Ansible RHCE Exam Setup Guide

1. Initial Setup and Configuration

# ssh student@workstation

# Install required packages
# sudo yum install ansible-navigator ansible tree vim -y (In Exam it will work)

# Configure vim settings
# vim /home/student/.vimrc
 set ai ts=2 et cursorcolumn

# source /home/student/.vimrc
# mkdir /home/student/ansible
# cd /home/student/ansible

# Create inventory file
# vim /home/student/ansible/inventory
[dev]
servera.lab.example.com
[test]
serverb.lab.example.com
[prod]
serverc.lab.example.com
[balancers]
serverd.lab.example.com
[webservers:children]
prod

# Create ansible configuration file
# vim /home/student/ansible/ansible.cfg
[defaults]
remote_user=devops
inventory=/home/student/ansible/inventory
roles_path=/home/student/ansible/roles
collections_paths=/home/student/ansible/collections

[privilege_escalation]
become=true

# ansible all -m command -a 'id'
(you should get the root user as output)

2. Repository Configuration Playbook

# vim /home/student/ansible/adhoc.yml
---
- name: Creating yum repository
  hosts: all
  tasks:
   - name: Create BaseOS Repository 
     ansible.builtin.yum_repository:
      name: "baseos" 
      description: "Baseos Description" 
      baseurl: http://content/rhel9.0/x86_64/dvd/BaseOS 
      gpgcheck: yes 
      gpgkey: http://content.example.com/rhel9.0/x86_64/dvd/RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-release 
      enabled: yes
   - name: Create Appstream Repository
     ansible.builtin.yum_repository: 
      name: "appstream" 
      description: "App Description" 
      baseurl: http://content/rhel9.0/x86_64/dvd/AppStream 
      gpgcheck: yes 
      gpgkey: http://content.example.com/rhel9.0/x86_64/dvd/RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-release 
      enabled: yes

# ansible-navigator run adhoc.yml -m stdout

# ansible all -m command -a 'yum repolist all'  #(verify the output)

3. Apache Role Creation

# ansible-galaxy init /home/student/ansible/roles/apache 

# vim /home/student/ansible/roles/apache/templates/template.j2
My host is {{ ansible_fqdn }} on {{ ansible_default_ipv4.address }}

# vim /home/student/ansible/roles/apache/tasks/main.yml 
- name: Install httpd package
  ansible.builtin.dnf:
    name: 
      - httpd
      - firewalld
    state: present
- name: start service httpd
  ansible.builtin.service:
    name: httpd
    state: started
    enabled: yes
- name: start service firewalld
  ansible.builtin.service:
    name: firewalld
    state: started
    enabled: yes
- name: Add http service in firewall rule
  ansible.posix.firewalld:
    service: http
    state: enabled
    permanent: yes
    immediate: yes
- name: Copy the template.j2 file to web server directory
  ansible.builtin.template:
    src: template.j2
    dest: /var/www/html/index.html

# vim /home/student/ansible/apache_role.yml
---
- name: apache deploy
  hosts: dev
  roles:
    - apache

# ansible-navigator run apache_role.yml -m stdout

# curl http://servera.lab.example.com     #(Verify the output)

4. Roles Playbook (balancer and phpinfo)

# vim roles.yml
---
- name: Run the phpinfo first
  hosts: webservers
  roles:
    - phpinfo
- name: Run the balancer
  hosts: balancers
  roles:
    - balancer

Note: (Do not change the above roles order)

# ansible-navigator run  roles.yml -m stdout 

# open this http://serverd.lab.example.com url in new tab
# open this http://serverc.lab.example.com url in new tab
# open this http://servera.lab.example.com url in new tab

5. SELinux Configuration Playbook

# cp -rvf /home/student/ansible/collections/ansible_collections/redhat/rhel_system_roles/roles/* /home/student/roles/

# vim selinux.yml
---
- name: Configure selinux as enforcing mode
  hosts: all
  vars:
    - selinux_state: enforcing 
  roles:
    - selinux

# ansible-navigator run selinux.yml -m stdout 

# ansible all -m command -a "cat /etc/selinux/config"

6. Package Management Playbook

# vim packages.yml
---
- name: package installation
  hosts: dev,test
  tasks:
  - name: installing php and mariadb-server
    ansible.builtin.dnf:
      name:
        - vsftpd
        - mariadb-server
      state: present 
- name: group package installation
  hosts: prod
  tasks:
  - name: installing group package 'Development tools'
    ansible.builtin.dnf:
      name: '@RPM Development Tools' #(in exam @RPM Development Tools)
      state: present
- name: update packages 
  hosts: dev
  tasks:
  - name: updating all 
    ansible.builtin.dnf:
      name: '*'
      state: latest

# ansible-navigator run packages.yml -m stdout

# ansible dev -m command -a 'yum list installed |grep vsftpd'       #(Verify the output)
# ansible prod -m command -a 'yum group list'       #(Verify the output)

7. Web Content Management Playbook

# vim /home/student/ansible/webcontent.yml
---
- name: create a link 
  hosts: dev
  tasks:
  - name: create a directory
    ansible.builtin.file: 
      path: /devweb
      state: directory
      group: devops
      mode: '02775'
      setype: httpd_sys_content_t 
  - name: create a file
    ansible.builtin.file:
      path: /devweb/index.html
      state: touch
  - name: copy the contents to index.html
    ansible.builtin.copy:
      content: "Development\n"
      dest: /devweb/index.html 
  - name: link the directory 
    ansible.builtin.file:
      src: /devweb
      dest: /var/www/html/devweb
      state: link
      
# ansible-navigator run  webcontent.yml -m stdout 

# curl http://servera.lab.example.com/devweb/         #(Verify the output)

8. Hardware Report Collection

Note: Copy the url "http://content.example.com/Rhce/hwreport.txt" and paste that on new tab and verify the content in it.

# ansible all -m command -a 'lsblk'             #(Verify the vdb disk exists) 

# vim /home/student/ansible/hwreport.yml
---
- name: hwreport
  hosts: all
  ignore_errors: yes
  tasks:
  - name: Download the file
    ansible.builtin.get_url:
      url: "http://content.example.com/Rhce/hwreport.txt"
      dest: /root/hwreport.txt
  - name: Collect report 1
    ansible.builtin.set_fact:
      HOSTNAME: "{{ ansible_hostname }}"
      MEMORY: "{{ ansible_memtotal_mb  }}"
      BIOS: "{{ ansible_bios_version }}"
      CPU: "{{ ansible_processor }}"
      DISK_SIZE_VDA: "{{ ansible_devices['vda']['size'] }}"
  - name: Collect report 2
    ansible.builtin.set_fact:
      DISK_SIZE_VDB: "{{ ansible_devices['vdb']['size'] }}"
  - name: Copy the content to the managed node
    ansible.builtin.copy:
      content:  |
        #hwreport
        HOSTNAME={{ HOSTNAME | default('NONE') }}
        MEMORY={{ MEMORY | default('NONE') }}
        BIOS={{ BIOS  | default('NONE') }}
        CPU={{ CPU | default('NONE') }}
        DISK_SIZE_VDA={{ DISK_SIZE_VDA | default('NONE') }}
        DISK_SIZE_VDB={{ DISK_SIZE_VDB | default('NONE') }}
      dest: /root/hwreport.txt

# ansible-navigator run  hwreport.yml -m stdout 

# ansible all -m command -a 'cat /root/hwreport.txt'     #(Verify the output)

9. Issue File Management

# vim /home/student/ansible/issue.yml
---
- name: play for replace module
  hosts: all
  tasks:
  - name: replace the content in dev group
    ansible.builtin.copy:
      content: Development
      dest: /etc/issue 
    when: inventory_hostname in groups['dev']
  - name: replace the content in test group
    ansible.builtin.copy:
      content: Test
      dest: /etc/issue  
    when: inventory_hostname in groups['test']
  - name: replace the content in prod group
    ansible.builtin.copy:
      content: Production
      dest: /etc/issue  
    when: inventory_hostname in groups['prod']

# ansible-navigator run issue.yml --diff -m stdout

# ansible all -m command -a 'cat /etc/issue'

10. Ansible Vault Configuration

# vim secret.txt
P@sswOrd

# ansible-vault create vault.yml --vault-password-file=secret.txt
pw_developer: lamdev
pw_manager: lammgr

# ansible-vault view vault.yml --vault-password-file=secret.txt     #(verify the output)

11. Vault Rekey Operation

# wget http://content/Rhce/solaris.yml

# ansible-vault rekey solaris.yml
Old password: 
New password: 
Confirm new password:

12. Cron Job Configuration

# vim crontab.yml
---
- name : Create a cronjob
  hosts: all
  tasks:
  - name: Cronjob for logger
    ansible.builtin.cron:
      name: Create logger
      user: student
      minute: "*/2"
      job: logger "EX294 in progress"
      state: present

# ansible-navigator run crontab.yml -m stdout

# ansible all -m command -a "ls /var/spool/cron/"
# ansible all -m command -a "crontab -lu student"