http://localhost:8080/ansible_101/4.advanced/index.html So far we’ve covered some of the basics of using ansible to make changes on a target Linux host. In this section we’ll cover slightly more advanced topics that can be useful when using ansible for configuration management. The logical progression when starting to use ansible from the command line is to implement a level of governance around who can make changes, track the changes that are made and control access to who can make the changes. Redhat has a product, Ansible Automation Platform (AAP) designed to implement these controls and more. See https://www.redhat.com/en/technologies/management/ansible for more details on the product. Hugo en-us Thu, 11 Jun 2026 10:40:21 -0400 http://localhost:8080/ansible_101/4.advanced/vault/index.html Thu, 11 Jun 2026 10:40:21 -0400 http://localhost:8080/ansible_101/4.advanced/vault/index.html Sometimes working with ansible requires using sensitive information, such as: Administrative passwords Service account credentials API tokens Database connection strings SSH private keys TLS certificates and keys Cloud provider credentials Ansible Vault is used to securely store sensitive information within Ansible projects by encrypting data at rest. Instead of storing sensitive information in plain text, Ansible Vault encrypts them so they can be safely committed to version control systems such as Git. http://localhost:8080/ansible_101/4.advanced/collections/index.html Wed, 10 Jun 2026 10:40:21 -0400 http://localhost:8080/ansible_101/4.advanced/collections/index.html We briefly touched on ansible galaxy collections, but here we’ll get into a little more detail. We’ll install a collection using a workflow similar to being in a disconnected environment. Take a look at collections/requirements.yml in the top of the workshop directory. This defines a collection that we want to install. Download the collection. ansible-galaxy collection download -r ../requirements.yml This creates a local tar file based on the contents of the requirement.yml file in the collections directory. This step would be performed on an Internet facing systems and the results would be transferred to the disconnected environment. http://localhost:8080/ansible_101/4.advanced/roles/index.html Thu, 11 Jun 2026 10:40:21 -0400 http://localhost:8080/ansible_101/4.advanced/roles/index.html Ansible roles are one of the most important building blocks for organizing automation in a scalable and reusable way. They let you take a large playbook and break it into modular, reusable components. A role is a standardized directory structure that automatically organizes: tasks (what to do) variables (inputs/config) handlers (restart services, etc.) templates (Jinja2 config files) files (static files to copy) defaults (lowest-priority variables) meta (dependencies) Instead of writing one giant playbook, you call the roles. http://localhost:8080/ansible_101/4.advanced/end/index.html Thu, 11 Jun 2026 10:40:21 -0400 http://localhost:8080/ansible_101/4.advanced/end/index.html That concludes the workshop. Questions/Feedback?