Ansible: From Basics to Guru by Pearson

13h 47mIntermediate2026-02-26

Authors

Pearson

Course details

Sander van Vugt teaches Ansible from the ground up and helps you get the most out of your Ansible solutions and playbooks by showing you how to manage a multi-faceted environment, whether you’re new or experienced in development and whether you’re an administrator or a user.

The first part of the course covers Ansible basics and how to get started. Explore how to develop flexible playbooks before jumping into managed infrastructure, ad-hoc commands, Ansible AWX, conditionals, plugins, and managing containers.

In the second part, get up to speed on core concepts and advanced features. Learn how to modify Ansible and organize your setup. Dive deeper into playbooks, modules, and content collections, and learn how to use them with variables and conditionals. See how to manage files with Jinja2 templates, review roles and standardized components, and explore advanced topics such as filters and plugins to extend Ansible functionality.

This combination course includes lessons from the following courses:
Ansible: From Basics to Guru
Ansible: Core Concepts and Advanced Features

Prerequisites:
A minimum of three virtual machines running any Linux distribution (Red Hat family recommended)
Optionally, the following can be added:
One virtual machine running Windows Administrator
Access to AWS Administrator
Access to Azure
A Cisco network device
A virtual machine running VMware ESXi

Concepts

Introduction

Ansible basics and beyond - Introduction

What Is Ansible

Module introduction
Learning objectives
What is configuration management
Solutions for configuration management
Configuration as code and DevOps
Ansible components
Working with Ansible in small environments
Working with Ansible in large environments

Getting Started

Learning objectives
Ansible infrastructure components
Setting up a RHEL Ansible control node
Setting up an Ubuntu Ansible control node
Setting up an Ansible control node with Python pip
Requirements for managing assets
Modules and collections
Using Ansible to configure managed nodes, part 1
Using Ansible to configure managed nodes, part 2
Using Ansible to configure managed nodes, part 3
Defining default settings in ansible.cfg
Managing Windows
Using macOS as a control node
Lesson 2 lab - Setting up an Ansible-managed environment
Lesson 2 lab solution - Setting up an Ansible-managed environment

Using Ansible in Large Environments

Learning objectives
Centralizing configuration as code using Git
Using AWX and Ansible Automation Platform
Configuring ansible-navigator
Working with ansible-navigator
Providing required collections for ansible-navigator
ansible-navigator configuration
Lesson 3 lab - Using ansible-navigator
Lesson 3 lab solution - Using ansible-navigator

Using Ad-Hoc Commands

Learning objectives
Ad-hoc commands versus playbooks
Using Ansible content collections
Exploring essential Ansible modules
Using module documentation
Using Ansible in an idempotent way
Lesson 4 lab - Using ad-hoc commands
Lesson 4 lab solution - Using ad-hoc commands

Using Ansible Playbooks

Learning objectives
Understanding playbook structure
Running your first playbook
Understanding task execution and errors
Using ansible-navigator to run playbooks
Lesson 5 lab - Using a playbook to deploy a webserver
Lesson 5 lab solution - Using a playbook to deploy a webserver

Using Ansible Tower

Learning objectives
Understanding Ansible Tower, Automation Platform, and AWX
Installing Ansible Tower
Understanding Ansible Tower main components
Setting up Ansible Tower to manage assets
Configuring Ansible Tower to manage Windows
Lesson 6 lab - Setting up Ansible Tower to manage assets in Ansible
Lesson 6 lab solution - Setting up Ansible Tower to manage assets in Ansible

Working with Variables

Module introduction
Learning objectives
Separating code from site-specific configuration
Using variables in a playbook
Understanding where to define your variables
Using Ansible facts
Using set fact
Understanding different notations for facts and variables
Using multi-valued variables
Using magic variables
Using register
Using Vault to store sensitive information
Lesson 7 lab - Making playbooks flexible with variables
Lesson 7 lab solution - Making playbooks flexible with variables

Using Conditionals

Learning objectives
Conditionals overview
Using loop to process a list of items
Using handlers for conditional task execution
Using when to run tasks in specific situations
Using register to work with task results
Using blocks
Managing failure with the fail module
Using assert
Lesson 8 lab - Using when to create idempotency
Lesson 8 lab solution - Using when to create idempotency

Managing Files

Learning objectives
Manipulating files
Changing file contents
Using the find module
Using templates
Using conditional statements in templates
Lesson 9 lab - Working with files
Lesson 9 lab solution - Working with files

Using Roles

Learning objectives
Understanding and using roles
Working with ansible-galaxy
How roles are organized
Writing custom roles
Using system roles
Lesson 10 lab - Working with roles
Lesson 10 lab solution - Working with roles

Ansible Best Practices and Optimization

Module introduction
Learning objectives
Using include and import
Configuring security
Using tags
Using delegation
Managing parallelism
Efficiently copying files
Optimizing SSH
Case study - Optimizing Ansible
Lesson 11 lab - Optimizing Ansible
Lesson 11 lab solution - Optimizing Ansible

Using Filters

Learning objectives
Understanding filters and plugins
Filters, plugins, and collections
Understanding filters and variable types
Using filters to change variables
Using filters to work with network addresses
Examples of using filters
More examples of using filters
Lesson 12 lab - Using filters
Lesson 12 lab solution - Using filters

Using Plugins

Learning objectives
Understanding plugins
Exploring lookup plugins
Common lookup plugins
Using the fileglob plugin
Plugin-based inventory
Fact caching
Creating random passwords
The test plugin
Lesson 13 lab - Using callback plugins
Lesson 13 lab solution - Using callback plugins

Advanced Ansible Tower Usage

Learning objectives
Managing users and teams
Creating job template surveys
Configuring notifications
Using workflow
Scheduling jobs
Importing static inventories
Creating and updating dynamic inventories
Using smart inventories
Using Vault in Tower
Using the Tower API
Backing up Tower
Lesson 14 lab - Advanced Ansible Tower usage
Lesson 14 lab solution - Advanced Ansible Tower usage

Managing Windows with Ansible

Module introduction
Learning objectives
Understanding requirements for managing Windows
Using playbooks to manage Windows
Lesson 15 lab - Managing Windows with Ansible
Lesson 15 lab solution - Managing Windows with Ansible

Managing Azure with Ansible

Learning objectives
Understanding requirements for managing Azure
Using playbooks to manage Azure
Lesson 16 lab - Managing Azure
Lesson 16 lab solution - Managing Azure

Managing Containers

Learning objectives
Understanding requirements for managing Docker
Using playbooks to manage Docker
Managing Podman containers
Lesson 17 lab - Managing containers
Lesson 17 lab solution - Managing containers

Managing AWS with Ansible

Learning objectives
Understanding requirements for managing AWS
Using playbooks to manage AWS
Configuring dynamic inventory
Lesson 18 lab - Managing AWS with Ansible
Lesson 18 lab solution - Managing AWS with Ansible

Managing Network Devices with Ansible

Learning objectives
Understanding network device management
Setting up Cisco SMB devices
Configuring Cisco SMB devices with Ansible
Using generic modules for network device management
Lesson 19 lab - Automating switch setup with Ansible
Lesson 19 lab solution - Automating switch setup with Ansible

Managing Virtual Machines with Ansible

Learning objectives
Managing KVM virtual machines
Understanding vSphere management
Managing ESXi
Lesson 20 lab - Managing a KVM-based virtual classroom with Ansible
Lesson 20 lab solution - Managing a KVM-based virtual classroom with Ansible

Managing Kubernetes with Ansible

Learning objectives
Understanding requirements for managing Kubernetes
Preparing the Kubernetes setup
Writing a playbook to create a Kubernetes cluster
Running the playbook to create a Kubernetes cluster
Managing Kubernetes resources
Lesson 21 lab - Automating Kubernetes application deployment with Ansible
Lesson 21 lab solution - Automating Kubernetes application deployment with Ansible

Summary

Ansible - from basics to guru - Summary