Mastering Red Hat Ansible Automation for Enterprise DevOps

You're under pressure. Deadlines are tightening. Stakeholders demand faster deployments, fewer outages, and flawless infrastructure consistency across hybrid environments. You know automation is the answer, yet you’re still scripting manually, fighting configuration drift, and struggling to scale.

Every hour spent on repetitive tasks is an hour lost to innovation. Every misconfigured server increases your organisation’s risk surface. And if your team can't deploy reliably at speed, you’re not just falling behind - you’re becoming a liability.

Mastering Red Hat Ansible Automation for Enterprise DevOps is your definitive blueprint to transform from overwhelmed engineer to high-impact automation leader. This is not theory. This is the field-tested methodology used by top-tier DevOps teams to achieve 90% faster provisioning, eliminate configuration gaps, and deliver auditable, repeatable infrastructure at enterprise scale.

Take Selina Park, Principal Systems Engineer at a Fortune 500 financial institution. After completing this course, she automated 78 of their 84 legacy middleware deployments within six weeks. The outcome? A 67% reduction in environment setup time and full compliance sign-off from audit teams - all using Ansible modules she built from scratch using this program’s step-by-step scaffolding.

This course delivers one specific, board-ready outcome: go from manual, error-prone processes to a fully operational, enterprise-grade Ansible automation framework in under 45 days - complete with role-based playbooks, dynamic inventory integration, secure credential handling, and audit-compliant reporting.

You’ll gain clarity, confidence, and control. No guesswork. No fragmented tutorials. Just a proven, linear path to mastering Ansible exactly as it’s applied in large-scale, regulated, and complex environments.

Here’s how this course is structured to help you get there.

Course Format & Delivery Details

This program is designed for professionals who need results, not hype. You get instant, self-paced access to a meticulously crafted learning experience built for real-world complexity and immediate applicability.

Immediate, On-Demand Access - Learn When It Works for You

The entire course is available on-demand. Once enrolled, you can begin immediately - no waiting for cohort starts or fixed schedules. Access is 24/7 from any location, fully compatible with desktop, tablet, and mobile devices. Whether you're in a war room at 3 AM or commuting between sites, your progress is always synced and available.

Lifetime Access + Continuous Updates at No Extra Cost

Your enrollment includes lifetime access to all course materials. As Red Hat releases new Ansible features, security patches, or enterprise modules, we update the content accordingly - and you receive every enhancement automatically, with zero additional charges. This is not a time-limited resource. It's a permanent part of your professional toolkit.

Designed for Real DevOps Workloads

Most learners complete the core automation framework in 30–45 days while applying lessons directly to their job. You can move faster if you’re focused, or take your time if your schedule demands flexibility. The structure ensures forward momentum regardless of your pace.

Dedicated Instructor Support & Expert Guidance

You’re not navigating this alone. Our support team, composed of Red Hat Certified Architects and senior DevOps consultants with 10+ years of enterprise automation experience, provides direct guidance on complex implementations. Whether you're debugging a failing playbook or integrating with Microsoft AD, you get context-aware support to unblock your progress.

Premium Certificate of Completion Issued by The Art of Service

Upon finishing, you receive a globally recognised Certificate of Completion issued by The Art of Service, a leader in enterprise DevOps training with professionals in 147 countries. This credential validates your mastery of Ansible at the enterprise level and can be shared on LinkedIn, added to your resume, or submitted for internal promotions and audit documentation.

No Hidden Fees. No Surprises. Full Transparency.

The pricing is straightforward. What you see is exactly what you pay - no recurring charges, no hidden upsells, and no subscription traps. One payment grants full lifetime access, all updates, and your certification.

• Visa
• Mastercard
• PayPal

All major payment methods are accepted for your convenience and security.

100% Risk-Free Enrollment: Satisfied or Refunded

We guarantee results. If you complete the first two modules and do not find them immediately valuable, practical, and superior in depth to any other Ansible resource you’ve used, simply contact support for a full refund. No questions, no forms, no hassle. Your investment is protected.

Confirmation & Access Process

After enrollment, you will receive a confirmation email. Once your registration is processed, a separate email containing your secure login credentials and course access details will be sent. This ensures system integrity and allows for proper provisioning of your learning environment.

“Will This Work for Me?” - Our Commitment to Your Success

Yes. This works even if you’ve tried Ansible before and felt stuck on idempotency rules, dynamic inventories, or complex module integrations. It works even if you manage thousands of nodes across AWS, Azure, and on-prem data centres. It works even if your environment includes legacy mainframes, strict firewall policies, or air-gapped networks.

The course is built on enterprise patterns used by Red Hat consultants inside Fortune 500s, government agencies, and global banks. You follow the same methodology they use - step by step, decision by decision, playbook by playbook.

With over 20,000 professionals trained worldwide, and a 96% completion-to-certification rate, The Art of Service has perfected the path from uncertainty to mastery.

Your success isn’t optional. It’s engineered into every module, project, and checkpoint.

Module 1: Foundations of Enterprise Automation with Ansible

• Understanding the evolution of infrastructure automation in enterprise IT
• Why Ansible is the standard for agentless automation at scale
• Comparing Ansible to Puppet, Chef, and SaltStack in regulated environments
• The business case: cost savings, risk reduction, and compliance alignment
• Defining automation scope in multi-team, multi-cloud organisations
• Setting up a controlled Ansible control node on RHEL 8/9
• Installing Ansible via RPM, pip, and Red Hat Insights
• Validating your installation with ansible --version and system checks
• Core architecture: control node, managed nodes, and SSH-based communication
• Establishing secure, passwordless SSH access using key authentication
• Testing connectivity with ansible all -m ping
• Understanding the inventory file: static vs. dynamic structures
• Creating and organising hosts and groups in INI format
• Assigning variables at host, group, and global levels
• Defining connection parameters: ansible_host, ansible_user, ansible_port
• Managing large inventories with multiple inventory sources
• Using YAML syntax for structured inventory representation
• Best practices for naming conventions and environment segregation
• Validating inventory structure with ansible-inventory --list
• Introducing ad hoc commands for immediate, single-task execution

Module 2: Playbook Design & Execution for Production Workflows

• From ad hoc to automation: converting commands into reusable playbooks
• Understanding playbook structure: plays, tasks, hosts, and handlers
• Writing your first playbook: installing and starting a web server
• Using the debug module for logging and troubleshooting
• Controlling task execution order with dependencies and sequencing
• Implementing task tags for selective playbook runs
• Grouping tasks using blocks for logical grouping and error handling
• Using when conditions for conditional task execution
• Leveraging changed_when and failed_when for advanced control logic
• Registering variables from task output using the register keyword
• Accessing registered variables in subsequent tasks and templates
• Handling task failures with ignore_errors and block rescue mechanisms
• Configuring task retries with until and delay for transient issues
• Using delegate_to to execute tasks on non-target hosts
• Running tasks locally with connection: local for orchestration logic
• Setting shell versus command modules and avoiding security pitfalls
• Using environment variables within playbook tasks
• Setting global and task-level environment variables with environment
• Controlling privilege escalation with become, become_method, become_user
• Best practices for YAML formatting: indentation, quotes, and readability

Module 3: Variables, Facts, and Dynamic Configuration Management

• Understanding variable precedence and scope in enterprise environments
• Defining variables in inventory, playbooks, and command line
• Organising variables in host_vars and group_vars directories
• Using external variable files with vars_files for modularity
• Best practices for secret management without exposing plaintext
• Gathering system facts with setup module and ansible_facts
• Disabling fact gathering when not needed for performance
• Using set_facts to define custom dynamic variables during execution
• Constructing complex variables using lists and dictionaries
• Merging variables with Hash Behaviour in ansible.cfg
• Using Jinja2 templating syntax in variable expressions
• Filtering and transforming data with Jinja2 filters
• Using default filters to handle missing variables gracefully
• Validating required variables with mandatory() filter
• Creating dynamic hostnames and paths using variable interpolation
• Referencing complex nested variables with dot notation
• Improving readability with vars section inside plays
• Centralising common configuration using role defaults
• Using lookup plugins to inject external data into variables
• Integrating environment-specific configurations with group logic

Module 4: Roles and Reusable Automation Components

• Understanding the role directory structure and component organisation
• Creating a role using ansible-galaxy init command
• Using tasks/main.yml to define role execution logic
• Storing role variables in defaults/main.yml with lowest precedence
• Overriding defaults with vars/main.yml for fixed values
• Defining role-specific handlers in handlers/main.yml
• Managing role dependencies in meta/main.yml
• Loading roles dynamically using roles keyword in playbooks
• Applying roles conditionally with when statements
• Nesting roles and managing execution order
• Passing parameters to roles using role arguments
• Sharing roles across teams using internal Git repositories
• Versioning roles for backward compatibility and rollback
• Testing roles in isolation using molecule and testinfra
• Generating role documentation for enterprise knowledge sharing
• Importing roles from Ansible Galaxy securely
• Validating role integrity using checksums and gpg signatures
• Hardening roles against injection and privilege escalation
• Optimising role performance with minimal fact gathering
• Archiving and distributing roles as tarballs for offline use

Module 5: Template-Driven Configuration with Jinja2

• Introducing the template module and its role in configuration files
• Creating Jinja2 templates with .j2 extension for clarity
• Embedding variables in templates for dynamic configuration
• Using loops and conditionals inside templates with for and if
• Processing multi-line configurations with raw blocks
• Controlling whitespace trimming using {%+ -%} syntax
• Applying filters to format data: upper, lower, trim, urlencode
• Using custom filters with filter_plugins directory
• Generating configuration files for Apache, Nginx, and HAProxy
• Building dynamic /etc/hosts files from inventory data
• Generating systemd unit files with environment-specific parameters
• Creating secure configuration templates with masked credentials
• Validating template syntax with ansible-lint and yamllint
• Testing template rendering with ansible-playbook --check
• Automating SSH config generation for jump hosts
• Deploying custom MOTD banners using templates
• Generating PostgreSQL and MySQL configuration from variables
• Redefining Jinja2 delimiters for non-standard file types
• Using template encryption with Ansible Vault for sensitive files
• Pre-processing templates with lookup plugins for external data

Module 6: Managing Secrets and Security at Scale

• Introducing Ansible Vault for secure credential management
• Creating encrypted files with ansible-vault create
• Editing existing vault files securely with ansible-vault edit
• Viewing encrypted content without exposing plaintext
• Changing vault passwords and rotating keys
• Using vaulted variables in playbooks and roles
• Passing vault passwords via file, prompt, or CI/CD integration
• Integrating Ansible Vault with HashiCorp Vault for hybrid secrets
• Storing database passwords, API keys, and SSH credentials securely
• Using encrypted variables in group_vars for environment isolation
• Automating vault decryption in CI/CD pipelines with secure inputs
• Best practices for sharing vaulted content across teams
• Role-based access to vaulted files using file permissions
• Splitting sensitive data from logic in playbook design
• Detecting plaintext secrets using pre-commit hooks and linters
• Using Ansible Tower/AWX credentials store for centralised management
• Configuring vault identity files for multiple decryption keys
• Encrypting entire directories using --recursive flag
• Version controlling vault files safely with git
• Auditing access to vaulted content with logging and monitoring

Module 7: Dynamic Inventories and Cloud Integration

• Limitations of static inventory in hybrid and cloud environments
• Understanding dynamic inventory scripts and plugins
• Using AWS EC2 dynamic inventory with boto3 and IAM roles
• Configuring Azure RM inventory using azure_rm.py script
• Integrating Google Cloud Platform with gcp_compute plugin
• Using OpenStack dynamic inventory for private clouds
• Querying VMware vCenter for real-time VM inventory
• Generating inventory from Microsoft Azure using REST API
• Combining multiple inventory sources in a single run
• Auto-grouping hosts by tags, regions, and roles
• Controlling host filtering with --limit command line option
• Refreshing inventory cache with --refresh-cache flag
• Setting cache timeouts in ansible.cfg for performance
• Using constructed inventory plugins to derive group logic
• Building custom groups from meta attributes like environment or owner
• Creating dynamic variables from cloud metadata
• Integrating with ServiceNow CMDB via REST API for inventory sync
• Automating inventory updates with scheduled cron jobs
• Building a hybrid inventory mixing cloud and on-prem systems
• Validating dynamic inventory output with ansible-inventory --graph

Module 8: Advanced Playbook Patterns for Enterprise Control

• Parallelism and forking: tuning concurrency with forks directive
• Serial execution for rolling updates with serial keyword
• Controlling batch size for zero-downtime deployments
• Using strategies: linear, free, and custom plugins
• Implementing dry runs with ansible-playbook --check
• Running in diff mode to see configuration changes
• Using --diff with template and file modules for visibility
• Limiting play execution to specific hosts or groups
• Using strategy plugins to skip failed hosts and continue
• Configuring timeout settings for long-running tasks
• Managing large file transfers with synchronize module and rsync
• Controlling task verbosity with -v, -vv, up to -vvvvv
• Interpreting debug output for troubleshooting connectivity and logic
• Using callback plugins to customise output formatting
• Enabling profile_tasks to identify performance bottlenecks
• Parallelising independent tasks using async and poll
• Running long jobs in background with async mode
• Monitoring background jobs with async_status module
• Gracefully handling network timeouts and session drops
• Testing playbook logic with unit tests and mocks

Module 9: Integration with DevOps Toolchains and CI/CD

• Integrating Ansible with Jenkins pipelines for automated deployments
• Calling playbooks from Jenkins using shell or Ansible plugin
• Using Git webhooks to trigger Ansible runs on commit
• Storing playbooks in Git with branching and pull request workflows
• Using Git hooks to enforce playbook linting and validation
• Integrating with GitHub Actions and GitLab CI/CD
• Deploying to staging and production with environment pipelines
• Using Ansible with Docker for containerised application delivery
• Building Docker images using Ansible playbooks
• Deploying containers with docker_container module
• Orchestrating Kubernetes with k8s module and YAML manifests
• Applying Helm charts using command module and kubectl
• Integrating with Terraform for infrastructure orchestration
• Using Ansible to configure systems post-Terraform provisioning
• Automating patching and compliance in AWS OpsWorks
• Using Ansible Tower/AWX for job scheduling and role-based access
• Creating job templates and workflows in Tower
• Setting up notifications via email, Slack, and PagerDuty
• Managing credentials, projects, and inventories in Tower
• Auditing all automation runs with detailed logging and reports

Module 10: Custom Module Development and Extension

• Understanding when to build a custom module vs. using command
• Overview of Ansible module architecture and execution model
• Writing modules in Python following Ansible best practices
• Using Ansiballz framework for module bundling
• Setting up development environment with virtualenv
• Structuring module files in library/ directory
• Validating module arguments using argument_spec
• Returning structured JSON output for idempotency
• Handling success, failure, and changed states correctly
• Using AnsibleModule class for standardised input handling
• Adding documentation using DOCUMENTATION string
• Writing EXAMPLES and RETURN sections for clarity
• Testing modules locally with playbook integration
• Debugging module output using tmpdir and verbose logs
• Building modules for proprietary APIs and legacy systems
• Creating modules for mainframe, SCADA, or OT environments
• Sharing modules across teams via internal Git or Galaxy
• Signing and verifying modules for security compliance
• Using module utilities for common functions: file, json, http
• Contributing modules to Ansible Core or Collections

Module 11: Testing, Validation, and Quality Assurance

• The importance of testing in enterprise automation
• Introducing Molecule for role testing and scenario development
• Setting up Docker and Vagrant drivers for test environments
• Writing converge and verify scenarios for idempotency
• Using testinfra for Python-based assertions
• Validating system state: packages, services, users, files
• Testing role dependencies and variable propagation
• Automating test execution with CI/CD pipelines
• Using ansible-lint to enforce coding standards
• Detecting anti-patterns and security issues in playbooks
• Scanning for hardcoded secrets using yamllint and pre-commit
• Validating YAML syntax with online and local tools
• Using ansible-playbook --syntax-check for fast feedback
• Testing idempotency: running the same playbook twice with no changes
• Measuring test coverage and success rates
• Generating test reports and compliance evidence
• Setting up smoke tests for pre-deployment validation
• Running integration tests across multiple environments
• Simulating network failures and timeouts in test scenarios
• Documenting test results for audit and certification purposes

Module 12: Enterprise Implementation and Governance

• Roadmap for rolling out Ansible across departments
• Creating a centralised Ansible control tower for governance
• Establishing naming, tagging, and documentation standards
• Defining playbook approval and change control processes
• Implementing version control with Git branching strategies
• Using pull requests and code reviews for quality assurance
• Setting up audit trails for all automation activities
• Generating compliance reports for SOX, HIPAA, PCI DSS
• Mapping playbooks to control objectives and policies
• Aligning automation with ITIL change management
• Training teams on Ansible syntax and best practices
• Developing internal certification paths for engineers
• Measuring ROI: time saved, incidents reduced, deployment frequency
• Creating dashboards for visibility into automation usage
• Integrating with SIEM for security event correlation
• Monitoring playbook execution success rates
• Setting up alerts for failed jobs and critical deviations
• Conducting regular access reviews for playbook permissions
• Retiring outdated playbooks and roles systematically
• Building a continuous improvement feedback loop