Deploying Nginx with Ansible: Step‑by‑Step Role Configuration and Execution

The article provides a practical walkthrough for deploying Nginx with Ansible, targeting three hosts (192.168.236.182, 192.168.236.180, 192.168.236.181) where the latter two require Nginx installation.

It begins by showing the essential Ansible configuration files ( ansible.cfg , hosts , and the playbook nginx.yml ) and then displays the complete role directory tree, which includes files , handlers , meta , tasks , templates , and vars sub‑directories.

The main task file ( tasks/main.yml ) simply includes a series of specialized task files: install_deploy.yml , group.yml , user.yml , tar_nginx.yml , nginx_install.yml , service.yml , nginx_config.yml , and nginx_path.yml .

install_deploy.yml installs required packages (pcre, pcre-devel, openssl, openssl-devel, zlib, zlib-devel, gcc‑c++) using the yum module with a with_items loop.

group.yml creates the system group nginx , and user.yml creates a non‑login user nginx belonging to that group.

tar_nginx.yml extracts the Nginx source tarball ( nginx-1.20.2.tar.gz ) in /usr/local/src , while nginx_install.yml runs the typical ./configure , make , and make install steps to build Nginx under /opt/nginx .

service.yml copies a pre‑written nginx.service file to /usr/lib/systemd/system/ and triggers a systemctl reload notification.

nginx_config.yml uses the template module to render nginx.conf.j2 to /opt/nginx/conf/nginx.conf , creates a sub‑directory for additional configs, and notifies a service restart.

nginx_path.yml ensures the ownership of /opt/nginx is set to the nginx user and group.

Finally, the role is executed with ansible-playbook nginx.yml , and the article includes screenshots of the playbook run and a subsequent test to verify the Nginx service is up and running.