Ansible is an agent-free IT tool developed by Michael DeHaan in 2012. It’s a powerful open-source tool that simplifies complex IT tasks such as managing servers, handling configurations, and installing software. In this tutorial, we’ll explore Ansible, its features, and the process of installing it on Kali Linux.
What is Ansible
Ansible is a simple, powerful IT automation tool that manages tasks like cloud provisioning, configuration, and application deployment through SSH and YAML playbooks. Moreover, it’s known for its efficiency in simplifying difficult IT operations. As a result, companies like Intel and NASA, choose Ansible, especially in DevOps environments.
Features of Ansible
Let’s now discuss a few features that Ansible offers:
- Efficiency and Scalability: Boosts productivity by automating repetitive tasks and scaling infrastructure quickly.
- System Configuration Simplification: Simplifies infrastructure management with easy-to-read playbooks.
- Effortless Application Distribution: Automates app deployment across numerous systems.
- Automated Workflow Management: Coordinates tasks across services and infrastructure.
- Security and Compliance: Automates security updates and compliance checks.
- Cloud Provisioning: Automates provisioning of cloud and virtualized resources.
Install Ansible in Kali Linux
Moving onward, let’s now install Ansible on our Kali Linux system. It’s a simple process that only requires a few commands. Before any installation, it’s always a good practice to update and upgrade your Kali Linux:
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt upgrade
Next, let’s install a few essential dependencies for Ansible by executing the following command:
$ sudo apt install -y python3-pip python3-dev libffi-dev libssl-dev
Wait until it’s done. This may take a minute or two. After installing the dependencies, it’s time to install Ansible in the Kali Linux system with all modules and features:
$ sudo apt install -y ansible
Next, we’ll execute the following command to install the Ansible core package on the system, enabling automation and configuration management functionalities:
$ sudo apt install -y ansible-core
Congrats, we’ve installed Ansible. Let’s check its version to ensure we’ve installed it successfully.
$ ansible --version
Notably, we can observe the version of Ansible installed on the system.
Uninstall Ansible From Kali Linux
In this section, we’ll learn how to easily uninstall Ansible by running a single command, in case you no longer want it on your system. This command will remove the Ansible package from the system but keep its configuration files:
$ sudo apt remove ansible
Additionally, we can run this command to automatically remove unused packages and dependencies no longer needed by the system:
$ sudo apt -y autoremove ansible
Finally, we’ve successfully removed Ansible from Kali Linux.
Conclusion
All in all, Ansible is a powerful yet simple IT automation tool that streamlines tasks such as cloud configuration and application deployment through SSH and YAML playbooks. In this article, we discussed Ansible, its main features, and the steps for installation and uninstallation. By following this guide, you can easily install Ansible on Kali Linux and enhance its capabilities for efficient automation.
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I’m Malaikah, a Digital Forensics and Cyber Security student and CEH certified, with a passion for writing about Linux and the tech world.