Ansible Nginx Deployment Project

This repository contains Ansible playbooks and supporting files for provisioning and configuring an Nginx web server on one or more Amazon Linux hosts from a control machine (your laptop, jump-box, or dedicated Ansible controller).

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📂 Project Structure

Path	Purpose
index.html	Sample web page that will be deployed to the web‑root.
instruction.txt	Raw checklist that the playbook was built from (now merged into this README).
key.pkk	Host (control‑node) key – used by the controller when connecting outward from your machine (keep it safe).
key.pem	Managed host key – SSH private key that allows Ansible to log in to the EC2 instances you are configuring.
myinventory.yml	Static inventory file that defines the group mynginx with one or more target IPs or hostnames.
nginx_setup.yml	Main playbook: installs Nginx, copies index.html, opens the firewall, and starts the service.
vars.yml	Variable file read in at runtime with --extra-vars "@vars.yml" so you can change server names, document root, etc.

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🛠️ Prerequisites

1. Ansible installed on the control node.

   Amazon Linux 2

   sudo yum update -y
   sudo amazon-linux-extras enable epel
   sudo yum install epel-release -y
   sudo yum install ansible -y
   ansible --version

   Ubuntu / Debian

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install ansible -y
   ansible --version

2. SSH key permissions.

   Copy or generate the private key that matches the public key on your EC2 instances into the project root as key.pem and lock down the permissions:

   chmod 400 key.pem

3. Inventory & variables adjusted.

   • Edit myinventory.yml if your hosts/group names differ.

   • Edit vars.yml and replace the placeholder IP addresses with your public instance IPs:

     nano vars.yml   # or your preferred editor

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🚀 Quick Start

# Ping the hosts to confirm Ansible can reach them
ansible mynginx   -m ping   -i myinventory.yml   --private-key key.pem   --extra-vars "@vars.yml"

# Execute the full playbook
ansible-playbook   -i myinventory.yml nginx_setup.yml   --private-key key.pem   --extra-vars "@vars.yml"

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📝 Step‑by‑Step Walk‑through (from instruction.txt)

Step	Action
A	Prepare control node (see Amazon Linux 2 commands above).
B	Copy private key into key.pem and run chmod 400 key.pem.
C	Update target IPs in vars.yml, then test connectivity: ansible mynginx -m ping -i myinventory.yml --extra-vars "@vars.yml"
D	Run the playbook: ansible-playbook -i myinventory.yml nginx_setup.yml --extra-vars "@vars.yml"

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🔐 Key Mapping

Control‑node (your machine)  -> key.pkk  (private key you own)
Managed EC2 instances        -> key.pem  (ssh key that exists on instances)

Keep both keys private; never commit them to a public repository.

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📑 What the Playbook Does

1. Installs the latest stable Nginx package.
2. Copies index.html to /usr/share/nginx/html/index.html.
3. Ensures the Nginx service is enabled and started.
4. (Optional) Opens TCP 80 in the OS firewall if required.

You can tweak behaviour by editing vars.yml or directly adjusting nginx_setup.yml.

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Happy automating!