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Ansible Installation

Ansible is a powerful automation platform for configuration management, application deployment, and orchestration that you’ll use extensively in HackerOps labs.

Info

Pre-configured VMs: Ansible is already installed on the HackerOps Ubuntu VMs. Skip this guide if using the pre-configured environment.

What is Ansible?

Ansible allows you to:

Automate server configuration without agents
Deploy applications consistently across environments
Orchestrate complex workflows with playbooks
Manage cloud resources alongside Terraform

Official Documentation: Ansible Installation Guide

Installation Methods

Using Official PPA (Recommended):

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install prerequisites
sudo apt install software-properties-common -y

# Add Ansible PPA
sudo apt-add-repository --yes --update ppa:ansible/ansible

# Install Ansible
sudo apt update
sudo apt install ansible -y

# Verify installation
ansible --version

Alternative - Using pip:

# Install pip if not available
sudo apt update
sudo apt install python3-pip -y

# Install Ansible
pip3 install ansible

Using Homebrew (Recommended):

# Install Ansible
brew install ansible

# Verify installation
ansible --version

Alternative - Using pip:

# Install pip if needed
python3 -m pip install --user pipx
python3 -m pipx ensurepath

# Install Ansible
pipx install ansible

Info

Requirement: Ansible requires a Unix/Linux environment. On Windows, use WSL or the pre-configured VM.

Option 1: Use WSL (Recommended)

If you already have WSL set up (see Ubuntu guide):

# In your WSL Ubuntu environment
sudo apt update
sudo apt install software-properties-common -y
sudo apt-add-repository --yes --update ppa:ansible/ansible
sudo apt update
sudo apt install ansible -y

# Verify installation
ansible --version

Option 2: Use Python pip

# Install Python first, then use pip
pip install ansible

# Verify installation
ansible --version

Verify Installation

After installation, verify Ansible is working:

# Check version
ansible --version

# Should output something like:
# ansible [core 2.14.0]

Basic Usage Test

Test your installation with a simple ping:

# Test local connection
ansible localhost -m ping

# Should output:
# localhost | SUCCESS => {
#     "changed": false,
#     "ping": "pong"
# }

Tip

Success! If you see “pong” in the response, Ansible is properly installed and ready for the labs.

Next Steps

With Ansible installed:

Set up cloud platforms - Configure AWS, Azure, and DigitalOcean
Start Lab 1 - Begin with infrastructure automation
Learn Ansible basics - Practice with playbooks in the labs

Troubleshooting

Command not found:

Restart your terminal after installation
Check if Ansible is in your PATH: echo $PATH
Try reinstalling using pip: pip3 install ansible

Permission errors:

Use sudo for Ubuntu package installations
On macOS, try: brew doctor to check Homebrew setup

Python errors:

Ensure Python 3.6+ is installed: python3 --version
Update pip: python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip