In the fast-paced world of technology, automating routine tasks can be the key to increased efficiency and productivity. Linux systems are no exception, and there are a variety of automation tools and techniques available to help streamline administration and management tasks. This article provides a comprehensive introduction to Linux automation tools and techniques, discussing the benefits of automation, the different types of tools available, and how to get started with automating your Linux workflow. Whether you’re a seasoned Linux administrator or just getting started, this article will provide you with the information and guidance you need to take your skills to the next level.
automation
How to perform unattended Linux installations with Kickstart
Kickstart is an automatic installation method natively available on those distributions which uses the Anaconda installer: Red Hat Enterprise Linux (and its clones) and Fedora. It can also be used to install Ubuntu, actually, but in that context it acts as a layer of compatibility to the debian-native preseeding method. With Kickstart we can perform unattended, customizable and reproducible installations.
Introduction to Ansible prompts and runtime variables
This tutorial is part of a series we dedicated to Ansible. Previously we talked about the Ansible basics, then we focused on some Ansible modules we can use to perform some very common administration tasks, and we also talked about Ansible loops. In this article, instead, we learn how to create interactive prompts we can use to ask for user input and how to pass variables at runtime.
Ansible loops examples and introduction
In a previous article we talked about Ansible, a very useful provisioning free and open source software written in Python, which we can use to automate tasks on multiple machines. We saw how to install it on some of the most used Linux distributions and the basic concepts behind its usage.
Ansible tutorial for beginners on Linux
A system administrator, in the vast majority of cases, has to take care of more than one server, so he often has to perform repetitive tasks on all of them. In these cases automation is a must. Ansible is an open source software owned by Red Hat; it is written in the Python programming lanaguage, and it is a provisioning and configuration management software which help us in the aforementioned cases. In this tutorial we will see how to install it and the basic concepts behind its usage.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to install Ansible on the most used Linux distributions
- How to configure Ansible
- What is the Ansible inventory
- What are the Ansible modules
- How to run a module from the command line
- How to create and run a playbook
How to use Puppet environments in Linux to safely update an agent
Objective
Create and use puppet environments to test new configuration before updating a live production system.
Operating System and Software Versions
- Operating System: Any major linux distribution e.g. Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS
- Software: puppet and puppet-master
Requirements
Privileged access to the puppet master server and the puppet client node.
Conventions
- # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of
sudocommand - $ – given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user
Introduction
Most Puppet installations begin life as a master server running a single branch. The master contains all the manifests and other configuration for all the Puppet agents that are synced to it. This is a fine place to begin but there will rapidly arrive a time when an update needs pushing that has the potential to break a production server. Hoping for the best is not the best way to proceed.
Puppet provides the tools to separate entire branches of configuration. These are called environments. A Puppet environment is a way to supply an isolated group of agent nodes with their own dedicated configuration. Each environment contains an entire Puppet configuration tree and can be considered as a separate Puppet master server.