Chapter 11: Ansible Introduction

11.5b ansible.cfg for friendlier labs

By Ravindra Bagale · Last updated: 1 October 2026

# ansible.cfg (optional)
[defaults]
inventory = inventory/hosts.ini
host_key_checking = True
retry_files_enabled = False
stdout_callback = yaml

Keep host key checking on for real hosts. If you rebuild lab VMs often and keys change, remove the old key from ~/.ssh/known_hosts deliberately — do not disable checking casually on shared networks.

Gathering facts. Ansible collects facts (OS family, IPs) at play start. You can condition tasks with ansible_os_family later so one playbook supports Amazon Linux and Ubuntu — advanced but good to know.

- name: Install Nginx (Amazon family sketch)
  ansible.builtin.yum:
    name: nginx
    state: present
  when: ansible_os_family == "RedHat"

- name: Install Nginx (Debian family sketch)
  ansible.builtin.apt:
    name: nginx
    state: present
    update_cache: true
  when: ansible_os_family == "Debian"

Use one OS for your first lab; add when: only after ping + single-OS playbook works.