Getting Started with Windows Automation
In this instructor-led workshop, participants learn the basics of Ansible Automation and how they can use Ansible with Windows Hosts. Attendees will get hands-on experience with the fundamentals of Ansible and will create and edit Ansible Playbooks which will be used in an Automation controller. This workshop will expose participants to working with the Ansible Automation Platform while automating tasks on a Windows host.
Tasks in this lab include:
- Configuring Credentials and Inventories
- Running Ad-hoc commands
- Creating and using basic playbooks
- Using advanced Playbook methodologies
- Creating and using Ansible Roles
NOTE
This workshop is also known as the Windows Automation Technical 90-min Workshop
Workshop Resources
| Resource | Link |
|---|---|
| Workshop content and exercises | labs.demoredhat.com/webpages/windows |
| Follow-up assets | Follow-up assets spreadsheet |
| Post-event survey | Post-event survey |
| Certain registration page & promotional email copy | Registration page & promotional email copy |
| Presenter instructions and guide | Presenter instructions and guide |
| Certain event banners | Event banners (Google Drive) |
Target audience
This workshop is geared toward Windows administrators, cloud administrators, DevOps engineers, security professionals, and anyone interested in Windows automation.
Attendee Prerequisites
There is no student prep work required prior to the workshop.
- All automation for this workshop is executed from Automation Controller and there are minimal client requirements for students to interact with the workshop such that students only need a compatible browser.
- Must bring/use a laptop with Chrome 73+, Firefox 60+, Edge 40+, or Safari 12+ installed.
- A basic understanding of Visual Studio Code. [Available for MacOS, Windows and Linux]
Presentation Deck
- Google Slides - For Red Hat employees
Lab provisioner
This lab environment is available via the Red Hat Demo Platform under the Windows Automation Workshop (90min) catalog item.
Lab Index (Estimate total time ⏱️ 90 minutes)
| Activity | Link | Estimated Time |
|---|---|---|
| Slides: Introduction + Workshop Brief | 🖥️ Google Slides | ⏱️ 15 minutes |
| Exercise 1 — Configure Automation Controller | 🚀 Launch Lab | ⏱️ 15 minutes |
| Slides: Brief for Challenge 2 | 🖥️ Google Slides | ⏱️ 5 minutes |
| Exercise 2 — Ad-hoc commands | ⏱️ 15 minutes | |
| Slides: Brief for Challenge 3 | 🖥️ Google Slides | ⏱️ 15 minutes |
| Exercise 3 — Intro to playbooks | ⏱️ 15 minutes | |
| Exercise 4 — Configure a job template | ⏱️ 10 minutes |
Supplemental Exercises
Total Time ~⏱️ 60 minutes
If your students are ahead or you want to have a lab longer than 90 minutes there are two additional exercises (and corresponding slides already in the deck):
| Activity | Link | Estimated Time |
|---|---|---|
| Slides: Brief for Challenge 5 | 🖥️ Google Slides | ⏱️ 10 minutes |
| Exercise 5 — More advanced playbook | ⏱️ 15 minutes | |
| Slides: Brief for Challenge 6 | 🖥️ Google Slides | ⏱️ 5 minutes |
| Exercise 6 — Ansible roles | ⏱️ 25 minutes |
Learning Resources
It is highly recommended to take the Microsoft Windows Automation with Red Hat Ansible if you want additional training!
Going Further
Additional collateral for Windows automation:
| Title | Type | external link | RHCC Link (employees and partners) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows and Linux management with Ansible Automation Platform | Video | YouTube | |
| Event-Driven Ansible for Windows | Video | YouTube | |
| Simplify your Microsoft Windows environment with automation | Datasheet | Content Center | |
| Ansible on Windows for financial services | Datasheet | on redhat.com | Content Center |
| 10 ways to automate Microsoft Windows with Red Hat Ansible | Checklist | on redhat.com | Content Center |
| Standardization and automation | Overview | on redhat.com | Content Center |
Ansible Workshop
This is an official Ansible Workshop
This workshop is maintained by the Red Hat Ansible Technical Marketing Team.
Please open an issues on Github
