Ansible
Terraform
GitLab
LinuxEach day ends with a workshop, and day three brings Ansible, Terraform and GitLab CI together in one chain, from commit to deployment.
Objectives
By the end of the course, each participant can:
- write idempotent Ansible playbooks and roles, with secrets encrypted by Ansible Vault
- describe an infrastructure with Terraform or OpenTofu, in modules, for several environments
- build a GitLab CI pipeline that tests, builds and deploys
- chain Terraform, Ansible and GitLab CI without exposing secrets
Who this course is for
An operations team
System administrators move from manual installations to an infrastructure described in a Git repository, reviewed and replayable.
A development team
Developers who deploy their own applications build reliable pipelines, with protected secrets and limited rights.
A local authority or public body
The infrastructure is described on your own servers or with a sovereign hosting provider, with free software tools.
Custom training
The three-day programme below is the starting point. Each day can be taken separately, and the workshops can start from your repositories and infrastructure.
Organisation
The details to record in your training plan.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Duration | 3 days, 21 hours |
| Hours | 9:00 to 12:30 and 14:00 to 17:30, two 15-minute breaks included. Hours can be adjusted for in-house sessions |
| Format | Remote, or on your premises |
| Group | 4 to 8 participants |
| Resources | An exercise environment per participant, with Linux virtual machines and a Git repository, course materials, sample playbooks, modules and pipeline |
| Assessment | A workshop at the end of each day, then a complete pipeline, from commit to deployment, on day three |
| Certificate | Certificate of completion for each participant |
Program
Day 1: Ansible
Morning
- Inventories, variables and facts
- Playbooks and roles: structure of an Ansible repository
- Idempotence, handlers and Jinja2 templates
Afternoon
- Ansible Vault for secrets
- Application deployment on Linux: packages, services, configuration files
- Checking before applying:
--checkmode and ansible-lint - Workshop: deploying an application and its services with Ansible
Day 2: Terraform and OpenTofu
Morning
- Providers, resources, variables and outputs
planandapply: reading a plan before applying it- State: its role, remote storage and locking
Afternoon
- Reusable modules
- Several environments, development and production
- Infrastructure on your servers or with a sovereign hosting provider
- OpenTofu, the free software version of Terraform maintained under the Linux Foundation
- Workshop: creating an infrastructure with Terraform
Day 3: CI/CD and the deployment chain
Morning
- CI/CD principles: lint, test, build, deploy
- GitLab CI pipelines: stages, jobs, runners
- Artifacts, environments and moving from one stage to the next
Afternoon
- Secrets and least privilege in pipelines
- Ansible and Terraform in one deployment chain
- Final workshop: an end-to-end pipeline, from commit to deployment
Frequently asked questions
Can the course be delivered remotely?
Yes. It takes place on your premises or remotely by video call.
What are the prerequisites?
Basic Linux and command line. Git basics help.
Can a session be run for our team only?
Yes. Each session is run for a single organisation, with exercises adapted to your context. The programme and price are set on quote.
Next steps
For Linux administration basics: Linux administrators training. For an infrastructure described end to end: NixOS training.