To get the most out of this book

All the chapters of this book assume you have access to at least one Linux machine running a relatively recent Linux distribution. All examples in this book were tested on CentOS 7 and Ubuntu Server 18.04, but should work on just about any other mainstream distribution. You will require Ansible 2.9 installed on at least one test machine too – installation steps will be covered in the very first chapter. Later versions of Ansible should also work, though there may be some subtle differences, and you should refer to the release notes and porting guide for newer Ansible versions. The final chapter also takes you through the installation of AWX, but this assumes a Linux server with Ansible installed. Most examples demonstrate automation across more than one host, and if you have more Linux hosts available you will be able to get more out of the examples; however, they can be scaled up or down as you require. Having more hosts is not mandatory, but enables you to get more out of the book.

Software/hardware covered in the book	OS requirements
At least one Linux server (virtual machine or physical)	CentOS 7 or Ubuntu Server 18.04, though other mainstream distributions (including newer versions of these operating systems) should work.
Ansible 2.9	As above
AWX release 10.0.0 or later	As above

If you are using the digital version of this book, we advise you to type the code yourself or access the code via the GitHub repository (link available in the next section). Doing so will help you avoid any potential errors related to the copying and pasting of code.

Download the example code files

You can download the example code files for this book from your account at www.packt.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit www.packtpub.com/support and register to have the files emailed directly to you.

You can download the code files by following these steps:

1. Log in or register at www.packt.com.
2. Select the Support tab.
3. Click on Code Downloads.
4. Enter the name of the book in the Search box and follow the onscreen instructions.

Once the file is downloaded, please make sure that you unzip or extract the folder using the latest version of:

• WinRAR/7-Zip for Windows
• Zipeg/iZip/UnRarX for Mac
• 7-Zip/PeaZip for Linux

The code bundle for the book is also hosted on GitHub at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Practical-Ansible-2. In case there's an update to the code, it will be updated on the existing GitHub repository.

We also have other code bundles from our rich catalog of books and videos available at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/. Check them out!

Download the color images

We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: http://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/9781789807462_ColorImages.pdf.

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "Mount the downloaded WebStorm-10*.dmg disk image file as another disk in your system."

A block of code is set as follows:

html, body, #map {
 height: 100%; 
 margin: 0;
 padding: 0
}

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

[default]
exten => s,1,Dial(Zap/1|30)
exten => s,2,Voicemail(u100)
exten => s,102,Voicemail(b100)
exten => i,1,Voicemail(s0)

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

$ mkdir css
$ cd css

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: "Select System info from the Administration panel."

Warnings or important notes appear like this.

Tips and tricks appear like this.