Automation With Ansible

Workstation setup for Ansible development with VS Code integration.

Environment

• OS: macOS 14.x (Sonoma)
• Python: 3.11+ (installed via Homebrew)
• Ansible: 12.1.0 with core 2.19.3 (pip install)

VS Code Extensions

• Ansible: Red Hat Ansible extension for syntax highlighting and IntelliSense
• YAML: YAML language support with validation
• Python: Python language support
• GitLens: Enhanced Git capabilities
• EditorConfig: Consistent coding styles

SSH Configuration

• SSH keys stored in ~/.ssh/
• Config file: ~/.ssh/config
• Add your public keys to target hosts
• Never commit private keys to repository

Git Configuration

git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "your.email@company.com"
# Optional: GPG signing
git config --global user.signingkey <GPG_KEY_ID>
git config --global commit.gpgsign true

Checkout this medium blog to setup signed commit

Virtual Environment

# Create and activate venv
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Run linting
ansible-lint playbooks/
yamllint .

Corporate Environment

• Set proxy: export https_proxy=http://proxy.company.com:8080
• CA certificates: Add to ~/.ansible/ca-bundle.crt
• Update pip config for internal PyPI if needed

New Machine? Do This

• Install Homebrew and Python 3.11+
• Clone this repository
• Create and activate Python virtual environment
• Install requirements: pip install -r requirements.txt
• Install pre-commit hooks: pre-commit install
• Configure Git user name and email
• Generate SSH key pair and add to ssh-agent
• Install VS Code and required extensions
• Test Ansible connection to target hosts
• Run ansible-lint and yamllint to verify setup
• Create inventories directory and add your hosts
• Configure corporate proxy/CA certificates if needed