Deployment and Setup of Alibaba Cloud Ansible Automation Operations Platform

The following is a complete practical guide for implementing automated operations based on Ansible on the Alibaba Cloud platform, integrating all core operational processes and commands, tailored to the specified server planning:

1. Environment Planning

Hostname

IP Address

Role

Operating System

manage01

192.168.98.200/24

Ansible Control Node

CentOS 7.9

node1

192.168.98.201/24

Business Node

CentOS 7.9

node2

192.168.98.202/24

Business Node

CentOS 7.9

node3

192.168.98.203/24

Business Node

CentOS 7.9

2. Preparation Before Deployment

1. Alibaba Cloud Security Group Configuration

  • All ECS instance security group rules:
    • Inbound: TCP 22 (SSH), ICMP
    • Outbound: All Traffic

2. Basic Configuration for All Nodes

# 1. Disable Firewall and SELinux (Execute on all nodes)

systemctl stop firewalld && systemctl disable firewalld

sed -i ‘s/SELINUX=enforcing/SELINUX=disabled/g’ /etc/selinux/config

setenforce 0

# 2. Configure Alibaba Cloud Internal Time Synchronization

yum install -y chrony

cat > /etc/chrony.conf << EOF

server ntp.aliyun.com iburst

server ntp1.aliyun.com iburst

EOF

systemctl restart chronyd && systemctl enable chronyd

3. Ansible Control Node Deployment (manage01)

1. Install Ansible

# Install EPEL Repository and Ansible

yum install -y epel-release

yum install -y ansible git

# Verify Installation

ansible –version # Should display ansible 2.9+ version

2. Configure SSH Passwordless Login

# 1. Generate Key Pair (Default Path)

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -N “” -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa

# 2. Distribute Public Key to All Nodes

for node in node1 node2 node3 manage01; do

ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub root@$node

done

# 3. Test Connectivity

ansible all -m ping -i inventory.ini

4. Ansible Core Configuration

1. Project Directory Structure

mkdir -p ~/ansible-project/{inventory,group_vars,roles,playbooks}

cd ~/ansible-project

2. Host Inventory File

# ~/ansible-project/inventory/production.ini

[management]

manage01 ansible_host=192.168.98.200

[nodes]

node1 ansible_host=192.168.98.201

node2 ansible_host=192.168.98.202

node3 ansible_host=192.168.98.203

[all:vars]

ansible_user=root

ansible_ssh_private_key_file=~/.ssh/id_rsa

ansible_python_interpreter=/usr/bin/python

3. Ansible Configuration File

# ~/ansible-project/ansible.cfg

[defaults]

inventory = ./inventory/production.ini

host_key_checking = False

log_path = ./ansible.log

roles_path = ./roles

forks = 20

[privilege_escalation]

become = True

become_method = sudo

become_user = root

become_ask_pass = False

5. Basic Environment Automated Configuration

1. Static IP Configuration (All Nodes)

# ~/ansible-project/playbooks/network_config.yml

—

– name: Configure Static IP

hosts: all

become: yes

vars:

interface: eth0

network_config:

manage01:

ip: 192.168.98.200

gateway: 192.168.98.1

node1:

ip: 192.168.98.201

gateway: 192.168.98.1

node2:

ip: 192.168.98.202

gateway: 192.168.98.1

node3:

ip: 192.168.98.203

gateway: 192.168.98.1

tasks:

– name: Configure network interface

template:

src: templates/ifcfg-eth0.j2

dest: /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-{{ interface }}

notify: Restart network

handlers:

– name: Restart network

service:

name: network

state: restarted

Template file templates/ifcfg-eth0.j2:

DEVICE={{ interface }}

BOOTPROTO=static

ONBOOT=yes

IPADDR={{ network_config[inventory_hostname].ip }}

NETMASK=255.255.255.0

GATEWAY={{ network_config[inventory_hostname].gateway }}

DNS1=100.100.2.136 # Alibaba Cloud Internal DNS

DNS2=100.100.2.138

2. Hostname Configuration

# ~/ansible-project/playbooks/hostname_config.yml

—

– name: Set Hostname

hosts: all

become: yes

tasks:

– name: Set system hostname

hostname:

name: “{{ inventory_hostname }}”

– name: Update /etc/hosts

lineinfile:

path: /etc/hosts

regexp: “^{{ ansible_default_ipv4.address }}”

line: “{{ ansible_default_ipv4.address }} {{ inventory_hostname }}”

state: present

Execute commands:

ansible-playbook playbooks/network_config.yml

ansible-playbook playbooks/hostname_config.yml

6. Core Operations Scenario Practice

Scenario1: Batch Install Basic Tools

# ~/ansible-project/playbooks/install_essentials.yml

—

– name: Install Base Packages

hosts: nodes

become: yes

tasks:

– name: Install common tools

yum:

name: [vim, wget, telnet, net-tools, lsof]

state: latest

Scenario2: Deploy Nginx Cluster

# ~/ansible-project/roles/nginx/tasks/main.yml

—

– name: Install Nginx

yum:

name: nginx

state: latest

– name: Copy customized config

template:

src: nginx.conf.j2

dest: /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

backup: yes

notify: Restart Nginx

– name: Ensure service running

service:

name: nginx

state: started

enabled: yes

handlers:

– name: Restart Nginx

service:

name: nginx

state: restarted

Execute commands:

ansible-playbook playbooks/install_essentials.yml

ansible-playbook -i inventory.ini playbooks/deploy_nginx.yml

7. Production-Level Enhanced Configuration

1. Sensitive Information Encryption

# Create Encrypted File

ansible-vault create group_vars/all_secrets.yml

# Call in Playbook

– name: Load secrets

include_vars: group_vars/all_secrets.yml

no_log: true

2. Alibaba Cloud Dynamic Inventory Integration

# Install Alibaba Cloud Python SDK

pip install aliyun-python-sdk-ecs

# Dynamic Inventory Script Example

# ~/ansible-project/inventory/aliyun_ecs.py

#!/usr/bin/env python

from aliyunsdkcore.client import AcsClient

from aliyunsdkecs.request.v20140526 import DescribeInstancesRequest

client = AcsClient(‘<ACCESS_KEY>’, ‘<SECRET_KEY>’, ‘cn-hangzhou’)

def main():

request = DescribeInstancesRequest.DescribeInstancesRequest()

response = client.do_action_with_exception(request)

print(format_output(response))

if __name__ == “__main__”:

main()

8. Verification and Monitoring

1. Service Status Verification

ansible nodes -m shell -a “systemctl status nginx”

ansible nodes -m uri -a “url=http://localhost/health”

2. Alibaba Cloud Monitoring Integration

# ~/ansible-project/roles/monitoring/tasks/main.yml

– name: Install CloudMonitor Agent

yum:

name: aliyun-cloudmonitor

state: present

– name: Start CloudMonitor

service:

name: cloudmonitor

state: started

enabled: yes

9. Operations Quick Reference Table

Operation Scenario

Command Example

Check Node Connectivity

ansible all -m ping

Batch ExecuteShell Command

ansible nodes -m shell -a “df -h”

File Distribution

ansible web -m copy -a “src=app.conf dest=/etc/app/ owner=root”

Service Management

ansible db -m service -a “name=mysql state=restarted”

Security Updates

ansible all -m yum -a “name=* state=latest update_cache=yes”

Playbook Testing

ansible-playbook deploy.yml –check –diff

Run Encrypted Playbook

ansible-playbook secure.yml –ask-vault-pass

Through this guide, you have completed the following core constructions:

  1. Standardized Basic Environment: Unified configuration of network, hostname, and security policies
  2. Automated Operations System: Ansible control node + managed node architecture
  3. Production-Level Best Practices: Dynamic Inventory, encryption management, monitoring integration
  4. Scalable Scenario Support: Rapidly expand new service deployments through Roles mechanism

Future Recommendations:

  • Use Git for configuration version management
  • Regularly execute ansible-playbook –check to verify configuration drift
  • Implement Ansible task scheduling through Alibaba Cloud OOS
  • Use Ansible Tower/AWX for visual operations

References:

https://www.ansible.com/

·https://github.com/ansible/ansible

·https://www.redhat.com/en/technologies/management/ansible

·https://ansible-tran.readthedocs.io/en/latest/docs/intro.html

Learning Videos:

·Video: Preparation Before Deployment

·Video: SSH Certificate Mutual Trust Setup

·Video: Ansible Platform Deployment

·Video: Host List File Hosts File

·Video: Ansible Automated Platform Deployment Knowledge Map

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV19J41167sM/?p=6&share_source=copy_web&vd_source=783115a80c3cf673f20dd9daa9d98955

This tutorial is reproduced from my technical blog (https://www.cnblogs.com/Johny-zhao/p/18863828

#Ansible

#AlibabaCloud

#SystemAutomationOperations

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