Ansible ping

--
     server:
       hosts:
         192.168.88.10:
           ansible_python_interpreter: /usr/bin/python3

to my infra-scaling-carnival repo checked out I just added the above to its inventory having copied my ssh key to it already

	  ssh-copy-id user@192.168.88.10

and also prior to that checked I can sudo -i as the user user which I could not as this bookworm debian did not even have sudo installed so I did that with

     su -
     apt update
     apt install sudo

and checked my user was already in the sudo group

now, I can ping it back with ansible

     ansible -m ping all
     192.168.88.10 | SUCCESS => {
         "changed": false,
         "ping": "pong"
     }

after running a playbook to install docker

sdfsa

I can now ssh back into said host on 10 and see it running

     $ docker ps
     CONTAINER ID   IMAGE     COMMAND   CREATED   STATUS    PORTS     NAMES

this uses Jeff Geerlings module and a few bits more

--

name: Install Docker
       hosts: server 
       become: true
     
       vars_files:

vault.yml
     
       tasks:

name: Update and upgrade apt packages
           ansible.builtin.apt:
             upgrade: yes
             update_cache: yes

name: Install Docker
           include_role:
             name: geerlingguy.docker

name: Wait for Docker to be installed
           command: docker --version
           register: docker_check
           retries: 5
           delay: 10
           until: docker_check.rc == 0

name: Add user 'user' to docker group
           ansible.builtin.user:
             name: user
             groups: docker
             append: yes

there is setup that I had to do further before running these few commands namely,

ansible vault needed configured and given a password file in order to use it in an automated way

Jeff’s role needed insttalled into the cureent enviroment using ansible-galaxy

ansible itself needed installed with a venv ( Python virtual environment ), that environment was activated with source venv/bin/activate

however in summary, all this prepareatory work has made this task and others, for which I can build an array of simple playbooks with Ansible simple and straight forward to achieve, without needing to Google the answer to ‘linux docker install’ ( again ), let alone punching yet another prompt to copilot ai, chat-gpt, gemini, anthropics claude or whatever

time better spent now doing other things, reduced cognitive load and better focus on the task at hand

above all, Ansible and tools like it give us repeatable, predictable outcomes that assure we have consistent infrastructure

if you have your ducks in a row and all your playbooks are idempotent, these can be run again and again even on a scheduled basis using Ansible tower or its open source like

Hey, it could even be run using cron so long as you capture and log its outputs appropriately and check the results responsibly.

Daily quick wins like this also add to a state of feeling better, general well being and accomplishment and that we have achieved a bit of smart automation without boiling the ocean.

Happy days.