**Course Title:** Mastering Development Environments **Section Title:** Configuration Management Tools **Topic:** Use a configuration management tool to automate the setup of a development environment.(Lab topic) **Objective:** In this lab, you will learn how to use a configuration management tool, Ansible, to automate the setup of a development environment. You will understand how to create and manage Ansible playbooks to install necessary tools, configure IDEs, and set up version control systems. **Prerequisites:** * Familiarity with configuration management basics * Basic understanding of Ansible (covered in previous topics) * A functioning Ansible environment on your machine **What is Ansible?** Ansible is a widely used configuration management tool that enables you to manage and automate infrastructure and software configurations. Ansible uses YAML playbooks to describe the desired state of your environment and performs the necessary actions to achieve that state. **Why Ansible?** Ansible is a popular choice among developers and Ops teams due to its simplicity, flexibility, and ease of use. Ansible offers a wide range of modules and plugins, making it suitable for automating a variety of tasks, including: * Installing and configuring software * Managing file systems and permissions * Setting up networking and firewalls * Deploying and managing applications **Creating an Ansible Playbook** For this lab, you will create an Ansible playbook to automate the setup of a development environment. Let's take a simple example: Suppose you want to set up a development environment with Python, Node.js, and Docker. You can write an Ansible playbook to install these tools and configure any necessary environment variables. Here's an example playbook: ```yml --- - name: Set up development environment become: yes tasks: - name: Install Python apt: name: python3 state: present - name: Install Node.js apt: name: nodejs state: present - name: Install Docker apt: name: docker.io state: present - name: Configure environment variables lineinfile: dest: /etc/environment line: 'export PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin/node' ``` This playbook uses Ansible's built-in modules to install Python, Node.js, and Docker. The last task configures an environment variable to include Node.js in the system's PATH. **Running the Playbook** To run the playbook, save it to a file (e.g., `development_environment.yml`) and execute the following command in your terminal: ```bash ansible-playbook development_environment.yml ``` **Verify the Results** After running the playbook, verify that the tools are installed and configured correctly: * Run `python --version` to check Python installation * Run `node --version` to check Node.js installation * Run `docker --version` to check Docker installation * Check that the Node.js executable is in the system's PATH **Tips and Variations** * You can customize the playbook to install specific versions of the tools by specifying the version number in the `apt` module's `name` parameter. * To make the playbook more reusable, you can define variables for the tool versions and environment variables. * You can use Ansible's conditional statements to skip tasks based on the system's configuration. * You can also use Ansible's file module to manage configuration files for IDEs and other tools. **Lab Exercise** Create an Ansible playbook to automate the setup of a development environment for your favorite programming language or framework. Include the following tasks: * Install the necessary language runtime (e.g., Python, Java) * Install a version control system (e.g., Git) * Configure environment variables for the language and version control system * Install an IDE or text editor **Additional Resources** * Ansible Documentation: [https://docs.ansible.com](https://docs.ansible.com) * Ansible Playbook Examples: [https://github.com/ansible/ansible-examples](https://github.com/ansible/ansible-examples) **Comments and Help** Leave a comment or ask for help if you're having trouble creating or running the playbook, or if you have any questions about Ansible or configuration management. This is a discussion-free course, so you can only leave a comment or ask for help below. --- Once you've completed this lab, proceed to the next topic: "Organizing project directories and files." (From: Development Environment Best Practices)