Ansible Learning Roadmap
Goal: From manual sysadmin to automated configuration management
Learning Phases
Phase 1: Ansible Basics (1 week)
•What Ansible is and why it beats scripts
•Installing Ansible, SSH key setup
•Ad-hoc commands: ansible -m module
•Inventory: static and patterns
Phase 2: Playbooks (2 weeks)
•Playbook structure: plays, tasks, handlers
•Core modules: copy, file, template, service, package
•Variables: vars, defaults, group_vars, host_vars
•Conditions (when) and loops (loop)
Phase 3: Roles (2 weeks)
•Role directory structure
•ansible-galaxy: download and create roles
•Dependencies and defaults
•Role testing with Molecule
Phase 4: Advanced (2 weeks)
•Ansible Vault for secrets
•Dynamic inventory (AWS, Azure)
•Custom modules (Python)
•Error handling: block/rescue/always
Phase 5: Production (1 week)
•Ansible Tower/AWX for web UI and RBAC
•Idempotency best practices
•Performance: pipelining, forks, async tasks
•Collections from Ansible Galaxy
Job Roles This Enables
•Systems Administrator
•DevOps Engineer
•Automation Engineer
Target Certifications
•Red Hat RHCE (EX294 — includes Ansible)
How to Use This Roadmap
1.Work through phases in order — each builds on the previous
2.Complete the labs section for each phase before moving on
3.Build a project after each phase to cement learning
4.Use the interview section to test understanding regularly
5.Track progress: revisit earlier sections as concepts compound
Prerequisites
See prerequisites.md in this section for what you should know before starting.