Intro
Ansible Automation Platform (AAP) is powerful. But if you’ve ever tried setting it up or scaling it in production, you know—it can also be painfully complex.
From hybrid cloud deployments and role-based access control to containerized execution environments and GitOps workflows, AAP has grown dramatically with version 2.0.
So where do you even start?
📘 Enter Mastering Ansible Automation Platform by Luca Berton, the creator of Ansible Pilot. With 5+ years of hands-on AAP experience and 15,000+ students trained, Luca distills it all into one actionable, beginner-friendly book.
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What You’ll Learn Inside
This isn’t just documentation reworded. This is real-world know-how, packed into a step-by-step format.
Understanding the Architecture
- AAP 2.0’s container-based design
- Automation Controller vs Automation Hub
- Event-Driven Automation (EDA) and Automation Mesh
- Execution Environments: what they are, why they matter
Installation & Setup – Made Simple
From basic installs to advanced configurations:
- Single-node setups with internal DBs
- Multi-node with external databases
- Load balancers, automation mesh, and redundancy strategies
- Subscription activation, service management, backups, & logging
Yes, it’s complex — but Luca walks you through every option with diagrams, use cases, and tips.
Authentication, RBAC & Enterprise Integration
Configuring user roles shouldn’t feel like hacking a maze of LDAP or AD queries.
You’ll learn how to:
- Set up secure RBAC
- Integrate with LDAP, Azure AD, and more
- Write clean queries for user groups
- Automate team access without headaches
DevOps, GitOps, and Ansible AI
Modern automation isn’t just about playbooks — it’s about:
- Writing clean code using Git workflows
- Leveraging Ansible Lightspeed (AI-assisted coding)
- Speeding up development and reducing errors
- Validating your Ansible content with quality dashboards
Luca even walks through integrating with upstream tools like AWX, explaining what’s compatible and what’s not.
Hybrid Cloud & Network Automation
If you’re deploying to AWS, Azure, GCP, or using Kubernetes, this book has you covered.
You’ll explore:
- Managing cloud workloads via AAP
- Automating Cisco network backups
- Interfacing with Nutanix, Kubernetes, and vendor-neutral infrastructures
- Building reusable workflows that scale across environments
Advanced Use Cases: Custom Modules, Plugins & Monitoring
Push your AAP skills to the next level:
- Create custom plugins, callback scripts, and lookup tools
- Analyze automation quality using Prometheus + Grafana
- Track execution metrics and system health
- Build automation that runs itself — and tells you when it needs help
Designed for Beginners, Built for Experts
Whether you’re just starting with AAP or you’re deep in enterprise automation, this book:
- Makes tough topics digestible
- Includes copy-paste-ready examples
- Guides you through real troubleshooting steps
- Helps you unlock the full potential of Red Hat’s automation ecosystem
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Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Structure
- Objectives
- Brief introduction and reference
- Overview of Ansible Automation Platform
- What is Ansible
- Ansible architecture
- Linux and macOS target
- Windows Target
- Ansible language
- Create Ansible playbooks and resources
- Conclusion
- Points to remember
- Multiple choice questions
- Answers
- Questions
- Key terms
- Introduction
- Structure
- Ansible Automation Platform architecture
- Automation controller
- Dashboard
- Projects
- Jobs
- API
- Automation hub
- Roles and collections
- Ansible Galaxy and automation hub
- Ansible execution environment
- Building an execution environment
- Using an execution environment
- Execution environment mount options
- Ansible automation mesh
- Control and execution planes
- Automation mesh node types
- Key learning
- Points to remember
- Multiple choice questions
- Answers
- Questions
- Key terms
- Introduction
- Structure
- Objectives
- Overview of the installation scenarios
- Prerequisites and requirements
- Installer
- Installation scenarios
- Setup automation controller
- Standalone automation controller with internal database
- Single automation controller with installer-managed database
- Configure external database
- Single automation controller with external database
- Additional options
- Setup private automation hub
- Standalone automation hub with internal database
- Single automation hub with installer-managed database
- Single automation hub with external database
- Setup Event-Driven Ansible controller
- Setup Ansible Automation Platform
- Ansible Automation Platform with installer-managed database
- Ansible Automation Platform with external database
- Load balancer
- Websockets
- OpenShift
- Operator installation
- Automation controller
- Automation hub
- Containerized
- Key learning
- Points to remember
- Multiple choice questions
- Answers
- Questions
- Key terms
- Introduction
- Structure
- Objectives
- Ansible subscription
- Activate with Ansible
- Automation controller
- Organization
- Inventory
- Dynamic inventory
- Credential
- Project
- Playbook
- Job Template
- Workflow Template
- Notification
- Project signature
- API
- CLI
- Execution environments
- Automation hub dashboard
- Ansible validated contents
- Custom execution environment
- Event-Driven Ansible
- Project
- Decision environment
- Automation controller token authentication
- Rulebook activation
- Best practices
- Configuration as code
- Other services
- Web console
- Automation analytics
- Key learning
- Points to remember
- Multiple choice questions
- Answers
- Questions
- Key terms
- Introduction
- Structure
- Objectives
- Automation controller settings
- New User Interface
- Job Settings
- Logging level
- Users, Teams, and RBAC
- Creating and managing users credentials
- Managing users efficiently with Teams
- Role-based access controls
- Automation hub
- Authentication integrations
- Automation controller LDAP integration
- Windows Active Directory
- Automation hub LDAP integration
- Integrate Azure Active Directory
- Integrate SAML authentication
- Ansible Automation Platform Central Authentication
- Connecting private automation hub with automation controller
- Key learning
- Points to remember
- Multiple choice questions
- Answer
- Questions
- Key terms
- Introduction
- Structure
- Objectives
- Start, stop and restart
- Automation controller
- Automation hub
- Log files
- Automation controller
- Automation hub
- Consolidating log files
- Logging aggregator services
- Splunk
- ELK Stack
- Metrics
- Prometheus
- Grafana
- Backup and restore
- Security
- Firewall Policy Management
- Network Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems
- Key learning
- Points to remember
- Multiple choice questions
- Answer
- Questions
- Key terms
- Introduction
- Structure
- Objectives
- Create Ansible Playbooks and content
- Visual Studio Code
- Ansible Playbook
- GitOps
- Ansible modules
- Code reuse
- Collections
- Ansible Utils
- Ansible Lightspeed
- Automate application deployments
- Launching jobs via API
- Event-Driven automation
- Drift configuration
- Distribute containerized applications
- Key learning
- Points to remember
- Multiple choice questions
- Answer
- Questions
- Key terms
- Introduction
- Structure
- Objectives
- Cloud infrastructure
- Amazon Web Services
- Microsoft Azure
- Google Cloud Platform
- Ansible resources
- Hybrid cloud
- Nutanix
- AgnosticD
- Kubernetes
- Scale containerized applications
- Key learning
- Points to remember
- Multiple choice questions
- Answer
- Questions
- Key terms
- Introduction
- Structure
- Objectives
- IT Processes
- Ansible Network
- ansible-navigator
- network.base
- Building Ansible Inventory
- Querying Supported Resource Modules
- Deploying Configuration Changes
- network.interfaces
- network.ospf
- network.bgp
- LibSSH
- Managing Fleets
- Rolling Updates
- Red Hat
- Debian
- Apply Security Patches
- Windows
- Monitor and Respond to Threats
- Develop Ansible Resources
- Code Inclusion
- Plugins & Modules
- Custom Test Plugin
- Custom Filter Plugin
- Using Callback Plugin
- Custom Callback Plugin
- Custom Lookup Plugin
- Custom Module
- Custom Collection
- Automation Hub
- XLAB Steampunk Spotter
- Reduce Risks and Speed Up Automation
- Playbook Secure Execution
- Insights and Reporting
- Custom Policies
- Who is it for?
- Ansible-Lockdown
- Automation with Ansible
- Implementation Steps
- Good Practices for Ansible
- Key learning
- Points to remember
- Multiple choice questions
- Answers
- Questions
- Key terms
- Structure
- Objectives
- Review of Ansible Automation Platform
- AWX community
- Use cases
- Administration
- Ansible SDK
- Ansible validated content
- The future
- Conclusion
- Key learning
- Points to remember
- Multiple choice questions
- Answer
- Questions
- Key terms
Final Thoughts
The Ansible Automation Platform is one of the most powerful orchestration tools available today — but without the right guidance, it can feel overwhelming.
Luca Berton’s book doesn’t just teach you how AAP works.
It teaches you how to master it.
✅ Configure smarter.
✅ Automate faster.
✅ Troubleshoot like a pro.
✅ Scale with confidence.
📘 Ready to go from “where do I start?” to “I’ve got this”?
This is the book you’ve been waiting for.
