Ansible is an open-source software provisioning, configuration management, and application-deployment tool. Ansible uses its own declarative language, based on YAML (Yet Another Markup Language), to describe system configurations.

The main functionality that differs Ansible from other configuration management software is it’s agent-less architecture. And because of this agent-less architecture, installation and configuration of Ansible is very easy and straight-forward. We just need to configure the key-based ssh authentication on the nodes and Ansible will then uses the ssh to perform configurations on the nodes.

As compare to Puppet and Chef; Ansible is a new candidate in the domain of configuration management. But it is getting famous and converting the users from competitors’ technologies.

One major shift is the inclusion of Ansible by Red Hat in Industry’s most reputable certification i.e. RHCE (Red Hat Certified Engineer) specific to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.

In this article, we are installing Ansible on CentOS 7 and then write and execute Ansible playbooks to configure our Linux servers using Ansible.

Environment Specification:

We are using three CentOS 7 virtual machines with following specifications.

Ansible Control Node:

• Hostname – ansible-01.example.com
• IP Address – 192.168.116.201 /24
• Operating System – CentOS 7.6

Lighttpd Web Server:

• Hostname – lighttpd-01.example.com
• IP Address – 192.168.116.202 /24
• Operating System – CentOS 7.6

MariaDB Database Server:

• Hostname – mariadb-01.example.com
• IP Address – 192.168.116.203 /24
• Operating System – CentOS 7.6

Here, we will install Ansible on ansible-01.example.com and configure the other two servers as Ansible managed nodes.

Configure Name Resolution of Linux Servers:

If you have configured a Authoritative DNS Server for you domain, then you can add the RR (Resource Records) of all three servers in it. Otherwise, you have to add the name resolution entries in Local DNS Resolver (/etc/hosts) file.

[root@ansible-01 ~]# cat >> /etc/hosts << EOF 
> 192.168.116.201 ansible-01.example.com ansible-01 
> 192.168.116.202 lighttpd-01.example.com lighttpd-01 
> 192.168.116.203 mariadb-01.example.com mariadb-01 
> EOF

Repeat the above command on lightttpd-01 and mariadb-01 machines.

Configure SSH for key-based authentication on CentOS 7:

Generate a SSH Key on ansible-01.example.com server using ssh-keygen command.

[root@ansible-01 ~]# ssh-keygen
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/root/.ssh/id_rsa):
Created directory '/root/.ssh'.
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved in /root/.ssh/id_rsa.
Your public key has been saved in /root/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
SHA256:r2CBUntEfwcot16lGdI2K8b1rli6UUmfdEfiifps3cw [email protected]
The key's randomart image is:
+---[RSA 2048]----+
|      .  o.   . .|
|     ...+ *..o + |
|    . .+.=oO+ + .|
|   . +  =o=*.o . |
|  . o ooSo+.o    |
|   . . ..o.o.. + |
|      o .+..+ . E|
|     . .oo..     |
|        o.       |
+----[SHA256]-----+

Copy SSH public key to lighttpd-01 and mariadb-01 servers.

[root@ansible-01 ~]# ssh-copy-id root@lighttpd-01
/usr/bin/ssh-copy-id: INFO: Source of key(s) to be installed: "/root/.ssh/id_rsa.pub"
The authenticity of host 'lighttpd-01 (192.168.116.202)' can't be established.
ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:kzyCimDDwGPsfsuGXxdrcBqlxVQlU8FZTsYrwbPzZHM.
ECDSA key fingerprint is MD5:b4:3f:a2:86:30:7a:b7:d7:b3:b0:10:8f:a3:3e:8a:bc.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
/usr/bin/ssh-copy-id: INFO: attempting to log in with the new key(s), to filter out any that are already installed
/usr/bin/ssh-copy-id: INFO: 1 key(s) remain to be installed -- if you are prompted now it is to install the new keys
root@lighttpd-01's password:

Number of key(s) added: 1

Now try logging into the machine, with:   "ssh 'root@lighttpd-01'"
and check to make sure that only the key(s) you wanted were added.

[root@ansible-01 ~]# ssh-copy-id root@mariadb-01
/usr/bin/ssh-copy-id: INFO: Source of key(s) to be installed: "/root/.ssh/id_rsa.pub"
The authenticity of host 'mariadb-01 (192.168.116.203)' can't be established.
ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:kzyCimDDwGPsfsuGXxdrcBqlxVQlU8FZTsYrwbPzZHM.
ECDSA key fingerprint is MD5:b4:3f:a2:86:30:7a:b7:d7:b3:b0:10:8f:a3:3e:8a:bc.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
/usr/bin/ssh-copy-id: INFO: attempting to log in with the new key(s), to filter out any that are already installed
/usr/bin/ssh-copy-id: INFO: 1 key(s) remain to be installed -- if you are prompted now it is to install the new keys
root@mariadb-01's password:

Number of key(s) added: 1

Now try logging into the machine, with:   "ssh 'root@mariadb-01'"
and check to make sure that only the key(s) you wanted were added.

Verify SSH authentication by connecting to each server.

[root@ansible-01 ~]# ssh root@lighttpd-01
Last login: Sun Sep  8 10:18:40 2019
[root@lighttpd-01 ~]# exit
logout
Connection to lighttpd-01 closed.
[root@ansible-01 ~]# ssh root@mariadb-01
Last login: Sun Sep  8 10:21:05 2019
[root@mariadb-01 ~]# exit
logout
Connection to mariadb-01 closed.

Installing Ansible on CentOS 7:

Connect with ansible-01.example.com using ssh as root user.

Ansible is available in extras yum repository, therefore, we can install it using yum command.

[root@ansible-01 ~]# yum install -y ansible
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: mirrors.ges.net.pk
* extras: mirrors.ges.net.pk
* updates: mirrors.ges.net.pk
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package ansible.noarch 0:2.4.2.0-2.el7 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: sshpass for package: ansible-2.4.2.0-2.el7.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python2-jmespath for package: ansible-2.4.2.0-2.el7.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python-six for package: ansible-2.4.2.0-2.el7.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python-setuptools for package: ansible-2.4.2.0-2.el7.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python-passlib for package: ansible-2.4.2.0-2.el7.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python-paramiko for package: ansible-2.4.2.0-2.el7.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python-jinja2 for package: ansible-2.4.2.0-2.el7.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python-httplib2 for package: ansible-2.4.2.0-2.el7.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python-cryptography for package: ansible-2.4.2.0-2.el7.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: PyYAML for package: ansible-2.4.2.0-2.el7.noarch
--> Running transaction check
---> Package PyYAML.x86_64 0:3.10-11.el7 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: libyaml-0.so.2()(64bit) for package: PyYAML-3.10-11.el7.x86_64
---> Package python-httplib2.noarch 0:0.9.2-1.el7 will be installed
---> Package python-jinja2.noarch 0:2.7.2-3.el7_6 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python-babel >= 0.8 for package: python-jinja2-2.7.2-3.el7_6.noarch
--> Processing Dependency: python-markupsafe for package: python-jinja2-2.7.2-3.el7_6.noarch
---> Package python-paramiko.noarch 0:2.1.1-9.el7 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python2-pyasn1 for package: python-paramiko-2.1.1-9.el7.noarch
---> Package python-passlib.noarch 0:1.6.5-2.el7 will be installed
---> Package python-setuptools.noarch 0:0.9.8-7.el7 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python-backports-ssl_match_hostname for package: python-setuptools-0.9.8-7.el7.noarch
---> Package python-six.noarch 0:1.9.0-2.el7 will be installed
---> Package python2-cryptography.x86_64 0:1.7.2-2.el7 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python-idna >= 2.0 for package: python2-cryptography-1.7.2-2.el7.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: python-cffi >= 1.4.1 for package: python2-cryptography-1.7.2-2.el7.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: python-ipaddress for package: python2-cryptography-1.7.2-2.el7.x86_64
--> Processing Dependency: python-enum34 for package: python2-cryptography-1.7.2-2.el7.x86_64
---> Package python2-jmespath.noarch 0:0.9.0-3.el7 will be installed
---> Package sshpass.x86_64 0:1.06-2.el7 will be installed
--> Running transaction check
---> Package libyaml.x86_64 0:0.1.4-11.el7_0 will be installed
---> Package python-babel.noarch 0:0.9.6-8.el7 will be installed
---> Package python-backports-ssl_match_hostname.noarch 0:3.5.0.1-1.el7 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python-backports for package: python-backports-ssl_match_hostname-3.5.0.1-1.el7.noarch
---> Package python-cffi.x86_64 0:1.6.0-5.el7 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python-pycparser for package: python-cffi-1.6.0-5.el7.x86_64
---> Package python-enum34.noarch 0:1.0.4-1.el7 will be installed
---> Package python-idna.noarch 0:2.4-1.el7 will be installed
---> Package python-ipaddress.noarch 0:1.0.16-2.el7 will be installed
---> Package python-markupsafe.x86_64 0:0.11-10.el7 will be installed
---> Package python2-pyasn1.noarch 0:0.1.9-7.el7 will be installed
--> Running transaction check
---> Package python-backports.x86_64 0:1.0-8.el7 will be installed
---> Package python-pycparser.noarch 0:2.14-1.el7 will be installed
--> Processing Dependency: python-ply for package: python-pycparser-2.14-1.el7.noarch
--> Running transaction check
---> Package python-ply.noarch 0:3.4-11.el7 will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Dependencies Resolved
================================================================================
Package                              Arch    Version            Repository
Size
================================================================================
Installing:
ansible                              noarch  2.4.2.0-2.el7      extras   7.6 M
Installing for dependencies:
PyYAML                               x86_64  3.10-11.el7        base     153 k
libyaml                              x86_64  0.1.4-11.el7_0     base      55 k
python-babel                         noarch  0.9.6-8.el7        base     1.4 M
python-backports                     x86_64  1.0-8.el7          base     5.8 k
python-backports-ssl_match_hostname  noarch  3.5.0.1-1.el7      base      13 k
python-cffi                          x86_64  1.6.0-5.el7        base     218 k
python-enum34                        noarch  1.0.4-1.el7        base      52 k
python-httplib2                      noarch  0.9.2-1.el7        extras   115 k
python-idna                          noarch  2.4-1.el7          base      94 k
python-ipaddress                     noarch  1.0.16-2.el7       base      34 k
python-jinja2                        noarch  2.7.2-3.el7_6      updates  518 k
python-markupsafe                    x86_64  0.11-10.el7        base      25 k
python-paramiko                      noarch  2.1.1-9.el7        updates  269 k
python-passlib                       noarch  1.6.5-2.el7        extras   488 k
python-ply                           noarch  3.4-11.el7         base     123 k
python-pycparser                     noarch  2.14-1.el7         base     104 k
python-setuptools                    noarch  0.9.8-7.el7        base     397 k
python-six                           noarch  1.9.0-2.el7        base      29 k
python2-cryptography                 x86_64  1.7.2-2.el7        base     502 k
python2-jmespath                     noarch  0.9.0-3.el7        extras    39 k
python2-pyasn1                       noarch  0.1.9-7.el7        base     100 k
sshpass                              x86_64  1.06-2.el7         extras    21 k
Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install  1 Package (+22 Dependent packages)
Total download size: 12 M
Installed size: 60 M
Downloading packages:
(1/23): PyYAML-3.10-11.el7.x86_64.rpm                      | 153 kB   00:00
(2/23): python-backports-ssl_match_hostname-3.5.0.1-1.el7. |  13 kB   00:00
(3/23): libyaml-0.1.4-11.el7_0.x86_64.rpm                  |  55 kB   00:01
(4/23): python-backports-1.0-8.el7.x86_64.rpm              | 5.8 kB   00:01
(5/23): python-enum34-1.0.4-1.el7.noarch.rpm               |  52 kB   00:00
(6/23): python-cffi-1.6.0-5.el7.x86_64.rpm                 | 218 kB   00:01
(7/23): python-idna-2.4-1.el7.noarch.rpm                   |  94 kB   00:00
(8/23): python-ipaddress-1.0.16-2.el7.noarch.rpm           |  34 kB   00:00
(9/23): python-markupsafe-0.11-10.el7.x86_64.rpm           |  25 kB   00:00
(10/23): python-httplib2-0.9.2-1.el7.noarch.rpm            | 115 kB   00:01
(11/23): python-paramiko-2.1.1-9.el7.noarch.rpm            | 269 kB   00:01
(12/23): python-passlib-1.6.5-2.el7.noarch.rpm             | 488 kB   00:02
(13/23): python-jinja2-2.7.2-3.el7_6.noarch.rpm            | 518 kB   00:03
(14/23): python-ply-3.4-11.el7.noarch.rpm                  | 123 kB   00:01
(15/23): python-six-1.9.0-2.el7.noarch.rpm                 |  29 kB   00:00
(16/23): python-pycparser-2.14-1.el7.noarch.rpm            | 104 kB   00:00
(17/23): python2-jmespath-0.9.0-3.el7.noarch.rpm           |  39 kB   00:00
(18/23): python2-pyasn1-0.1.9-7.el7.noarch.rpm             | 100 kB   00:00
(19/23): sshpass-1.06-2.el7.x86_64.rpm                     |  21 kB   00:00
(20/23): python-babel-0.9.6-8.el7.noarch.rpm               | 1.4 MB   00:08
(21/23): python2-cryptography-1.7.2-2.el7.x86_64.rpm       | 502 kB   00:03
(22/23): python-setuptools-0.9.8-7.el7.noarch.rpm          | 397 kB   00:03
(23/23): ansible-2.4.2.0-2.el7.noarch.rpm                  | 7.6 MB   00:16
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                              760 kB/s |  12 MB  00:16
Running transaction check
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded
Running transaction
Installing : python2-pyasn1-0.1.9-7.el7.noarch                           1/23
Installing : python-ipaddress-1.0.16-2.el7.noarch                        2/23
Installing : python-six-1.9.0-2.el7.noarch                               3/23
Installing : python-httplib2-0.9.2-1.el7.noarch                          4/23
Installing : python-enum34-1.0.4-1.el7.noarch                            5/23
Installing : libyaml-0.1.4-11.el7_0.x86_64                               6/23
Installing : PyYAML-3.10-11.el7.x86_64                                   7/23
Installing : python-backports-1.0-8.el7.x86_64                           8/23
Installing : python-backports-ssl_match_hostname-3.5.0.1-1.el7.noarch    9/23
Installing : python-setuptools-0.9.8-7.el7.noarch                       10/23
Installing : python-babel-0.9.6-8.el7.noarch                            11/23
Installing : python-passlib-1.6.5-2.el7.noarch                          12/23
Installing : python-ply-3.4-11.el7.noarch                               13/23
Installing : python-pycparser-2.14-1.el7.noarch                         14/23
Installing : python-cffi-1.6.0-5.el7.x86_64                             15/23
Installing : python-markupsafe-0.11-10.el7.x86_64                       16/23
Installing : python-jinja2-2.7.2-3.el7_6.noarch                         17/23
Installing : python-idna-2.4-1.el7.noarch                               18/23
Installing : python2-cryptography-1.7.2-2.el7.x86_64                    19/23
Installing : python-paramiko-2.1.1-9.el7.noarch                         20/23
Installing : sshpass-1.06-2.el7.x86_64                                  21/23
Installing : python2-jmespath-0.9.0-3.el7.noarch                        22/23
Installing : ansible-2.4.2.0-2.el7.noarch                               23/23
Verifying  : python-backports-ssl_match_hostname-3.5.0.1-1.el7.noarch    1/23
Verifying  : python2-jmespath-0.9.0-3.el7.noarch                         2/23
Verifying  : sshpass-1.06-2.el7.x86_64                                   3/23
Verifying  : python-setuptools-0.9.8-7.el7.noarch                        4/23
Verifying  : python-jinja2-2.7.2-3.el7_6.noarch                          5/23
Verifying  : python-six-1.9.0-2.el7.noarch                               6/23
Verifying  : python-idna-2.4-1.el7.noarch                                7/23
Verifying  : python-markupsafe-0.11-10.el7.x86_64                        8/23
Verifying  : python-ply-3.4-11.el7.noarch                                9/23
Verifying  : python-passlib-1.6.5-2.el7.noarch                          10/23
Verifying  : python-paramiko-2.1.1-9.el7.noarch                         11/23
Verifying  : python-babel-0.9.6-8.el7.noarch                            12/23
Verifying  : python-backports-1.0-8.el7.x86_64                          13/23
Verifying  : python-cffi-1.6.0-5.el7.x86_64                             14/23
Verifying  : python-pycparser-2.14-1.el7.noarch                         15/23
Verifying  : libyaml-0.1.4-11.el7_0.x86_64                              16/23
Verifying  : ansible-2.4.2.0-2.el7.noarch                               17/23
Verifying  : python-ipaddress-1.0.16-2.el7.noarch                       18/23
Verifying  : python-enum34-1.0.4-1.el7.noarch                           19/23
Verifying  : python-httplib2-0.9.2-1.el7.noarch                         20/23
Verifying  : python2-pyasn1-0.1.9-7.el7.noarch                          21/23
Verifying  : PyYAML-3.10-11.el7.x86_64                                  22/23
Verifying  : python2-cryptography-1.7.2-2.el7.x86_64                    23/23
Installed:
ansible.noarch 0:2.4.2.0-2.el7
Dependency Installed:
PyYAML.x86_64 0:3.10-11.el7
libyaml.x86_64 0:0.1.4-11.el7_0
python-babel.noarch 0:0.9.6-8.el7
python-backports.x86_64 0:1.0-8.el7
python-backports-ssl_match_hostname.noarch 0:3.5.0.1-1.el7
python-cffi.x86_64 0:1.6.0-5.el7
python-enum34.noarch 0:1.0.4-1.el7
python-httplib2.noarch 0:0.9.2-1.el7
python-idna.noarch 0:2.4-1.el7
python-ipaddress.noarch 0:1.0.16-2.el7
python-jinja2.noarch 0:2.7.2-3.el7_6
python-markupsafe.x86_64 0:0.11-10.el7
python-paramiko.noarch 0:2.1.1-9.el7
python-passlib.noarch 0:1.6.5-2.el7
python-ply.noarch 0:3.4-11.el7
python-pycparser.noarch 0:2.14-1.el7
python-setuptools.noarch 0:0.9.8-7.el7
python-six.noarch 0:1.9.0-2.el7
python2-cryptography.x86_64 0:1.7.2-2.el7
python2-jmespath.noarch 0:0.9.0-3.el7
python2-pyasn1.noarch 0:0.1.9-7.el7
sshpass.x86_64 0:1.06-2.el7
Complete!

Check version of Ansible software.

[root@ansible-01 ~]# ansible --version
ansible 2.4.2.0
config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
configured module search path = [u'/root/.ansible/plugins/modules', u'/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
ansible python module location = /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ansible
executable location = /usr/bin/ansible
python version = 2.7.5 (default, Oct 30 2018, 23:45:53) [GCC 4.8.5 20150623 (Red Hat 4.8.5-36)]

Create Ansible Inventory on CentOS 7:

File /etc/ansible/hosts holds the inventory of Ansible managed nodes.

[root@ansible-01 ~]# vi /etc/ansible/hosts

Add lighttpd-01 and mariadb-01 nodes in this file.

[centos76-servers]
lighttpd-01.example.com
mariadb-01.example.com
[lighttpd-webservers]
lighttpd-01.example.com
[mariadb-dbserver]
mariadb-01.example.com

We have created three groups here.

• centos76-servers – group of CentOS 7.6 based servers, so we can configure all our CentOS 7.6 servers with a single command.
• lighttpd-servers – group of Lighttpd based web servers.
• mariadb-servers – group of MariaDB based database servers.

Here, we can create as many groups as we like, according to our requirement.

We have successfully installed Ansible on CentOS 7 and added two Linux servers in Ansible Inventory.

Configure Ansible Managed Nodes in Adhoc mode:

Now ping a group of servers using ansible command.

[root@ansible-01 ~]# ansible -m ping 'centos76-servers'
lighttpd-01.example.com | SUCCESS => {
"changed": false,
"ping": "pong"
}
mariadb-01.example.com | SUCCESS => {
"changed": false,
"ping": "pong"
}

Similarly, we can execute any command using following syntax.

[root@ansible-01 ~]# ansible -m command -a 'cat /etc/redhat-release' 'centos76-servers'
192.168.116.203 | SUCCESS | rc=0 >>
CentOS Linux release 7.6.1810 (Core)
192.168.116.202 | SUCCESS | rc=0 >>
CentOS Linux release 7.6.1810 (Core)

Using Ansible Playbooks to configure CentOS 7 nodes:

Although, we can execute commands in adhoc mode, to configure our nodes. But, it violates the concept of configuration management. Therefore, we will write playbooks (YAML scripts) to perform consistent configurations on our nodes.

Now, we are writing a playbook that will perform some initial configurations like it creates user, install some packages, and perform some configurations on centos76-servers group.

[root@ansible-01 ~]# vi centos76_servers_initial_conf.yaml

and add following YAML script.

---
- hosts: centos76-servers
user: root
tasks:
- name: Installing Common Packages
action: yum name=wget,bzip2 state=installed
- name: Create an Admin User
user:
name: "ahmer"
groups: "wheel"
password: "{{ '123' | password_hash('sha512') }}"

Save and exit from vim editor.

Execute this playbook using ansible-playbook command.

[root@ansible-01 ~]# ansible-playbook centos76_servers_initial_conf.yaml
PLAY [centos76-servers] ********************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] *********************************************************
ok: [lighttpd-01.example.com]
ok: [mariadb-01.example.com]
TASK [Installing Common Packages] **********************************************
changed: [lighttpd-01.example.com]
changed: [mariadb-01.example.com]
TASK [Create an Admin User] ****************************************************
changed: [mariadb-01.example.com]
changed: [lighttpd-01.example.com]
PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************
lighttpd-01.example.com    : ok=3    changed=2    unreachable=0    failed=0
mariadb-01.example.com     : ok=3    changed=2    unreachable=0    failed=0

Our playbook is executed successfully without any error and the required configurations has been performed on both nodes.

Now create another playbook to install Lighttpd web server using ansible command.

[root@ansible-01 ~]# vi lighttpd_servers.yaml

Add following YAML script therein.

---
- hosts: lighttpd-webservers
user: root
vars:
myhomepage: '

Apache installed using Ansible

'
tasks:
- name: Installing EPEL yum Repository
action: yum name=epel-release state=installed
- name: Installing Lighttpd Server
action: yum name=lighttpd state=installed
- name: Configure Lighttpd Server
replace:
path: /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf
regexp: 'server.use-ipv6 = "enable"'
replace: 'server.use-ipv6 = "disable"'
backup: yes
- name: Create Index.html File.
copy:
dest: /var/www/lighttpd/index.html
content: '{{ myhomepage }}'
backup: yes
- name: Allow HTTPS Service in Linux Firewall
firewalld:
service: http
permanent: yes
state: enabled
- name: Restart Lighttpd service
service:
name: lighttpd
enabled: yes
state: restarted
- name: Restart Firewalld service
service:
name: firewalld
state: restarted

Execute this playbook as follows:

[root@ansible-01 ~]# ansible-playbook lighttpd_servers.yaml
PLAY [lighttpd-webservers] *****************************************************
TASK [Gathering Facts] *********************************************************
ok: [lighttpd-01.example.com]
TASK [Installing EPEL yum Repository] ******************************************
ok: [lighttpd-01.example.com]
TASK [Installing Lighttpd Server] **********************************************
ok: [lighttpd-01.example.com]
TASK [Configure Lighttpd Server] ***********************************************
changed: [lighttpd-01.example.com]
TASK [Create Index.html File.] *************************************************
ok: [lighttpd-01.example.com]
TASK [Allow HTTPS Service in Linux Firewall] ***********************************
ok: [lighttpd-01.example.com]
TASK [Restart Lighttpd service] ************************************************
changed: [lighttpd-01.example.com]
TASK [Restart Firewalld service] ***********************************************
changed: [lighttpd-01.example.com]
PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************
lighttpd-01.example.com    : ok=8    changed=3    unreachable=0    failed=0

Verify our Lighttpd web server using curl command.

[root@ansible-01 ~]# curl http://lighttpd-01.example.com
<html><h1>Apache installed using Ansible</h1></html>

We have successfully write and executed two playbooks. If you want to write more advance Ansible playbooks, then you should refer to Ansible Documentation.

We have successfully installed Ansible and used playbooks on CentOS 7 to configure managed nodes.