Use Ansible to Manage Windows Servers (SSH | port 22) - Step by Step Guide

** To manage Windows Servers using winrm:    • Learn How to Use Ansible to Manage Windows...   ""

* Issue - During the OpenSSH install, the original command was failing. I've added the updated command below so it the command fails, try the new command. - **

For this demo, we’re going to complete the following steps:

• Install SSH
• Configure Ansible to connect on port 22 to our Windows 2022 server
• Test the Ansible CLI works
• Create a playbook and test that work.

Chapters:
Build a Windows 2022 server in AWS:    • Use Ansible to Manage Windows Servers (SSH...  
Add port 22/SSH to the security group:    • Use Ansible to Manage Windows Servers (SSH...  
RDP onto the remote Windows 2022 server:    • Use Ansible to Manage Windows Servers (SSH...  
Install OpenSSH on our Windows 2022 server:    • Use Ansible to Manage Windows Servers (SSH...  
SSH onto the Windows 2022 server from Linux:    • Use Ansible to Manage Windows Servers (SSH...  
Setup Ansible to connect to our Windows 2022 server:    • Use Ansible to Manage Windows Servers (SSH...  
Check Ansible connectivity using win_ping:    • Use Ansible to Manage Windows Servers (SSH...  
Setup a playbook to run on our Windows 2022 server:    • Use Ansible to Manage Windows Servers (SSH...  
Use Ansible to install Apache:    • Use Ansible to Manage Windows Servers (SSH...  

#######################
Windows server commands:
Below are the commands I ran in this turorial:

Get-WindowsCapability -Online | Where-Object Name -like 'OpenSSH*'

Add-WindowsCapability -Online -Name OpenSSH.Client~~~~0.0.1.0

**--------------
Add-WindowsCapability -Online -Name OpenSSH.Server~~~~0.0.1.0

Alternatively use this command to install:
dism /Online /Add-Capability /CapabilityName:OpenSSH.Server~~~~0.0.1.0
**------------

Start-Service sshd

Set-Service -Name sshd -StartupType 'Automatic'

if (!(Get-NetFirewallRule -Name "OpenSSH-Server-In-TCP" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Object Name, Enabled)) {
Write-Output "Firewall Rule 'OpenSSH-Server-In-TCP' does not exist, creating it..."
New-NetFirewallRule -Name 'OpenSSH-Server-In-TCP' -DisplayName 'OpenSSH Server (sshd)' -Enabled True -Direction Inbound -Protocol TCP -Action Allow -LocalPort 22
} else {
Write-Output "Firewall rule 'OpenSSH-Server-In-TCP' has been created and exists."
}
############################
Create the hosts.ini file:

[ec2-user@ip-172-31-16-55 windows]$ cat hosts.ini
[win]
IP_ADDRESS

[win:vars]
ansible_user=Administrator
ansible_password=
ansible_connection=ssh
ansible_shell_type=cmd
ansible_ssh_common_args=-o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null
ansible_ssh_retries=3
ansible_become_method=runas

Run win_ping:

$ ansible win -m win_ping

Now Setup the Playbook:

---
hosts: win
gather_facts: no
tasks:
name: test powershell
win_shell: |
get-host
register: result_get_host

name: display result_get_host
debug:
var: result_get_host

Run the playbook:

$ ansible-playbook -i hosts.ini win_ssh.yml

Next Add the installation of Apache to your playbook:

name: add directory
win_file:
path: C:\ansible_examples
state: directory

name: Download the Apache installer
win_get_url:
url: https://archive.apache.org/dist/httpd...
dest: C:\ansible_examples\httpd-2.2.25-win32-x86-no_ssl.msi
force: true

name: Install MSI
win_package:
path: C:\ansible_examples\httpd-2.2.25-win32-x86-no_ssl.msi
state: present

Now run the playbook again and check Apache is installed

Thanks for watching. I hope this helps some of you to get this working!

A subscribe and a like are always appreciated.

#ansible #windows #ssh