Discover Ansible
Learn how to easily automate your application's infrastructure with Ansible.
For years I tried various server configuration managment tools such as Chef and Puppet to manage my infrastructure. I was never happy with any of them. They were just too big and complicated for my infrastructure. Should I go with Chef Server and either have a cloud or server dependency? Or, should I try something like chef-solo? It just seemed overly complicated. Then I found Ansible.
With Ansible, I was able to fully automate my application's infrastructure relatively easily. Its agentless design meant all I needed was a workstation and my scripts to rebuild my entire infrastructure. Now, I want to show you how to do the same. I created this video course to help you Discover Ansible.
Are you . . .
Looking To Automate Your Server Infrastructure?
If you currently setup your servers manually or use shell scripts, Ansible is a great tool to use instead. You can quickly translate your commands to Ansible modules and then incorporate them into playbooks.
Frustrated By Other Configuration Management Tools?
If you use Chef, Puppet or some other configuration managment tool and are frustrated by the complexity, you should really give Ansible a try. Its hallmark is simplicity. Even though it can scale to many, many servers, I believe it is the ideal configuration managment tool for smaller server infrastructures.
Looking To Migrate Off Your Cloud Application Platform?
Services like Heroku are a fantastic platform for deploying your applications. However, at some point, you may need to setup your own application server infrastructure. Maybe you need more flexability, maybe you need to reduce your operational costs or maybe you just want to own your infrastructure. For whatever reason, Ansible can help you create a server infrastructure upon which you can securely and reliably deploy your application.
Course Contents
This video course is very practical in nature. You will learn how to take a web application and deploy it to a server infrastructure built using Ansible. The course will be taught using Ruby on Rails; however, you can use the knowledge gained to deploy any other framework or mobile backend.
At each step, you will discover different Ansible techniques to securely and reliably setup your server infrastructure.
As a side benefit, you get almost the exact Ansible scripts I use to manage my own server infrastructure.
PLEASE NOTE: This course has not been fully updated for Ansible 2 yet. Therefore, you will see some deprecation errors if you are using Ansible 2. It did not take me long to update my own infrastructures scripts for Ansible 2.
Basic Course
The Basic Course covers setting up all the services you need to deploy an application to a single server. We will use Ansible to:
- Secure your server
- Install and configure a Postgres database, Nginx webserver, Ruby and Unicorn a ruby application server
- Save backps to AWS S3
- Configure SSL an certificate to enable HTTPS
- Setup both a production and staging environment
Here are some of the Ansible features you will learn to use:
- Playbooks and how to define plays with tasks and event handlers
- Inventories to define your servers
- Variables and Conditionals to control flow
- Roles and Includes to better segment your tasks
- Modules to execute the necessary commands
- Ansible Vault to securely store secrets such as passwords in source control
Includes 15 lessons with over 2 hours of video
- Ansible Overview
- Ansible Installation and Configuration
- Ad Hoc Commands
- Bootstrap Playbook
- Single Server Setup
- Common Role
- Ansible Vault
- DB Role
- Web Role
- Capistrano 3 Configuration
- Capistrano 3 Deployment
- Staging Server
- Enable HTTPS on Nginx
- Ansible Tags
- Ansible Gotchas
Basic Edition for Individuals
$74
Purchase for $74
Basic Edition for Teams (up to ten users)
$224
Purchase for $224
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Advanced Course
The Advanced Course includes all the lessons in the Basic Course but does it for multiple servers and shows you some more advanced configurations. We will use Ansible to:
- Setup a dedicated Postgres database server
- Configure multiple volumes to be used by Postgres
- Complete an advanced configuration of Postgres and enable archive logging to support Point In Time Recovery
- Setup a dedicated web server and job servers
- Securely setup communication between the web and job server to the database server
We also dive deeper in the Ansible feature set to better handle multiple servers.
Includes 8 additional lessons comprising over an hour of video
- Ansible Multi-Server Overview
- Ansible Facts
- Multi-Server Setup
- Ansible Vault Additions
- Postgres Database Configuration
- DB Role Update
- Web and App Roles
- Multi-Server Capistrano 3 Deployment
Advanced Edition for Individuals
$149
Purchase for $149
Advanced Edition for Teams (up to ten users)
$449
Purchase for $449
Creston Jamison
InstructorCreston has managed servers and databases for over a decade. He is the co-founder of Ruby Tree Software, Inc., and uses Ansible to help manage the Software as a Service (SaaS) application operated by Ruby Tree — Advancement Form. Advancement Form is an online giving and event managment platform built for Advancement Offices in the non-profit industry.
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“I’ve read many different blog posts and tutorials on Rails deployment and server config, and your series was what finally helped me construct a working solution and deploy my first non-Heroku app! Really appreciate your very clear, well explained instructions.”Joshua Steele
Developer -
“The course is very well explained and all the commands are in the outline. In addition, it not only covers server setup, but also security (ssl) and a database backup strategy. At the end of the course, you have a server that is secure with a backup plan.”Anthony Candaele
Developer
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FAQ
Is this a video course?
That is correct. I teach the course using narrated power point slides and then show you all the commands I enter and the results. You get to see me build an infrastructure and I educate you along the way. The format will be similar to the other video tutorials I have produced at http://www.rubytreesoftware.com/resources
Will I get the code or scripts used?
Absolutely. You receive the code and configuration files I use in the course. You are welcome to modify them to help build your own server infrastructure.
Who is this course for?
This course is great for people who want to learn how to start automating their infrastructure with Ansible or are not quite happy with their current configuration / automation tool.
You do not have to be an expert in system or database administration. During the course, I explain why I setup the infrastructure the way I do to assure security and reliability.
If you are a DevOps pro and use Ansible on a daily basis already, you probably already know a lot of what I cover in this course.
Do I have to know Ruby on Rails / Postgres / etc?
No. The course uses deploying a Ruby on Rails application as a practical example. The focus is on getting a specific application stack deployed. You get to see the different Ansible techniques I use to do that. You can use these same techniques for your own application(s) infrastructure.
Will you provide free updates?
Yes, you will receive free updates to the course for one year after your purchase date.
Do you offer refunds?
Of course! If you are not 100% happy with the course, just email hello@rubytreesoftware.com within 30 days of your purchase and request a refund.
*Ansible is a trademark of Ansible, Inc.
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