1. In your browser
Nothing to install. The repo ships a dev container, so the whole lab runs in GitHub Codespaces inside the free monthly allowance.
Ansible Practical Lab
A real server estate for learning Ansible.
Four disposable Linux hosts, a ready-made control node and every Ansible CLI. In your browser in two minutes, or on your laptop with one command. Free and open source under MIT.
Three ways in
Pick the path that matches your machine
Every path ends at the same place: four Linux hosts answering your Ansible commands.
2. On your laptop
With Git and Docker installed, this is the whole setup:
git clone https://github.com/Ali-Shaikh/ansible-practical-lab.git
cd ansible-practical-lab
./lab up
./lab pingOn Windows without WSL, use .\lab.ps1 instead of ./lab.
3. In a web IDE
Prefer one window for everything? ./lab studio starts VS Code in your browser with the repo open and a terminal that already has the lab tools.
./lab studioWhat you get
A practice estate built for breaking
The setup grind of VMs, Linux installs and SSH wiring is done for you, so practice time goes on Ansible itself.
Four managed hosts, plus your own
atlas, beacon, ledger and vaultbox are ready out of the box, and one command adds or removes extra hosts when you want a bigger estate.
Any Ansible command
The lab wrappers pass through to every Ansible CLI: ad-hoc commands, playbooks, ansible-vault, ansible-lint and anything else you want to practise.
Ready in under ten minutes
git clone to a working fleet answering ansible ping in minutes, not an evening of VM installs and SSH wiring.
Disposable by design
Break a host with a bad playbook, rebuild it in seconds and lose nothing. Mistakes are the point of a practice lab, so they cost nothing here.
Windows, macOS and Linux
Bash and PowerShell wrappers do the same job on every platform. Windows works with or without WSL.
Nothing to install with Codespaces
The repo ships a dev container, so the whole lab runs in GitHub Codespaces in your browser, inside the free monthly allowance.
Learn Ansible on it, free
The lab pairs with the Practical Ansible series: seven articles that take you from your first ansible ping to Vault, roles and CI. 7 of 7 published so far.