GCP Automation with Ansible

Introduction

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) can be automated using Ansible, a powerful automation tool that allows you to manage infrastructure as code. This lesson covers the essential elements of GCP automation with Ansible, including setup, configuration, and practical examples.

Key Concepts

• Ansible: An open-source automation tool that automates cloud provisioning, configuration management, and application deployment.
• GCP: A cloud computing platform that offers a suite of services including computing, data storage, data analytics, and machine learning.
• Playbooks: YAML files that define the tasks to be executed by Ansible.
• Inventory: A file that defines the hosts on which Ansible will run tasks.

Installation

To automate GCP using Ansible, you need to set up a few prerequisites.

1. Install Ansible using pip:

pip install ansible

2. Install the Google Cloud SDK:

curl https://sdk.cloud.google.com | bash

3. Authenticate with your GCP account:

gcloud auth login

Ansible Playbook Example

Below is a simple Ansible playbook to create a Google Compute Engine instance.

- hosts: localhost
  tasks:
    - name: Create GCP Instance
      gcp_compute_instance:
        name: my-instance
        machine_type: n1-standard-1
        zone: us-central1-a
        project: my-gcp-project
        auth_kind: serviceaccount
        service_account_file: /path/to/your/service-account-file.json
        state: present
      register: instance
            

Best Practices

• Use roles for organizing playbooks.
• Keep your service account keys secure.
• Test playbooks in a staging environment before production.

FAQ