CI/CD with Ansible and Terraform — Lesson 3: Configuring Infrastructure with Ansible after Apply

Technical Scope

• Dynamic inventory and Terraform output consumption
• Roles, handlers, templates, variables, and idempotency
• Secrets handling and privilege escalation
• Configuration tests and service-readiness checks

Instructor Demonstration

Generate an Ansible inventory from Terraform outputs and configure a repeatable application stack.

Applied Workshop

Build an idempotent role that configures a service and verifies its health endpoint.

1. Translate the scenario into configuration, access, state, pipeline, or module decisions.
2. Implement the change in a controlled workspace or repository.
3. Capture the plan, logs, outputs, policy results, and post-change checks.
4. Explain one safer or more maintainable alternative and its trade-off.

Validation Standard

A second Ansible run produces no unintended change and all configured services pass health checks.

• The intended target, identity, environment, and state boundary are confirmed.
• The plan or execution evidence contains no unexplained destructive action.
• Security, reliability, maintainability, and operational ownership are reviewed.
• The final result can be reproduced from version-controlled inputs.

Failure Analysis

Correct unreachable hosts, variable precedence conflicts, failed handlers, and non-idempotent tasks.

Learners isolate the smallest verified cause, correct it, rerun the relevant validation step, and record the preventive action in the course improvement log.