Project: Automated Web Server Deployment

Objective: Use Ansible (Control Node) to automatically configure a Debian 12 Virtual Machine (Managed Node) as an Apache Web Server.

1. Environment Architecture

* Control Node: Windows Laptop running WSL (Ubuntu).

* Managed Node: Debian 12 Virtual Machine (VirtualBox).

* Connectivity: SSH via Bridged Networking.

2. Managed Node Setup (The Debian VM)

Before Ansible could talk to the VM, we had to prepare the "target"

1. Network: Set VirtualBox Adapter 1 to Bridged Adapter.

2. SSH Server: Installed and started using sudo apt install openssh-server.

3. Sudo Access:

   Logged in as root (su -).

   Installed sudo: apt install sudo.

   Added the user to the sudo group: usermod -aG sudo guser.

4. IP Discovery: Ran ip addr to find the address.

3. Control Node Setup

1. Launched WSL: Opened Ubuntu on Windows
2. Installed Ansible:

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install ansible sshpass -y

3. Created Project Workspace:

   mkdir ~/ansible-web-project && cd ~/ansible-web-project
   

4. The Ansible Files (Infrastructure as Code)

Created three essential files to define our automation:

A. The Inventory (inventory.ini)

_{Tells Ansible who to talk to}

 [webservers]
 192.168.1.183 ansible_user=guser

B. The HTML Template (index.html.j2)

_{A dynamic webpage using Jinja2 variables.}

  <h1>Deployment Successful!</h1>
  <p>Server Hostname: {{ ansible_hostname }}</p>

C. The Playbook (deploy.yml)

_{The step-by-step instructions for the server.}

Task 1: Update apt cache.

Task 2: Install apache2 package.

Task 3: Deploy the template to /var/www/html/index.html.

Task 4: Ensure the service is started and enabled.

5. Execution & Verification

The command to synchronize the code to the server:

  ansible-playbook -i inventory.ini deploy.yml -K --ask-pass

--ask-pass: Provided the SSH password.

-K: Provided the sudo (become) password.

Result: Apache was installed, the website was updated, and the server became reachable.

6. Key Commands Reference

Command	Purpose
ansible -m ping	Test Connectivity to the VM
ls -lh	Verify project files exist and have content.
cat <file>	View the contents of a file in the terminal.
nano <file>	Edit a file.