Learning Ansible 2.7: Automate your organization’s infrastructure using Ansible 2.7, Third Edition

Infrastructure automation becomes easier to reason about when a task is turned into a repeatable playbook. Learning Ansible 2.7 takes that practical route, moving from first steps with Ansible to production deployments, cloud resources, custom modules, and more complex environments. Fabio Alessandro Locati’s third edition is focused on Ansible 2.7, with examples that show how the tool can support everyday administration as well as broader deployment work.

Start with Playbooks, Then Build a Working Server 💻

The opening chapters introduce Ansible, YAML, installation, and the basics of writing and running playbooks. From there, the material applies those ideas to configuring a server and setting up a web server, giving readers concrete context for variables, templates, and routine system tasks.

Take Automation Beyond a Single Host

As the examples grow, the book explores inventory files, groups, variables, loops, roles, handlers, and deployment strategies. These topics help explain how to organize automation when a project must account for multiple machines, reusable components, or different stages of deployment.

Bring Cloud and Operations into the Picture

Dedicated material covers provisioning and deployment with AWS, DigitalOcean, and Azure, alongside notifications through services and tools such as Slack and Amazon SNS. The book also addresses security practices including Ansible Vault and keeping sensitive output out of logs.

Test, Troubleshoot, and Extend Ansible

Readers go on to custom module development, functional testing, syntax checks, debugging, and error handling. Later sections examine complex environments, enterprise-oriented Ansible tools, Ansible Galaxy, and AWX—topics that broaden the view from individual playbooks to larger automation workflows.

A Practical Starting Point for Ansible 2.7

This edition is suited to learners and system administrators who want a structured introduction with hands-on infrastructure examples. Its version-specific focus is also useful to keep in mind: the book teaches Ansible 2.7 rather than presenting itself as a guide to later releases.