Ansible

Ansible is an open source, command-line IT automation software application written in Python. It can configure systems, deploy software, and orchestrate advanced workflows to support application deployment, system updates, and more.

I use ansible to help with any repetitive tasks, installs, and backups!

I've only begun to scratch the surface with Ansible and am certainly not an expert.

Considering this, I'm only going to show how I've used Ansible and give some examples. I'll leave the tutorials to those that understand it better and you can find on YouTube / Google.

My Use Cases

Below are the main use cases I have currently for Ansible.

1. Updates
2. Installations

Updates

For keeping my Raspberry Pi linux distribution up to date, I utilize a simple playbook to run updates and upgrades.

apt.yml

- hosts: "*"
  become: yes
  tasks:
    - name: apt
      apt:
        update_cache: yes
        upgrade: "yes"

Installations

I have setup Ansible playbooks for several of my services that I want installed on my Raspberry Pi or any home lab. Almost all of the installation instructions in the tutorial-basics have been setup as Ansible playbooks.

Docker Installation

docker.yml

- hosts: "*"
  become: yes
  tasks:
    - name: install packages to allow apt to use a repo over HTTPS
      apt:
        pkg:
          - ca-certificates
          - curl
          - gnupg
        state: present
        update_cache: true
      become: true

    - name: Set up GPG key
      ansible.builtin.shell: |
        install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
        curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/debian/gpg | gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg
        chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg
        echo \
        "deb [arch="$(dpkg --print-architecture)" signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/debian \
        "$(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME")" stable" | \
        tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
      become: true

    - name: Update apt
      apt:
        update_cache: yes
        upgrade: "yes"

    - name: install Docker Engine
      apt:
        pkg:
          - docker-ce
          - docker-ce-cli
          - containerd.io
          - docker-buildx-plugin
          - docker-compose-plugin
        state: present
        update_cache: true
      become: true

    - name: Add pi user to Docker user group
      ansible.builtin.shell: usermod -aG docker pi
      become: true

Oh My Zsh

ohmyzsh.yml

- hosts: "*"
  vars:
    the_user: "{{ ansible_user_id }}"
  tasks:
    - name: install vim and zsh packages
      apt:
        pkg:
          - zsh
          - vim
        state: present
        update_cache: true
      become: true

    - name: Install Oh My ZSH and set ZSH as default
      ansible.builtin.shell: yes 'y' | sh -c "$(wget -O- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"
      args:
        creates: ~/.oh-my-zsh

    - name: Register shell var
      ansible.builtin.shell: echo $SHELL
      register: shell

    - name: Register zsh var
      ansible.builtin.shell: which zsh
      register: which_zsh

    - name: Set ZSH as default
      ansible.builtin.shell: chsh -s $(which zsh) {{ the_user }}
      become: true
      when: shell.stdout != which_zsh.stdout

    - name: Set personal custom repo for Oh My Zsh
      ansible.builtin.shell: |
        mv custom custom-old

        git clone https://github.com/austinbspencer/custom-aliases.git custom

        cd custom

        git checkout $USER
      args:
        chdir: ~/.oh-my-zsh/
        creates: custom-old

Conclusion