Developing Advanced Automation with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
In this course, the main computer system used for hands-on learning activities is workstation.
The system called bastion must always be running.
Ten other machines are also used by students for these activities: servera, serverb, serverc, serverd, servere, serverf, git, hub, controller, and utility.
All ten of these systems are in the lab.example.com DNS domain.
All student computer systems have a standard user account, student, which has the password student.
The root password on all student systems is redhat.
Table 1. Classroom Machines
| Machine name | IP addresses | Role |
|---|---|---|
bastion.lab.example.com
|
172.25.250.254
| Bridges the classroom and student networks |
workstation.lab.example.com
|
172.25.250.9
| Graphical workstation used for system administration |
servera.lab.example.com
|
172.25.250.10
| Managed server "A" |
serverb.lab.example.com
|
172.25.250.11
| Managed server "B" |
serverc.lab.example.com
|
172.25.250.12
| Managed server "C" |
serverd.lab.example.com
|
172.25.250.13
| Managed server "D" |
servere.lab.example.com
|
172.25.250.14
| Managed server "E" |
serverf.lab.example.com
|
172.25.250.15
| Managed server "F" |
git.lab.example.com
|
172.25.250.5
| GitLab server |
hub.lab.example.com
|
172.25.250.6
| Private automation hub server |
controller.lab.example.com
|
172.25.250.7
| Automation controller server |
utility.lab.example.com
|
172.25.250.8
| System with utility services required for classroom |
The primary function of bastion is that it acts as a router between the network that connects the student machines and the classroom network.
If bastion is down, other student machines are only able to access systems on the individual student network.
Several systems in the classroom provide supporting services.
Two servers, content.example.com and materials.example.com, are sources for software and lab materials used in hands-on activities.
Information on how to use these servers is provided in the instructions for those activities.
These are provided by the classroom.example.com virtual machine.
Both classroom and bastion should always be running for proper use of the lab environment.
The hands-on activities in this course require you to create and edit a number of text files.
The text editors included with Red Hat Enterprise Linux are available in the software repository, but they are not all installed.
Activities were developed assuming that most students use the Vim text editor, started at a shell prompt by using either the vi or vim command.
As an experiment based on customer input, the authors of this course have installed Visual Studio Code on workstation.lab.example.com.
You can launch Visual Studio Code on workstation by selecting its icon from the menu or by running the code command at a shell prompt.
Visual Studio Code is not included in Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but is a third-party product provided for free download by Microsoft at https://code.visualstudio.com.
For this course, a number of extensions have also been installed.
The most notable are "Ansible VS Code Extension" and "YAML Language Support", both developed by Red Hat.
Important
We do not guarantee that Visual Studio Code is available in the EX374 certification exam. If you plan to take that exam, you should ensure that you are comfortable with a text editor included in Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
We have performed limited testing of Visual Studio Code in this lab environment. If you have issues, you might need to use a different editor to work around them.
You are assigned remote computers in a Red Hat Online Learning (ROLE) classroom. Self-paced courses are accessed through a web application that is hosted at . Log in to this site with your Red Hat Customer Portal user credentials.
The virtual machines in your classroom environment are controlled through web page interface controls. The state of each classroom virtual machine is displayed on the tab.
Table 2. Machine States
| Virtual Machine State | Description |
|---|---|
| building | The virtual machine is being created. |
| active | The virtual machine is running and available. If it just started, it still might be starting services. |
| stopped | The virtual machine is completely shut down. On starting, the virtual machine boots into the same state as it had before it was shut down. The disk state is preserved. |
Table 3. Classroom Actions
| Button or Action | Description |
|---|---|
| Create the ROLE classroom. Creates and starts all of the virtual machines needed for this classroom. Creation can take several minutes to complete. | |
| The ROLE classroom virtual machines are being created. Creates and starts all of the virtual machines that are needed for this classroom. Creation can take several minutes to complete. | |
| Delete the ROLE classroom. Destroys all virtual machines in the classroom. All saved work on those systems' disks is lost. | |
| Start all virtual machines in the classroom. | |
| All virtual machines in the classroom are starting. | |
| Stop all virtual machines in the classroom. |
Table 4. Machine Actions
| Button or Action | Description |
|---|---|
Connect to the system console of the virtual machine in a new browser tab.
You can log in directly to the virtual machine and run commands, when required.
Normally, log in to the workstation virtual machine only, and from there, use ssh to connect to the other virtual machines. | |
| → | Start (power on) the virtual machine. |
| → | Gracefully shut down the virtual machine, preserving disk contents. |
| → | Forcefully shut down the virtual machine, while still preserving disk contents. This is equivalent to removing the power from a physical machine. |
| → | Forcefully shut down the virtual machine and reset associated storage to its initial state. All saved work on that system's disks is lost. |
At the start of an exercise, if instructed to reset a single virtual machine node, click → for only that specific virtual machine.
At the start of an exercise, if instructed to reset all virtual machines, click → on every virtual machine in the list.
If you want to return the classroom environment to its original state at the start of the course, you can click to remove the entire classroom environment. After the lab has been deleted, you can click to provision a new set of classroom systems.
Warning
The operation cannot be undone. All completed work in the classroom environment is lost.
The Red Hat Online Learning enrollment entitles you to a set allotment of computer time. To help conserve your allotted time, the ROLE classroom uses timers, which shut down or delete the classroom environment when the appropriate timer expires.
To adjust the timers, locate the two buttons at the bottom of the course management page. Click the auto-stop button to add another hour to the auto-stop timer. Click the auto-destroy button to add another day to the auto-destroy timer. Auto-stop has a maximum of 11 hours, and auto-destroy has a maximum of 14 days. Be careful to keep the timers set while you are working, so that your environment is not unexpectedly shut down. Be careful not to set the timers unnecessarily high, which could waste your subscription time allotment.
