How to Deploy a Web App Using Ansible in 10 Minutes

Source: Dev.to

What is Ansible?

Ansible is a powerful automation tool used for server configuration. It works over SSH, requires no agent, and uses YAML playbooks to automate tasks.

In this guide you will learn

• How to install Ansible
• How to set up a project structure
• How to add an SSH key
• How to test the SSH connection
• How to create static content files
• How to write a sample playbook
• How to configure the inventory file
• How to run the playbook
• How to verify the deployment

Step 1 – Install Ansible on Ubuntu

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

Step 2 – Create Ansible Project Structure

# Create project folder
mkdir ansible_demo
cd ansible_demo

# Create inventory & playbooks directories
mkdir inventory playbooks

Inventory file

cd inventory
touch hosts.ini

Playbook file

cd ../playbooks
touch web_prac.yml

Step 3 – Add SSH Key to the Project

cd ..
mkdir ssh
cd ssh
touch nagios.pem

Paste your PEM key content into nagios.pem, then set proper permissions:

chmod 600 nagios.pem

Step 4 – Test SSH Connection with PEM

ssh -i ssh/nagios.pem ubuntu@

If you successfully log in, the connection is OK.

Step 5 – Create Files Folder for Static Content

cd ../playbooks
mkdir files
cd files
touch index.html

Add your HTML content inside index.html.

Step 6 – Sample Playbook (web_prac.yml)

---
- name: Setup Web Server
  hosts: webserver
  become: yes

  tasks:
    - name: Install NGINX
      apt:
        name: nginx
        state: present
        update_cache: yes

    - name: Copy index.html to web server
      copy:
        src: files/index.html
        dest: /var/www/html/index.html
        owner: www-data
        group: www-data
        mode: '0644'

    - name: Start and enable NGINX
      service:
        name: nginx
        state: started
        enabled: yes

Step 7 – Inventory File (hosts.ini)

[webserver]
13.201.29.244

ansible_user=ubuntu
ansible_ssh_private_key_file=../ssh/nagios.pem

Step 8 – Run the Ansible Playbook

From the ansible_demo directory:

ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts.ini playbooks/web_prac.yml

If the run completes without errors, the deployment was successful.

Step 9 – Verify in Browser

Open a browser and navigate to:

http://

You should see the content of index.html served by NGINX.

Final Result

By the end of this guide you have:

• Installed Ansible
• Created a professional project structure
• Created an inventory file
• Written a YAML playbook
• Added an SSH key for authentication
• Automated the deployment of a web page using Ansible