Ansible is an agentless IT automation tool that manages servers and deploys applications using simple YAML playbooks over SSH. This guide installs Ansible on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and demonstrates a basic playbook.

Tested and valid on:

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

Prerequisites

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS control node
SSH access to managed nodes
A user with sudo privileges

Step 1 – Add the Ansible PPA

The Ubuntu 24.04 repos include Ansible, but the PPA has the latest version:

sudo add-apt-repository --yes --update ppa:ansible/ansible

Step 2 – Install Ansible

Install:

sudo apt install ansible -y

Step 3 – Verify the Installation

Check the version:

ansible --version

Step 4 – Configure the Inventory

Add managed hosts to the default inventory:

sudo nano /etc/ansible/hosts

Add:

[webservers]
192.168.1.100
192.168.1.101

[dbservers]
192.168.1.200

Step 5 – Test Connectivity

Ping all hosts:

ansible all -m ping

Step 6 – Write a Simple Playbook

Create nginx.yml:

---
- name: Install and start Nginx
  hosts: webservers
  become: true
  tasks:
    - name: Install Nginx
      apt:
        name: nginx
        state: present
        update_cache: yes

    - name: Start and enable Nginx
      service:
        name: nginx
        state: started
        enabled: yes

Step 7 – Run the Playbook

Execute the playbook:

ansible-playbook nginx.yml

Add -v, -vv, or -vvv for verbose output.

Conclusion

Ansible is now installed on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and ready to automate your infrastructure. Write idempotent playbooks to configure servers consistently and use Ansible Vault to encrypt secrets.

How to Install Ansible on Ubuntu 24.04