How to get started with Ansible for configuration management?

Updated: 28 September 2026 · Applies to: Ansible (ansible-core 2.16+) on Ubuntu 24.04, Debian 12, AlmaLinux 9 and Rocky Linux 9

Configuration management means describing how your servers should be set up in files, so you can apply the same setup again and again. Ansible does this over SSH. This guide gets you started with a Ucartz VPS running Ubuntu 24.04, Debian 12, AlmaLinux 9 and Rocky Linux 9.

Install Ansible on your control machine

sudo apt install ansible                      # Ubuntu 24.04 / Debian 12 (distribution version)
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ansible/ansible && sudo apt install ansible   # Ubuntu: latest version
sudo dnf install ansible-core                  # AlmaLinux / Rocky 9
pipx install --include-deps ansible            # any system, latest version, per user

Check with ansible --version. Only the control machine needs Ansible; managed servers need SSH and Python 3.

Inventory and first commands

Create inventory.ini:

[web]
web1.example.com
web2.example.com ansible_port=2222

[db]
db1.example.com

[all:vars]
ansible_user=admin

ssh-copy-id admin@web1.example.com                  # key login to each server
ansible all -i inventory.ini -m ping
ansible web -i inventory.ini -a "uptime"
ansible web -i inventory.ini -b -m ansible.builtin.package -a "name=nginx state=present"

A playbook

# site.yml
- hosts: web
  become: true
  tasks:
    - name: Install nginx
      ansible.builtin.package:
        name: nginx
        state: present
    - name: Start nginx
      ansible.builtin.service:
        name: nginx
        state: started
        enabled: true

ansible-playbook -i inventory.ini site.yml --check    # dry run
ansible-playbook -i inventory.ini site.yml

Why it helps

• New servers are set up identically in minutes.
• Changes are reviewed and versioned in Git like code.
• Running the playbook again is safe: Ansible only changes what differs.