Build Inventories and Configure Managed Nodes

A well-structured inventory is the foundation of any Ansible project. In this lab, you will build an inventory that mirrors the RHCE exam topology: a proxy, webservers, and database host group.

You will:

• Create the automation user on all managed nodes with passwordless sudo
• Build an INI inventory with nested groups and group variables
• Create group_vars/ directory with per-group variable files
• Use ansible-inventory to inspect and graph your inventory
• Run targeted ad-hoc commands against specific host groups

Key Resources:

• Ansible Inventory Guide
• ansible-inventory Reference