AWS Demos - Playbooks Overview

This repository contains Ansible playbooks and roles for demonstrating AWS automation and reporting. Below is a quick reference to the playbooks under the playbooks directory. The collections directory is intentionally ignored here.

Table of Contents

• Prerequisites
• How to run
• playbooks/aws_resources.yml
• playbooks/aws_instances.yml
• playbooks/aws_ssm.yml
• playbooks/aws_ssm_assume.yml
• playbooks/cloud_report.yml
• playbooks/cloud_report_tags.yml
• playbooks/info_combined.yml
• playbooks/info_vpcs.yml
• playbooks/info_instances.yml
• playbooks/info_igws.yml
• playbooks/lab2-deploy-application.yml
• playbooks/lab2-ec2-info.yml
• playbooks/lab2-patching.yml
• playbooks/lab3-challenge2.yml
• playbooks/tag_info_aws.yml
• playbooks/stop_aws_ec2_instances.yml
• Notes
• License

Prerequisites

• Ansible 2.12+ and required AWS collections (amazon.aws, community.aws, awx.awx).
• AWS credentials configured (env vars, shared credentials file, or instance profile).
• Default region is us-east-1 unless overridden.

How to run

Use -e to override variables when needed.

ansible-playbook playbooks/<playbook>.yml -e "key=value ..."

---

playbooks/aws_resources.yml

Creates foundational AWS resources for demos:

• SSH key pair saved locally as ansible-demo.pem (and optional AWX/Tower machine credential)
• VPC, subnet, Internet Gateway, route table
• Security group for SSH and HTTP

Example:

ansible-playbook playbooks/aws_resources.yml -e "ec2_region=us-east-1 ec2_name_prefix=ansible-demo ec2_cidr=192.168.0.0/28"

playbooks/aws_instances.yml

Launches tagged RHEL EC2 instances in the created VPC/subnet and applies tags ansible-demo=true, instruqt=true, and indexed names.

Variables (examples): ec2_region, ec2_vpc_subnet_name, ec2_key_name, ec2_security_group, ec2_instance_type, ec2_exact_count.

Example:

ansible-playbook playbooks/aws_instances.yml -e "ec2_region=us-east-1 ec2_vpc_subnet_name=ansible-demo ec2_exact_count=2"

playbooks/aws_ssm.yml

Runs commands on instances via AWS Systems Manager (SSM) connection plugin and creates a test file.

Variables: ansible_aws_ssm_region, ansible_aws_ssm_bucket_name, ansible_aws_ssm_instance_id, ansible_user.

Example:

ansible-playbook playbooks/aws_ssm.yml -i "ssm," -e "ansible_aws_ssm_region=us-east-1 ansible_aws_ssm_instance_id=i-xxxxxxxxxxxxxx ansible_user=ssm-user"

playbooks/aws_ssm_assume.yml

Assumes an IAM role for SSM/S3 access, runs a file task over SSM, and demonstrates limited permissions.

Example:

ansible-playbook playbooks/aws_ssm_assume.yml -i "ssm,"

playbooks/cloud_report.yml

Builds a multi-part cloud report using roles:

• Collect EC2 instance facts
• Aggregate general info
• Template an HTML report
• Publish the report either to a Linux host or to S3 (when running on localhost)

Example:

ansible-playbook playbooks/cloud_report.yml -e "_aws_instances=tag_Name_rhel* _hosts=localhost"

playbooks/cloud_report_tags.yml

Generates and publishes a tags-focused AWS report using the build_report_tags role.

Example:

ansible-playbook playbooks/cloud_report_tags.yml

playbooks/info_combined.yml

Retrieves and prints combined info for VPCs, EC2 instances, and Internet Gateways using a template for display.

Example:

ansible-playbook playbooks/info_combined.yml -e "ec2_region=us-east-1"

playbooks/info_vpcs.yml

Lists VPCs and prints raw details.

Example:

ansible-playbook playbooks/info_vpcs.yml -e "ec2_region=us-east-1"

playbooks/info_instances.yml

Lists EC2 instances and prints raw details.

Example:

ansible-playbook playbooks/info_instances.yml -e "ec2_region=us-east-1"

playbooks/info_igws.yml

Lists Internet Gateways and prints raw details.

Example:

ansible-playbook playbooks/info_igws.yml -e "ec2_region=us-east-1"

playbooks/lab2-deploy-application.yml

Installs a given Linux application (or list) via dnf on target hosts.

Variables: HOSTS, application.

Example:

ansible-playbook playbooks/lab2-deploy-application.yml -e "HOSTS=rhel1 application=git"

playbooks/lab2-ec2-info.yml

Displays selected EC2 instance fields in a formatted manner.

Variables: your_region, your_tag (filter value pattern).

Example:

ansible-playbook playbooks/lab2-ec2-info.yml -e "your_region=us-east-1 your_tag=rhel*"

playbooks/lab2-patching.yml

Runs Linux patching and generates reports using custom demo.patching.* roles; publishes a landing page.

Variables: HOSTS, optional report_server (defaults to rhel1).

Example:

ansible-playbook playbooks/lab2-patching.yml -e "HOSTS=rhel_group report_server=rhel1"

playbooks/lab3-challenge2.yml

Identifies EC2 instances matching a tag filter, prints counts and details, and exports their IDs to a workflow variable identified_instances for later steps.

Variables: your_region, filter_input (YAML string for filters).

Example:

ansible-playbook playbooks/lab3-challenge2.yml -e "your_region=us-east-1"

playbooks/tag_info_aws.yml

Prints VPC IDs/tags and EC2 instance tags for quick auditing.

Example:

ansible-playbook playbooks/tag_info_aws.yml -e "your_region=us-east-1"

playbooks/stop_aws_ec2_instances.yml

Stops EC2 instances whose IDs were previously captured into identified_instances (e.g., from lab3-challenge2.yml).

Variables: your_region, identified_instances.

Example:

ansible-playbook playbooks/stop_aws_ec2_instances.yml -e "your_region=us-east-1 identified_instances='["i-abc","i-def"]'"

---

Notes

• Many playbooks default to us-east-1; override with -e ec2_region=... or -e your_region=....
• Some reports publish to S3 when run against localhost; ensure proper permissions.
• For SSM-based playbooks, ensure the instance has SSM agent running and proper IAM role.

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later (GPL-3.0-or-later). See the LICENSE file for details.