Ansible 101 - Episode 1 - Introduction to Ansible

Jeff Geerling (geerlingguy) introduces Ansible in the first episode of a new live-streaming series "Ansible 101 with Jeff Geerling."

Jeff walks through installing Ansible, running tasks on a remote AWS EC2 instance using Ansible ad-hoc tasks, integrating Ansible with Vagrant to build local Virtual Machines (VMs), and then teaches you how to write your first Ansible playbook!

This video follows material from chapters 1 and 2 in the bestselling Ansible book, Ansible for DevOps.

Contents:

00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:47 - Preface and Info about Ansible for DevOps
00:07:51 - Ansible Background
00:17:43 - Installing Ansible
00:20:55 - Connecting to a Server with Ansible
00:28:57 - Running ad-hoc commands
00:33:36 - Vagrant Intro
00:45:24 - First Ansible Playbook
00:51:47 - Idempotence
00:56:56 - Importance of naming tasks
01:01:18 - Chat questions answered
01:02:56 - Outtro

[komalthecoolk]

He deserves all the sponsors that he can get, just considering the amazing content he's putting out in this Youtube series for free!!

[madj]

im not sure whether you gonna see this comment, but here it is, Its less than 3hours to a new year 2024 and im watching your ansible series and reading along with the book for a better 2024. thanks for the content

[dominick]

Just made two playbooks. One to update all of my servers and the second for CI for my website to automatically update on my server! It's amazing it updates in a second!!! Automatically with a webhook! Like magic! Used to be at least a 5 minute operation to update the website and now it's automagically done ✅

[Lehi]

Good on you sir. This is a life saver, as I just took an offer that I'm expected to learn Ansible in depth, and I'll be buying the book too just to support. Thank you!

[TCOmuns]

Been interested in Ansible for a while. I just did a basic introduction course and realized how much the paradigm aligns so well with what I would do if I built it. So I decided to watch this. I enjoy your other videos. You showed a Pi 4, and I could help but think, wow, back when you could just buy them.

[aki_tomato_]

i just got a new job. From doing desktop support to automating linux servers with ansible...
This series really helped me a lot. And I bought your book too!
Thank you for saving me!!

[wquayle]

A year later, and the virus is still a thing.

I've been a systems guy for 35 years. It's about time I added Ansible to my toolbox. Thanks very much for this fine book and video series.

[mihaiblebea]

First 60+ mins video I watch on youtube. Really good content. Great job!

[christiaansteenkamp]

Just bought your book. Thanks for being such a awesome guy I stumbled onto one of your old raspberry pi videos and now Im down the rabbit hole.

[lordofenron]

Hi Jeff.. I found out about Ansible about two years ago but didn't have the energy to learn anything, so now I'm back after two years and ready to learn. I started with videos on pluralsight, and they were pretty bad, but yours is pretty amazing :D I already learned a lot more than the last two hrs spent om pluralsight.

Anyway, what I really wanted to say is that you seem like the best guy ever :) All your comments about helping others, giving the book away for free and "I'm gonna pray for you whether you like it or not". I mean, it's pretty heartwarming :) Thanks.

[AngelaAndrews]

What a great episode. Thanks for going over your book in this way. I've never sat still for an hour YouTube video before. Thanks for keeping it engaging and thanks for always praying.

[JeffGeerling]

@Oliver Davies asked during the stream "Any reason for using yum module over 'package' module?" — In this case, not really; package is convenient for multi-platform playbooks. Sometimes it is good to specify yum/dnf/apt/pacman/etc. instead of the generic 'package' module if you need to specify distro-specific options, or if playbook is intended to only work on one platform/distro.

[Khift]

Of all the anachronistic things mentioned in this video, the one that hit the hardest was "CentOS is supported basically forever".

Rest in peace, king.

[almazkharrasov]

I was shocked when I saw your name in the Recommended Reading section of the Unix and Linux system administration handbook. You're awesome!

[MeTube]

Still three years later I can't thank Jeff enough.

[bretthansen]

Thank you so much for this! So helpful!!! You mentioned the coronavirus and it reminded me how much things have changed! In late February 2020 both my parents got it so bad that I woke up in a cold sweat realizing I may have to plan 2 funerals... Thank God they both got through it!! My mom I still dealing with long haul covid but things have gotten much better.

Anyway I love your videos they are soooo helpful! I've been working on/staying in a crazy upgraded 1974 GMC Motorhome for 3 or so years now. Thanks to you and a few others I've got my old motorhome almost fully automated!!! Thanks!!! Now I'm leaning this to do a 10 odroid n2+ cluster to replace my T420 dell server lol

[jerikho]

Thank you very much for taking the time and effort to record your book and publish it for free. All the best, sir

[pedrohakia]

Hey Jeff, I'm Catholic too, and I loved it " I'm going to pray for you, either you like it or not"hahahahahaha made my day!

[ExtremeSquared]

39:50 "Centos versions are supported practically forever."
Whoops.

[Forkentiney]

Heyyy Jeff the "Ansible" exists in Ender's Game (1985), yes, but the idea really comes from Le Guin's novel called "Rocannon's World" from 1966, and expanded upon in 1977 with "The Dispossessed". Le Guin revolutionized science fiction and loads of stuff from her is often misattributed to other artists (see James Cameron's "Avatar" and Le Guin's "The World For World is Forest")