Vagrant Ansible Lab Setup Guide
This guide will walk you through setting up a local Ansible control node and multiple managed nodes using Vagrant.
Vagrant Ansible Lab Architecture
graph TD
Host[Host Machine] -->|Vagrant| VirtualBox
VirtualBox --> Control[Control Node 192.168.56.10 Ansible]
Control -->|SSH| Managed1[Managed Node 1 192.168.56.11]
Control -->|SSH| Managed2[Managed Node 2 192.168.56.12]
Control -->|SSH| ManagedN[Managed Node 192.168.56.1X]
Prerequisites
Before you begin, ensure you have the following installed on your host machine:
- Vagrant: Download and install from: https://www.vagrantup.com/downloads
- VirtualBox (or another Vagrant provider): Download and install from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
- Youtube Ref link: Ansible-Setup
Setup Steps
Follow these steps to get your Ansible lab up and running:
Step 1: Create Project Directory and Vagrantfile
Create a new directory for your project. You can name it ansible_vagrant_lab or anything you prefer.
mkdir ansible_vagrant_lab
cd ansible_vagrant_lab
Inside this new directory, create a file named Vagrantfile.
touch Vagrantfile
Open the Vagrantfile with your preferred text editor and paste the following content into it:
# -*- mode: ruby -*-
# vi: set ft=ruby :
Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
VAGRANT_NUM_MANAGED_NODES = 2
VAGRANT_IP_PREFIX = "192.168.56."
config.vm.box = "ubuntu/focal64"
config.vm.box_check_update = false
# Generate SSH key on host if not exists
unless File.exist?("ansible_id_rsa")
system("ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 2048 -f ansible_id_rsa -N ''")
end
def host_entries
entries = ["192.168.56.10 ansible-control"]
(1..VAGRANT_NUM_MANAGED_NODES).each do |i|
entries << "192.168.56.#{10 + i} ansible-managed-#{i}"
end
entries.join("\n")
end
# Shared synced folder to copy keys
config.vm.synced_folder ".", "/vagrant", type: "virtualbox"
# --- Control Node ---
config.vm.define "ansible-control" do |control|
control.vm.hostname = "ansible-control"
control.vm.network "private_network", ip: "#{VAGRANT_IP_PREFIX}10"
control.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |vb|
vb.name = "ansible-control"
vb.memory = "1024"
vb.cpus = "1"
end
control.vm.provision "shell", inline: <<-SHELL
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y ansible python3-pip
# Create ansible user and give sudo
sudo useradd -m -s /bin/bash ansible
echo "ansible:ansible" | sudo chpasswd
echo "ansible ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL" | sudo tee /etc/sudoers.d/ansible
# Install private key
sudo mkdir -p /home/ansible/.ssh
sudo cp /vagrant/ansible_id_rsa /home/ansible/.ssh/id_rsa
sudo cp /vagrant/ansible_id_rsa.pub /home/ansible/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
sudo chown -R ansible:ansible /home/ansible/.ssh
sudo chmod 600 /home/ansible/.ssh/id_rsa
sudo chmod 644 /home/ansible/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
# Write Ansible inventory
echo "[managed]" | sudo tee /etc/ansible/hosts
for i in $(seq 1 #{VAGRANT_NUM_MANAGED_NODES}); do
ip=$((10 + i))
echo "ansible-managed-${i} ansible_host=#{VAGRANT_IP_PREFIX}${ip} ansible_user=ansible ansible_ssh_private_key_file=/home/ansible/.ssh/id_rsa" | sudo tee -a /etc/ansible/hosts
done
echo "#{host_entries}" | sudo tee -a /etc/hosts
SHELL
end
# --- Managed Nodes ---
(1..VAGRANT_NUM_MANAGED_NODES).each do |i|
config.vm.define "ansible-managed-#{i}" do |managed|
managed.vm.hostname = "ansible-managed-#{i}"
managed.vm.network "private_network", ip: "#{VAGRANT_IP_PREFIX}#{10 + i}"
managed.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |vb|
vb.name = "ansible-managed-#{i}"
vb.memory = "512"
vb.cpus = "1"
end
managed.vm.provision "shell", inline: <<-SHELL
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y python3 openssh-server
# Create ansible user and install public key
sudo useradd -m -s /bin/bash ansible
echo "ansible:ansible" | sudo chpasswd
echo "ansible ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL" | sudo tee /etc/sudoers.d/ansible
sudo mkdir -p /home/ansible/.ssh
sudo cp /vagrant/ansible_id_rsa.pub /home/ansible/.ssh/authorized_keys
sudo chown -R ansible:ansible /home/ansible/.ssh
sudo chmod 600 /home/ansible/.ssh/authorized_keys
echo "#{host_entries}" | sudo tee -a /etc/hosts
SHELL
end
end
end
Step 2: Customize Vagrantfile (Optional)
You can modify the following variables in your Vagrantfile to suit your needs:
VAGRANT_NUM_MANAGED_NODES: Change the value 2 to your desired number of Ansible managed nodes.
VAGRANT_IP_PREFIX: If you prefer a different private IP address range for your VMs, change "192.168.56." to your desired prefix.
Step 3: Start the Virtual Machines
Navigate to your ansible_vagrant_lab directory in your terminal and run the following command:
vagrant up
This command will:
Download the ubuntu/focal64 Vagrant box (if you don't have it locally). Create and configure the ansible-control VM. Create and configure the specified number of ansible-managed-X VMs. This process may take some time depending on your internet connection and system resources.
Step 4: Connect to the Ansible Control Node
Once vagrant up completes, you can SSH into your Ansible control node:
vagrant ssh ansible-control
Step 5: Verify Ansible Setup on Control Node
After connecting to the ansible-control VM, you can verify that Ansible is installed and the inventory file has been generated correctly:
ansible --version
cat /etc/ansible/hosts
You should see output similar to this, listing your managed nodes with their assigned IP addresses:
[managed]
ansible-managed-1 ansible_host=192.168.56.11 ansible_user=vagrant ansible_ssh_private_key_file=/home/vagrant/.ssh/id_rsa
ansible-managed-2 ansible_host=192.168.56.12 ansible_user=vagrant ansible_ssh_private_key_file=/home/vagrant/.ssh/id_rsa
Step 6: Change user
# Swtich user vagrant to ansible user
su - ansible
# Password : ansible
Step 7: Test Ansible Ping
sudo -u ansible ansible all -m ping
Step 8: Clean Up (Optional)
When you are finished with your lab and want to remove the virtual machines from your system, run the following command from your host machine (in the ansible_vagrant_lab directory):
vagrant destroy -f