Ansible is a robust open-source automation tool commonly used for configuration management, application deployment, and IT environment orchestration. For those new to DevOps or automation, working on Ansible projects for beginners provides a hands-on foundation to understand its core concepts and practical applications. These projects offer structured, real-world scenarios to practice automating repetitive tasks, managing infrastructure as code, and streamlining system administration processes. By engaging with Ansible real time projects, learners will gain essential skills such as writing playbooks, managing inventories, using variables and handlers, and integrating with other DevOps tools. These practical skills not only strengthen your technical capabilities but also prepare you for real-world deployment and problem-solving, making you job-ready in today’s automation-driven IT landscape.
Top Ansible Projects for Beginners
1. Automate Apache or Nginx Web Server Installation
Objective: Set up Apache or Nginx web servers automatically across multiple nodes.
Skills Developed: Learn system administration, package management, web server configuration, and deploying simple websites.
Implementation:
- Create a playbook to install Apache or Nginx on remote servers using Ansible’s apt or yum modules.
- Configure the server to serve a default webpage or a custom HTML file.
- Set up SSL for secure connections (using Let’s Encrypt, for example).
- Test the server’s functionality by sending HTTP requests to verify that the website is being served correctly.
- Use Ansible templates to create custom configuration files for each server.
2. User Management Automation
Objective: Automate the management of user accounts across servers, including creation, deletion, and modification of user details.
Skills Developed: Learn about user management, groups, permissions, and using variables in Ansible for user data.
Implementation:
- Create playbooks that manage user accounts and their properties (username, password, groups).
- Use Ansible’s user module to add, modify, or remove users.
- Use group to assign users to groups and manage group memberships.
- Create an inventory file for different environments (e.g., dev, staging, production) with different sets of users.
- Automate permissions for different users based on roles and ensure that each user has appropriate access rights.
3. Automate MySQL Database Installation
Objective: Install and configure MySQL databases automatically across systems.
Skills Developed: Learn database configuration, securing MySQL, managing database users, and handling role-based access.
Implementation:
- Use Ansible’s mysql_db and mysql_user modules to create databases and users.
- Automate the installation of MySQL on multiple machines.
- Write tasks to create databases and assign users with specific privileges (e.g., read/write, administrative rights).
- Secure MySQL by disabling root login from remote hosts and setting up strong passwords.
- Automate database backups and ensure periodic data backups are configured.
Check out: MySQL Course in Chennai
4. Firewall Configuration with UFW or firewalld
Objective: Set up firewalls on your Linux servers to control incoming and outgoing network traffic.
Skills Developed: Learn about system security, firewall management, and network traffic control.
Implementation:
- Use Ansible to configure firewall rules on Ubuntu (UFW) or CentOS (firewalld) systems.
- Define specific ports to open or close based on the application requirements (e.g., HTTP/HTTPS ports for web servers).
- Configure firewalld zones to limit access to trusted IP addresses.
- Write Ansible playbooks that configure default policies (e.g., block all except specific ports) and manage existing firewall rules.
5. Deploy a Static Website with Ansible
Objective: Automate the deployment of static websites to remote web servers.
Skills Developed: Learn about file transfer, web server configuration, and simple site deployment.
Implementation:
- Create an Ansible playbook to deploy a simple static website built with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
- Set up Apache or Nginx web server to serve the static files.
- Use Ansible’s copy module to upload static files from your local machine to the remote server.
- Configure virtual hosts in Apache or server blocks in Nginx for your website.
6. Install and Configure Docker
Objective: Set up Docker on multiple systems and configure it for container management.
Skills Developed: Learn containerization, Docker installation, managing containers with Ansible, and handling Docker images.
Implementation:
- Automate the installation of Docker on remote servers using the docker module.
- Write playbooks that pull Docker images and deploy containers.
- Create Docker containers to run simple applications, such as a web app or database.
- Configure networking for Docker containers (e.g., exposing container ports to the host).
- Use Ansible to scale up or scale down the number of containers running based on application needs.
Check out: Docker Course in Chennai
7. Set Up Cron Jobs
Objective: Automate the setup of cron jobs to schedule recurring tasks.
Skills Developed: Learn about cron job scheduling, task automation, and repetitive task management.
Implementation:
Write Ansible playbooks to automate cron jobs across multiple servers.
Automate tasks like log rotation, file backup, or regular updates using cron.
Use Ansible to ensure cron jobs are configured correctly and executed at specified intervals.
Configure cron with specific user privileges to ensure tasks are run with the correct permissions.
8. LAMP Stack Deployment
Objective: Deploy a full LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) stack using Ansible.
Skills Developed: Learn to configure web servers, databases, and scripting languages for web hosting.
Implementation:
- Use Ansible to install and configure Apache, MySQL, and PHP.
- Configure Apache to serve PHP-based websites.
- Use mysql_db to create a database and mysql_user to configure users and access.
- Set up PHP and Apache to work together and deploy a sample PHP application.
- Secure the LAMP stack, including setting up SSL certificates for secure connections.
9. Ansible and Git Integration
Objective: Automate the installation of Git and clone repositories to remote systems.
Skills Developed: Learn about version control, Git configuration, and automating repository management.
Implementation:
- Write Ansible playbooks to install Git on remote systems using the apt or yum modules.
- Automate cloning of Git repositories to specific directories on remote servers.
- Set up Git configurations for user information (name, email) and integrate with continuous integration (CI) systems.
- Use Ansible to update repositories with the latest changes and automate deployments.
Check out: PHP Course in Chennai
10. Log Rotation Setup
Objective: Automate log rotation to efficiently manage log files and avoid excessive disk space consumption.
Skills Developed: Learn about log file management, log rotation policies, and best practices for keeping log data manageable.
Implementation:
- Use Ansible to configure logrotate on Linux servers, specifying how often logs should be rotated and how many backups should be kept.
- Automate log rotation for different services (e.g., Apache logs, system logs).
- Configure retention policies to delete old logs after a specified period to conserve disk space.
- Ensure that logs are archived in compressed formats and stored in dedicated directories for easy retrieval.
11. Automated Security Patching
Objective: Automate the installation of security patches to keep systems consistently up-to-date and secure.
Skills Developed: Learn about patch management, security best practices, and the automation of system updates.
Implementation:
- Write playbooks to automate the application of security patches across multiple systems.
- Use the apt or yum module to update packages with security fixes.
- Schedule automatic updates or notifications to inform admins when patches are applied.
- Test the patching process to ensure systems continue functioning without disruptions.
12. System Package Updates
Objective: Automate the process of updating system packages to the latest versions on remote machines.
Skills Developed: Learn package management (apt, yum), system maintenance, and update automation.
Implementation:
- Create a playbook to update all installed packages to the latest available versions on target systems.
- Handle the deployment of security patches, bug fixes, and feature enhancements.
- Test the system to ensure applications run smoothly after updates, handling any package dependencies that might arise.
Check out: Git and Github Course
13. Configure SSH Key-Based Authentication
Objective: Automate the setup of SSH key-based authentication for secure, password-less login between servers.
Skills Developed: Learn secure communication via SSH, key management, and automation of secure login setups.
Implementation:
- Write a playbook to generate SSH keys and distribute public keys to multiple systems.
- Ensure that password-based authentication is disabled for enhanced security.
- Automate the addition of the SSH public key to authorized keys files on remote machines.
- Set up SSH agent forwarding to allow secure communication between multiple nodes.
14. Automate Python Environment Setup
Objective: Set up Python environments, including the installation of Python and necessary libraries, across multiple machines.
Skills Developed: Learn about Python package management, creating isolated environments, and automating Python setups.
Implementation:
- Write a playbook to install Python, pip, and virtual environments on multiple servers.
- Automate the creation of virtual environments for different applications and projects.
- Install necessary Python libraries from a requirements file and ensure the environment is configured correctly.
15. Monitoring Agent Deployment (e.g., Prometheus Node Exporter)
Objective: Automate the deployment of monitoring agents like Prometheus Node Exporter to collect system metrics and monitor server health.
Skills Developed: Learn about monitoring systems, system performance metrics, and integrating with alerting tools.
Implementation:
- Write playbooks to install and configure Prometheus Node Exporter on all target servers.
- Configure Prometheus to scrape metrics from each node and visualize data on dashboards.
- Set up alerts based on specific performance thresholds, such as high CPU usage or disk space.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Ansible projects for beginners offer an excellent opportunity to gain practical experience in automation and system administration. By working on Ansible real-time projects, you’ll develop essential skills for deploying and managing IT infrastructure efficiently.
These hands-on projects will build your expertise in automating tasks and managing configurations across multiple servers. To dive deeper into Ansible and enhance your skills, consider enrolling in an Ansible Course in Chennai for comprehensive training and real-time project exposure.
