Connectivity
You can test the connectivity to your managed nodes by using the following command:
ansible all -m ping
This command will attempt to ping all hosts defined in your Ansible inventory. If everything is configured correctly, you should receive a pong
response from each host.
Step 7: Create an Ansible Playbook (Optional)
You can create Ansible playbooks to automate tasks. Create a simple playbook file:
nano my_playbook.yml
Here’s an example of a basic playbook that installs Apache on the web servers:
- hosts: webservers
tasks:
- name: Install Apache
dnf:
name: httpd
state: present
Step 8: Run the Playbook
You can execute the playbook by running the following command:
ansible-playbook my_playbook.yml
This command will connect to all the hosts in the webservers
group and install Apache.