Ansible Automation

Ansible Automation is a powerful, open-source IT automation engine that simplifies tasks like configuration management, application deployment, and orchestration. A key differentiator is its agentless architecture, meaning it communicates with managed nodes over standard protocols like SSH or WinRM without requiring any client software to be installed, thus reducing overhead and complexity. Automation workflows are defined in human-readable YAML files called "playbooks," where users declare the desired state of their systems, making it an accessible and popular tool for implementing Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and streamlining operations across diverse environments, from servers and cloud instances to network devices.

1. Introduction to Automation and Ansible
   1. Core Concepts of IT Automation
      1. Configuration Management
         1. Definition and Purpose
         2. Benefits of Configuration Management
         3. Challenges in Configuration Management
         4. Common Configuration Management Tools
         5. Configuration Drift
         6. Desired State Configuration
      2. Orchestration
         1. Definition and Scope
         2. Workflow Automation
         3. Multi-System Coordination
         4. Event-Driven Orchestration
         5. Service Orchestration
      3. Application Deployment
         1. Deployment Strategies
            1. Blue-Green Deployment
            2. Rolling Deployment
            3. Canary Deployment
         2. Automation in CI/CD Pipelines
         3. Rollback and Rollforward Concepts
         4. Zero-Downtime Deployment
      4. Infrastructure as Code
         1. Principles of IaC
         2. Declarative vs Imperative Approaches
         3. Benefits of IaC
         4. Version Control for Infrastructure
         5. Infrastructure Testing
   2. What is Ansible
      1. Overview and History
         1. Red Hat Acquisition
         2. Open Source vs Enterprise
      2. Key Features and Philosophy
         1. Agentless Architecture
            1. How Agentless Works
            2. SSH-Based Communication
            3. Advantages of Agentless
            4. Limitations of Agentless
         2. Declarative Language
            1. Desired State Configuration
            2. Declarative vs Imperative Syntax
            3. Expressing Desired State in Ansible
         3. Idempotency
            1. Definition and Importance
            2. Idempotency in Ansible Modules
            3. Testing for Idempotency
         4. Simplicity and Human-Readability
            1. YAML Syntax
            2. Why YAML is Used
            3. Readability and Accessibility
            4. Learning Curve Benefits
   3. Ansible Architecture
      1. Control Node
         1. Role and Responsibilities
         2. Supported Operating Systems
         3. Hardware Requirements
         4. Network Requirements
      2. Managed Nodes
         1. Requirements for Managed Nodes
         2. Supported Platforms
            1. Linux Systems
            2. Windows Systems
            3. Network Devices
            4. Cloud Services
         3. Connection Requirements
      3. Inventory
         1. Purpose of Inventory
         2. Inventory Formats
            1. INI Format
            2. YAML Format
            3. JSON Format
         3. Static vs Dynamic Inventory
      4. Modules
         1. Core Modules
         2. Community Modules
         3. Custom Modules
         4. Module Execution Flow
         5. Module Return Values
      5. Plugins
         1. Types of Plugins
            1. Connection Plugins
            2. Callback Plugins
            3. Lookup Plugins
            4. Filter Plugins
            5. Action Plugins
         2. Extending Ansible with Plugins
      6. Playbooks
         1. Role in Automation
         2. Structure and Components
         3. Execution Flow
   4. Common Use Cases for Ansible
      1. Server Provisioning
         1. Bare Metal Provisioning
         2. Cloud Instance Provisioning
         3. Container Provisioning
      2. System Configuration
         1. Operating System Configuration
         2. Application Configuration
         3. Security Configuration
      3. Continuous Delivery
         1. Integration with CI/CD Tools
         2. Automated Testing
         3. Deployment Automation
      4. Security and Compliance
         1. Automated Patch Management
         2. Compliance Auditing
         3. Security Hardening
         4. Vulnerability Management
      5. Network Automation
         1. Device Configuration
         2. Network State Enforcement
         3. Network Monitoring Setup
   5. Ansible vs Other Automation Tools
      1. Comparison with Puppet
         1. Architecture Differences
         2. Language and Approach
         3. Agent vs Agentless
         4. Learning Curve
      2. Comparison with Chef
         1. Configuration Styles
         2. Community and Ecosystem
         3. Ruby vs YAML
      3. Comparison with SaltStack
         1. Event-Driven Automation
         2. Scalability Considerations
         3. Communication Models
      4. Comparison with Terraform
         1. Infrastructure as Code Focus
         2. State Management
         3. Use Cases and Integration
         4. Complementary Usage