Ansible IT Automation and Configuration Training Course

Course overview

Manual server configuration, inconsistent application deployments and undocumented operational fixes create avoidable risk for IT teams. When engineers make changes directly on individual hosts, the organisation cannot reliably reproduce environments, verify configuration state or recover quickly after failure. This five-day Ansible IT Automation and Configuration Training Course gives infrastructure and operations professionals a practical route from repetitive command-line administration to controlled, versioned automation.

Participants learn to write and run Ansible playbooks for Linux configuration, software deployment, user administration, service management and repeatable environment builds. The course covers YAML syntax, inventories, variables, facts, conditionals, loops, handlers, templates, roles, collections and Ansible Vault. It also addresses idempotent design, error handling, validation, Git-based source control and job execution through Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, enabling participants to build automations that can be reviewed, reused and safely operated by a team.

Instructor-led demonstrations are followed by guided lab work in realistic multi-host environments. Participants diagnose broken playbooks, automate a staged configuration scenario and work through peer review of automation code. By the end of the week, each participant leaves with a structured Ansible project: inventories, reusable roles, encrypted variables, tested playbooks and a documented runbook for automating a representative IT service. A certificate is awarded on completion.

The course is suited to system administrators, infrastructure engineers, DevOps practitioners and technical leads who need to introduce Ansible into operational work or improve existing playbook quality. It is equally relevant to managers seeking a more reliable, auditable way to standardise configuration changes across development, test and production estates.

Course objectives

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

• Create YAML-based Ansible playbooks that configure Linux hosts, packages, users, services and files.
• Build static and dynamic inventories with host groups, group variables and host variables.
• Apply variables, facts, conditionals, loops and handlers to produce adaptable, idempotent automation.
• Develop reusable Ansible roles with defaults, tasks, templates, handlers and documented dependencies.
• Secure credentials and sensitive configuration values using Ansible Vault.
• Troubleshoot failed playbook runs using verbosity flags, registered results, assertions and error-handling blocks.
• Manage playbook source code in Git using branches, commits, pull-request review and versioned releases.
• Publish a tested automation project and runbook for a repeatable multi-host configuration deployment.

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Systems Administrators — who need to replace manual Linux configuration and server provisioning tasks with repeatable playbooks.
• Infrastructure Engineers — who standardise server builds, middleware configuration and operational change across multiple environments.
• DevOps Engineers — who need Ansible automation that can be maintained in Git and integrated into delivery workflows.
• Cloud Operations Engineers — who manage configuration consistency across virtual machines and hybrid infrastructure.
• Technical Support and Operations Analysts — who need safe, documented procedures for recurring service and configuration tasks.
• IT Team Leads — who need to establish shared automation practices, code review and operational controls for their teams.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should be comfortable navigating a Linux command line, editing text files and carrying out basic administration tasks such as checking services, managing files and using SSH. Familiarity with IP addressing, hostnames, user accounts and common Linux package managers is assumed. Some exposure to scripting or Git is useful but not essential; the course introduces the Git workflow used in the labs. No prior Ansible, Python programming, Red Hat certification or automation-platform experience is required. Complete beginners to Linux administration should expect to spend additional preparation time on shell commands and permissions.

Training methodology

The course combines focused instructor-led explanations with daily lab sessions in a multi-host Linux environment. Participants write YAML, execute playbooks against managed nodes, inspect task output and correct deliberately introduced failures. Short case studies address common operational work, including baseline configuration, service deployment and controlled changes. Participants review one another’s role structure and variable design using Git-based practices. The final day uses a capstone scenario to consolidate the week’s work into a tested automation project, runbook and individual workplace application plan.

Course outline

Day 1: Ansible foundations and first automation

• Ansible architecture: control node, managed nodes and agentless SSH connectivity
• Installing ansible-core and validating the control environment
• YAML structure, indentation, mappings, lists and quoting rules
• Ad hoc commands for discovery and one-off administration
• Static inventories, host patterns and inventory group hierarchy
• Core modules for packages, files, users, services and command execution
• First playbooks, task sequencing and idempotent module behaviour

Workshop: Participants build and run a baseline playbook that configures users, packages, directories and services across a grouped Linux inventory.

Day 2: Reusable configuration logic

• Variable precedence across playbooks, inventories, groups and hosts
• Gathering and using Ansible facts for platform-aware configuration
• Jinja2 templates for managed configuration files
• Conditionals with when statements and Boolean expressions
• Loops for repeated users, packages, files and structured data
• Handlers and notify patterns for controlled service restarts
• Registered results, changed status and task output inspection

Workshop: Participants automate deployment of a configurable web service, producing a templated configuration and conditional service-restart workflow.

Day 3: Roles, collections and maintainable projects

• Ansible project layout for inventories, playbooks, roles and group variables
• Role anatomy: tasks, defaults, vars, handlers, templates and files
• Role dependencies and role invocation from site playbooks
• Ansible Galaxy collections, namespaces and module documentation
• Creating custom roles for repeatable server baseline configuration
• Git repositories, branching, commits and pull-request review for playbooks
• ansible-lint conventions and readable automation code standards

Workshop: Participants refactor earlier playbooks into a version-controlled role-based project and submit a peer-reviewed baseline role.

Day 4: Reliable, secure and controlled execution

• Ansible Vault for encrypted variables, files and vault password handling
• Privilege escalation with become, remote users and least-privilege considerations
• Error handling using block, rescue, always, failed_when and changed_when
• Assertions, pre-flight checks and post-deployment validation tasks
• Tags, limits, check mode and diff mode for controlled changes
• Debugging with verbosity levels, debug module and play recap analysis
• Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform concepts: projects, inventories, credentials and job templates

Workshop: Participants secure credentials and repair a failing deployment playbook, producing a validated execution procedure with rollback-aware error handling.

Day 5: Operational automation capstone

• Automation design for development, test and production environment separation
• Dynamic inventory concepts and integration patterns for infrastructure sources
• Serial execution, rolling updates and host failure thresholds
• Delegation, run_once and orchestration across dependent services
• Documentation standards for roles, variables, assumptions and runbooks
• Automation Controller job templates, surveys and role-based execution controls
• Measuring automation value through repeatability, elapsed time and change evidence

Workshop: Participants complete a capstone multi-host deployment, delivering a Git-managed Ansible project, encrypted configuration, execution runbook and workplace adoption plan.

Tools & standards covered

Ansible, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, Git, Visual Studio Code

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