ansible-automation

SKILL.md

Ansible Automation

Table of Contents

Overview

When to Use

Quick Start

Reference Guides

Best Practices

Overview

Automate infrastructure provisioning, configuration management, and application deployment across multiple servers using Ansible playbooks, roles, and dynamic inventory management.

When to Use

Configuration management

Application deployment

Infrastructure patching and updates

Multi-server orchestration

Cloud instance provisioning

Container management

Database administration

Security compliance automation

Quick Start

Minimal working example:

# site.yml - Main playbook
---
- name: Deploy application stack
  hosts: all
  gather_facts: yes
  serial: 1  # Rolling deployment

  pre_tasks:
    - name: Display host information
      debug:
        var: inventory_hostname
      tags: [always]

  roles:
    - common
    - docker
    - application

  post_tasks:
    - name: Verify deployment
      uri:
        url: "http://{{ inventory_hostname }}:8080/health"
        status_code: 200
      retries: 3
      delay: 10
// ... (see reference guides for full implementation)

Reference Guides

Detailed implementations in the references/ directory:

Guide
Contents

Playbook Structure and Best Practices
Playbook Structure and Best Practices

Inventory and Variables
Inventory and Variables

Ansible Deployment Script
Ansible Deployment Script

Configuration Template
Configuration Template

Best Practices

✅ DO

Use roles for modularity

Implement proper error handling

Use templates for configuration

Leverage handlers for idempotency

Use serial deployment for rolling updates

Implement health checks

Store inventory in version control

Use vault for sensitive data

❌ DON'T

Use command/shell without conditionals

Copy files without templates

Run without check mode first

Mix environments in inventory

Hardcode values

Ignore error handling

Use shell for simple tasks

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