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Automated Installation and Configuration with Ansible

Ansible is an open-source configuration management system used to automate infrastructure management, application deployment, system configuration, and orchestration.

You can manually install and configure exporters or use Ansible to automate the process.

Ansible consists of a control node and one or more managed nodes. It uses an inventory (a list of managed nodes) and playbooks (collections of tasks to run on those nodes).

image-20260714-133823.png

Installing and configuring Ansible involves the following high-level steps:

  1. Create dedicated ansible user.

  2. Configure privileges for ansible user on managed nodes.

  3. Secure authentication for user ansible with ssh key

  4. Install Ansible on control node.

  5. Secure authentication for user ansible.

1. Create ansible user

  1. Create an ansible user on the control node and on each managed host.

Bash
sudo useradd ansible --comment "Ansible Automation User"
sudo passwd ansible

2. Configure privileges for ansible user on managed nodes.

  1. To configure sudo access so the non-root ansible user can securely run administrative commands without logging in as root on control node run:

Bash
nano ansible

  1. In text editor insert the following line:

ansible ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

  1. Copy sudoers configuration file for each managed node:

Bash
sudo scp ansible user_with_sudo_privileges@managed_node_hostname_or_ip_address:/tmp/
ssh -t user_with_sudo_privileges@managed_node_hostname_or_ip_address "sudo chown root:root /tmp/ansible && sudo chmod 440 /tmp/ansible && sudo mv /tmp/ansible /etc/sudoers.d/"

3. Secure authentication for user ansible with ssh key

  1. Generate an SSH key pair on the control node as the ansible user:

Bash
sudo su - ansible
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "ansible@control-node" -f ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 -N ""

where:

-t Specifies the type of key to create.
-C Provides a new comment.
-f Specifies default path where keys are stored
-N "" Empty passphrase

  1. Copy the public key to each managed host:

Bash
ssh-copy-id managed_node_hostname_or_ip_address

4. Install Ansible on control node

  1. To install Ansible run:

Debian (Ubuntu)

Bash
sudo apt update
sudo apt install ansible-core

  1. In order to test Ansible is configured correctly create inventory file

Bash
nano inventory.ini

with the following content

[all]
managed_node_hostname ansible_host=managed_node_ip_address ansible_user=ansible
...

replace managed_node_hostname and managed_node_ip_address with your data

ansible_user=ansible option tells Ansible to connect to your managed hosts using the ansible user, not your login username.

and run

Bash
ansible all -i inventory.ini -m ping

If all configured correctly, you should have output similar to following

YAML
[WARNING]: Host 'ubuntu-2' is using the discovered Python interpreter at '/usr/bin/python3.14', but future installation of another Python interpreter could cause a different interpreter to be discovered. See https://docs.ansible.com/ansible-core/2.20/reference_appendices/interpreter_discovery.html for more information.
ubuntu-2 | SUCCESS => {
    "ansible_facts": {
        "discovered_interpreter_python": "/usr/bin/python3.14"
    },
    "changed": false,
    "ping": "pong"
}
[WARNING]: Host 'rhel-2' is using the discovered Python interpreter at '/usr/bin/python3.12', but future installation of another Python interpreter could cause a different interpreter to be discovered. See https://docs.ansible.com/ansible-core/2.20/reference_appendices/interpreter_discovery.html for more information.
rhel-2 | SUCCESS => {
    "ansible_facts": {
        "discovered_interpreter_python": "/usr/bin/python3.12"
    },
    "changed": false,
    "ping": "pong"
}

5. Secure authentication for user ansible.

  1. To disable user ansible to login with password on all managed hosts, run single ad hoc command:

Bash
ansible all -i inventory.ini -m shell -a "sudo usermod -L ansible"

You should see output similar to:

YAML
[WARNING]: Host 'ubuntu-2' is using the discovered Python interpreter at '/usr/bin/python3.14', but future installation of another Python interpreter could cause a different interpreter to be discovered. See https://docs.ansible.com/ansible-core/2.20/reference_appendices/interpreter_discovery.html for more information.
ubuntu-2 | CHANGED | rc=0 >>

[WARNING]: Host 'rhel-2' is using the discovered Python interpreter at '/usr/bin/python3.12', but future installation of another Python interpreter could cause a different interpreter to be discovered. See https://docs.ansible.com/ansible-core/2.20/reference_appendices/interpreter_discovery.html for more information.
rhel-2 | CHANGED | rc=0 >>