Planning and Installation of an AAP Cluster
The customer maintained a large set of custom and complex Ansible scripts that were manually executed on specific hosts via the command line. After acquiring several Ansible Automation Platform (AAP) licenses, the goal was to deploy a centralized, scalable automation environment and simplify the existing workflows.
The challenge
Manual execution of Ansible scripts led to inconsistencies and made maintenance difficult. Additionally, deploying the AAP within the customer’s extensive and security-sensitive enterprise network presented technical challenges.
- Complex, manually executed Ansible scripts
- Lack of centralized orchestration and traceability
- High security and network requirements within the corporate environment
Project goals
The goals of the project were:
- Plan, install, and configure an AAP cluster in the corporate network
- Optimize and simplify existing Ansible scripts
- Automate the creation of Execution Environments (EE) via GitLab
- Enable the customer to operate and extend the AAP independently
Solution approach
As part of a team project, I contributed to the planning, installation, and configuration of the AAP cluster. I refactored and simplified existing Ansible scripts to ensure they could run smoothly within AAP. To ensure a reliable and repeatable setup, I automated the build and deployment of Execution Environments (EE) using the customer’s GitLab CI infrastructure.
The implementation
- Cluster Setup: Planned, installed, and configured the AAP cluster
- Script Optimization: Simplified and adapted Ansible playbooks for AAP compatibility
- Execution Environments: Automated EE build and deployment through GitLab CI
- Integration: Collaborated with the customer’s IT teams for seamless integration
- Training: Delivered knowledge transfer to internal administrators
The result
- The customer now uses the Ansible Automation Platform productively and extends automation independently
- The AAP cluster is stable and fully integrated into the enterprise infrastructure
- The customer’s team was successfully enabled through training and documentation
Insights
This project expanded my expertise in AAP cluster architecture, Execution Environments, and GitLab automation. I gained valuable experience in implementing large-scale enterprise automation platforms.
- Hands-on experience with AAP cluster deployment
- Improved structure and maintainability of Ansible scripts
- Strengthened collaboration between infrastructure and automation teams