Lab 008 - Challenges¶

• This lab is a set of challenges that combine skills from the previous labs (000-007).
• You will practice creating users, building inventories, and managing Git repositories using Ansible.
• Each challenge has a clear goal - try to solve it yourself before checking the solution.
• Completing these challenges will reinforce your understanding of core Ansible concepts.

What will we learn?¶

• How to apply the user module to create system accounts on remote hosts
• How to write an inventory file that references the created users as ansible_ssh_user
• How to use the git module to clone and push to repositories on remote hosts
• How to chain multiple modules in a single playbook to complete a real-world workflow

Prerequisites¶

• Complete all previous labs (000-007)

01. Challenge 1 - User Management¶

Goal¶

Create a user named after the hostname on each managed host, verify the user exists, then update the inventory to connect as that user.

Tasks¶

1. Write a playbook that creates a user named {{ inventory_hostname }} on all hosts.
2. Verify the user was created by displaying its name in a debug message.
3. Add an SSH key for the user during creation.
4. Update your inventory so the connection uses the new user:

server-1    ansible_host=server-1 ansible_ssh_user=server-1
server-2    ansible_host=server-2 ansible_ssh_user=server-2
server-3    ansible_host=server-3 ansible_ssh_user=server-3

---
- name: Challenge 1 - Create user per hostname
  hosts: all
  tasks:
    - name: Create user named after the host
      ansible.builtin.user:
        name: "{{ inventory_hostname }}"
        groups: root
        shell: /bin/bash
        state: present
        generate_ssh_key: true
        ssh_key_bits: 2048
        ssh_key_file: .ssh/id_rsa
        create_home: true

    - name: Verify user was created
      ansible.builtin.debug:
        msg: "Created user: {{ inventory_hostname }}"

02. Challenge 2 - Git Repository Management¶

Goal¶

On a remote host, install git, clone a repository, make a change, commit it, and push it back to the remote.

Tasks¶

1. Ensure git is installed on the target host using the apt module.
2. Clone a repository from GitHub or GitLab to /tmp/ansible-git-demo.
3. Write a file to the cloned directory using the copy module.
4. Commit and push the change using the shell module.

---
- name: Challenge 2 - Clone, modify, and push a git repository
  hosts: server-2
  gather_facts: false
  tasks:
    - name: Ensure git is installed
      ansible.builtin.apt:
        name: git
        state: present
      become: true

    - name: Clone the repository
      ansible.builtin.git:
        repo: https://github.com/yourusername/yourrepository.git
        dest: /tmp/ansible-git-demo
        clone: true
        update: true

    - name: Write a change file
      ansible.builtin.copy:
        dest: /tmp/ansible-git-demo/ansible-change.txt
        content: "Change made by Ansible on {{ ansible_date_time.iso8601 }}\n"
        mode: "0644"

    - name: Commit and push changes
      ansible.builtin.shell: |
        cd /tmp/ansible-git-demo
        git config user.email "you@example.com"
        git config user.name "Ansible Bot"
        git add ansible-change.txt
        git commit -m "Automated commit by Ansible"
        git push origin main
      args:
        executable: /bin/bash
      changed_when: true

03. Hands-on¶

1. Run the user-creation playbook against all three lab servers.
2. Verify each user exists by running ansible all -m shell -a "id {{ inventory_hostname }}".
3. Update your inventory file to use the new users and re-run ansible all -m ping to confirm connectivity.
4. Clone a public GitHub repo to server-2 using the git module.
5. Add a file to the cloned repo and commit the change using a shell task.

04. Summary¶

• 🔹 The ansible.builtin.user module can create, update, and remove system users, including SSH key generation
• 🔹 Using {{ inventory_hostname }} as a username ties each host’s account to its identity in the inventory
• 🔹 Inventories can specify ansible_ssh_user per host to control which account Ansible connects with
• 🔹 The ansible.builtin.git module handles clone and update operations; push requires a shell task
• 🔹 Challenge labs combine multiple modules in sequence - this mirrors real automation workflows