Ansible Cloud Automation for Infrastructure Teams Training Course

Course overview

Infrastructure teams are often asked to provision cloud environments quickly while maintaining consistent security controls, naming standards, patch levels and configuration baselines. Manual portal work, copied scripts and undocumented fixes make those requirements difficult to meet at scale. This course addresses the practical need to automate repeatable cloud operations with Ansible, giving teams a controlled way to build, configure and update infrastructure across development, test and production environments.

Participants learn how to write and organise Ansible playbooks, inventories, roles and variables for cloud infrastructure automation. They work with cloud modules and dynamic inventory to provision virtual machines, networks, storage and security settings, then apply operating-system configuration after deployment. The course covers idempotency, conditionals, loops, templates, secrets handling, error control, testing and Git-based collaboration. Participants also learn how Ansible Automation Platform supports job templates, inventories, credentials, role-based access and auditable execution.

Teaching combines short instructor demonstrations with guided labs based on a realistic cloud operations scenario. Each participant builds an automation repository that provisions and configures a small cloud application environment, including reusable roles, environment variables, documented execution steps and validation tasks. The final workshop requires participants to review an automation requirement, select an appropriate playbook structure and present an implementation plan that could be applied to their own estate.

The course is suited to infrastructure professionals moving from manual administration or basic scripting into repeatable cloud automation. It is equally relevant to teams standardising existing Ansible use, introducing Automation Controller governance, or reducing reliance on individually maintained deployment scripts.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Create YAML-based Ansible playbooks that automate cloud provisioning and configuration tasks
• Build static and dynamic inventories for targeting cloud hosts across multiple environments
• Provision virtual machines, networks, storage and security controls using Ansible cloud collections
• Develop reusable roles, templates and variable structures for standardised infrastructure builds
• Apply idempotency, conditionals, loops and handlers to produce reliable automation runs
• Protect sensitive automation data using Ansible Vault and credential management practices
• Configure job templates, inventories and access controls in Ansible Automation Platform
• Produce a Git-managed cloud automation repository with documented runbooks and validation tasks

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Cloud Engineers — who need repeatable methods for provisioning and configuring cloud environments
• Systems Administrators — who are moving manual server builds and configuration tasks into automation
• Infrastructure Engineers — who must standardise deployment patterns across development, test and production
• DevOps Engineers — who need to integrate Ansible playbooks into controlled delivery workflows
• Platform Engineers — who create self-service and governed infrastructure automation capabilities
• IT Operations Team Leads — who need auditable, reusable automation for operational change and recovery

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should be comfortable working with Linux command-line tools, files and directories, SSH connectivity, and basic networking concepts such as IP addresses, DNS and security groups. Familiarity with cloud concepts including virtual machines, virtual networks, identity permissions and storage is expected; hands-on AWS or Microsoft Azure experience is useful but not essential. Participants should understand simple YAML structures and have basic Python or shell scripting awareness, although they will not be required to write Python. Prior Ansible experience is not required. Complete beginners should expect a practical introduction before progressing to multi-file playbooks and cloud automation patterns.

Training methodology

Instructor-led sessions establish each Ansible concept before participants apply it in a managed cloud lab. Demonstrations show the relationship between playbooks, inventories, collections, cloud APIs and Automation Controller, followed by individual build exercises and structured troubleshooting tasks. Small groups review alternative role structures and diagnose deliberately flawed automation runs. Throughout the week, participants extend one cloud application environment rather than completing disconnected exercises. The final session includes an application-planning workshop in which participants map a real workplace automation candidate into roles, inventories, controls and validation steps.

Course outline

Day 1: Ansible foundations for cloud operations

• Ansible architecture, control nodes and managed hosts
• YAML syntax, playbook structure and task execution
• Installing Ansible collections and using ansible-navigator
• SSH connectivity, privilege escalation and host access
• Static inventories, inventory groups and host variables
• Ad hoc commands for discovery and operational tasks
• Idempotency and interpreting Ansible execution output

Workshop: Participants create an inventory and first playbook that validates connectivity, configures baseline packages and reports the resulting host state.

Day 2: Building maintainable automation content

• Variables, precedence and environment-specific values
• Facts gathering and data-driven task selection
• Conditionals, loops and registered task results
• Handlers, blocks, rescue clauses and error control
• Jinja2 templates for configuration file generation
• Role structure, defaults, vars, tasks and handlers
• Git repository layout for Ansible automation projects

Workshop: Participants refactor a single server-configuration playbook into a reusable role with templates, variables and error-handling logic.

Day 3: Provisioning cloud infrastructure with Ansible

• Cloud collections and authentication to cloud provider APIs
• AWS EC2 instance provisioning and tagging patterns
• Azure virtual machine provisioning and resource groups
• Virtual networks, subnets and security group automation
• Storage, images and instance configuration parameters
• Dynamic inventory from cloud resource tags and metadata
• Provision-then-configure workflow design

Workshop: Participants provision a tagged cloud application tier, generate dynamic inventory and apply a post-build configuration role to the new hosts.

Day 4: Secure, tested and governed automation

• Ansible Vault for encrypted variables and secret files
• Credential separation and least-privilege cloud access
• ansible-lint rules and playbook quality checks
• Check mode, diff mode and safe change previews
• Assertions, validation tasks and post-deployment tests
• Ansible Automation Platform inventories and credentials
• Job templates, surveys, schedules and role-based access control

Workshop: Participants secure a cloud deployment playbook, add validation checks and publish it as a controlled job template with an operator survey.

Day 5: Operationalising cloud automation

• Multi-environment inventory and variable design
• Promotion patterns for development, test and production
• Workflow job templates and approval checkpoints
• Failure analysis using task output and execution logs
• Configuration drift detection and remediation playbooks
• Documentation standards for roles, playbooks and runbooks
• Automation candidate assessment and implementation planning

Workshop: Participants complete and present a Git-managed automation solution for a cloud application environment, including a role map, job workflow, validation plan and operational runbook.

Tools & standards covered

Ansible Automation Platform, Ansible, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions