Ansible credentials best practices

Ansible supports multiple credentials and authentication methods, such as username and password, SSH keys, API tokens, webhooks, and even the ability to create custom credentials. You should use a simple authentication mechanism as a starting point, but you need to consider the best practices to ensure security and safety are in place.

Avoid using default admin user accounts

It is common for engineers to configure the default administrator accounts as a remote_user such as root in Linux or as an administrator in Microsoft Windows. This is not a best practice; you should create dedicated accounts for Ansible and configure them for managed nodes.

Split the login credentials for environments and nodes

In the previous examples, you created user accounts in Linux and Microsoft Windows for Ansible to log in and execute tasks. It is possible to create the same user account for all of your nodes, but this is not required or recommended. It is...