Overview of Ansible Automation

This documentation outlines the use of Ansible for automating various system administration tasks on a remote server. The playbooks and commands cover everything from initial server setup to deploying and managing applications like NGINX. The target server is identified by the IP address

163.223.99.79.

Prerequisites: Setting Up SSH Access

Before running any Ansible playbooks, it's essential to establish a secure, passwordless connection to the remote server using SSH keys. The following steps show how to copy an SSH public key to the server, allowing the

bishesna user to connect to the ims users without a password.

Command: ssh-copy-id

The ssh-copy-id command copies a public key to a remote server's ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file.

• ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub <remote_user>@<remote_IP>: This command copies the public key id_rsa.pub to the ims user on the remote server. After running this command, you'll be prompted to confirm the connection and enter the

  ims user's password.

  one key was added.

  

  

Ansible Playbooks and Their Functions

Ansible playbooks are YAML files that define a set of tasks to be executed on managed hosts. The following sections detail the playbooks used for this project.

Playbook: install_nginx.yml

This playbook, designed for installing and starting NGINX, runs on the webservers host group. It uses

become: yes to run tasks with elevated privileges.

`ansible-playbook -i inventory.ini install_nginx.yml`: This command executes the playbook.

• Tasks:
  • Update apt cache: Ensures the package list is up to date.
  • Install NGINX: Installs the nginx package and ensures its state is present.
  • Ensure NGINX is running and enabled: Uses the systemd module to start NGINX and configure it to run at boot.
• Verification: The systemctl status nginx command confirms that the NGINX service is active (running).