Welcome to the world of Ansible! If you’re eager to explore its functionalities through interactive tutorials, you’ve come to the right place. This guide will walk you through setting up and running Ansible tutorials using Docker, making your learning process smooth and engaging.

Prerequisites

Before diving into the tutorials, ensure you have the following prerequisites:

• Docker installed on your machine (version 1.9+ is required; 1.12+ is recommended).
• If you don’t have Docker installed, you can still participate in tutorials using play-with-docker.com. Simply click on the “+ ADD NEW INSTANCE” button and clone the repository there.

How to Run the Tutorials

Now that you have Docker set up, running the tutorials is a breeze. Follow these steps:

bash tutorial.sh

If you want to see a demo of the process, you can check this demo link.

Cleaning Up After Tutorials

Once you’ve completed the tutorials, you may want to clean up your environment. You can do so with the command:

bash tutorial.sh --remove

Exploring the Tutorials

The Ansible interactive tutorials encompass a range of essential topics:

• Getting Started
• Basic inventory
• First modules and facts
• Groups and variables
• Playbooks
• Deploying files on nodes
• Playbook failures and conditionals
• Git module
• Extending to multiple hosts
• Using templates and variables
• Migrating to roles
• Installing a Jenkins server from Ansible Galaxy
• Free play session

While you can run each lesson independently, it’s highly recommended to follow the order, as many lessons build upon the previous ones.

Understanding Docker Containers in Tutorials

During the tutorial, a total of four Docker containers will be initiated:

• One container runs the Ansible tutorial tasks.
• Three containers act as ansible nodes, mimicking real virtual or physical machines.

The main tutorial container is ansible.tutorial, which is Alpine-based and contains both Ansible and nutsh, a framework for creating interactive command line tutorials. The nodes are Ubuntu 16.04 based and have been pre-configured with the SSH key of the tutorial container, allowing seamless access.

Port Mapping for Checkpoints

Checkpoints during the tutorials allow you to verify your deployments. The port mapping information is given below:

Container	Container Port	Host Port
host0.example.org	80	$HOSTPORT_BASE
host1.example.org	80	$HOSTPORT_BASE+1
host2.example.org	80	$HOSTPORT_BASE+2
host0.example.org	8080	$HOSTPORT_BASE+3
host1.example.org	30000	$HOSTPORT_BASE+4
host2.example.org	443	$HOSTPORT_BASE+5

The default value for HOSTPORT_BASE is set to 42726. However, you can change it during tutorial initiation if necessary:

HOSTPORT_BASE=some_other_value bash tutorial.sh

Workspace Directory

The workspace directory on your local machine is mounted as root workspace inside the ansible.tutorial container. This setup allows you to edit files using your favorite editor locally. The tutorials can be followed without any local file edits.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues while running the tutorials, consider the following troubleshooting tips:

• Ensure Docker is installed correctly and is running.
• Check if your Docker version meets the prerequisites (1.9+ recommended).
• For network or container-related issues, verify port mappings and container states.
• If you experience errors during tutorial initiation, try restarting Docker to refresh the environment.

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Conclusion

At fxis.ai, we believe that such advancements are crucial for the future of AI, as they enable more comprehensive and effective solutions. Our team is continually exploring new methodologies to push the envelope in artificial intelligence, ensuring that our clients benefit from the latest technological innovations.