Provisioning Infrastructure Ansible

YAML
---
name: provisioning-infrastructure-ansible
description: Provisions and configures infrastructure using Ansible playbooks and automation. Use when setting up servers, configuring services, or automating CLI/API operations.
---

# Infrastructure Provisioning with Ansible

YAML
# site.yml - Basic server setup
---
- hosts: webservers
  become: yes
  tasks:
    - name: Install nginx
      package:
        name: nginx
        state: present
    
    - name: Start and enable nginx
      systemd:
        name: nginx
        state: started
        enabled: yes
    
    - name: Configure firewall
      ufw:
        rule: allow
        port: '80'

Run: ansible-playbook -i inventory site.yml

1. Inventory Setup - Define target hosts and groups
2. Playbook Structure - Create role-based organization
3. Variable Management - Set environment-specific configs
4. Task Implementation - Write idempotent tasks
5. Testing - Run with --check and --diff
6. Deployment - Execute against target environments

Progress checklist for complex deployments:

• Inventory configured with proper groups
• Variables defined per environment
• Playbooks tested with --check
• Backup/rollback plan in place
• Monitoring configured for new services

Example 1: Docker Container Deployment Input: Deploy application stack with database

YAML
- name: Deploy app stack
  hosts: docker_hosts
  tasks:
    - name: Create app network
      docker_network:
        name: app_network
    
    - name: Deploy database
      docker_container:
        name: postgres
        image: postgres:13
        networks:
          - name: app_network
        env:
          POSTGRES_DB: "{{ app_db_name }}"

Example 2: API Automation Input: Configure cloud resources via API

YAML
- name: Provision AWS resources
  hosts: localhost
  tasks:
    - name: Create security group
      ec2_group:
        name: web-sg
        description: Web server security group
        rules:
          - proto: tcp
            ports:
              - 80
              - 443
            cidr_ip: 0.0.0.0/0

• Use roles for reusable components: roles/nginx/tasks/main.yml
• Encrypt secrets with ansible-vault: ansible-vault encrypt group_vars/production/secrets.yml
• Tag tasks for selective runs: tags: [config, deploy]
• Set fact caching for performance: fact_caching = memory
• Use handlers for service restarts: notify: restart nginx
• Template configurations with Jinja2: template: src=nginx.conf.j2 dest=/etc/nginx/nginx.conf

• Don't hardcode values - Use variables and templates instead
• Avoid shell/command modules when native modules exist
• Don't skip idempotency - Tasks should be safe to run multiple times
• Don't ignore changed_when - Set appropriate conditions for task reporting
• Avoid running as root unnecessarily - Use become only when needed
• Don't mix environments - Keep staging/production inventories separate