This video introduces the Ansible Utils Collection's CLI Parse module, and the problem it solves: converting unstructured CLI output into structured data your automation can actually use. You'll learn how CLI Parse can either run a command and parse its output in one step, or parse existing text, and you'll get an overview of its CLI parser plugins, including TextFSM, NTC Templates, and PyATS, along with what makes each one different and when you might reach for one over another.

This video covers Ansible variables — what they are, where you can define them, and how precedence decides which value wins when the same variable is set in multiple places. You'll see variables defined in inventory files, host_vars/group_vars folders, playbooks, vars_files, and extra_vars on the command line, each with its own priority. It also covers creating variables dynamically through the facts module and the register attribute, which captures a task's output for later use. Mastering variables is what makes roles and playbooks reusable across different hosts and environments, and it sets up the hands-on lab where you'll put them to work.

Run your first real Ansible automation with ad hoc commands — single-task, one-off commands executed straight from the CLI, no playbook required. This lab covers what they are and where they shine: quick triage during an outage, checking error counters, rebooting or restarting services across a group of devices, or pushing a fast patch. It's the most direct way to get hands-on with Ansible before building out full playbooks.

This video introduces Ansible as an automation tool — why its simple, human-readable YAML playbooks make it accessible across teams, and how its agentless, SSH-based architecture lets it manage systems without installing anything on them. Ansible excels at automating repetitive tasks and orchestrating complex workflows across many systems, making it an ideal way to manage your infrastructure as code across its full lifecycle. At the simplest level, its architecture consists of control nodes — the computers running Ansible — and managed nodes, the devices in your infrastructure you're automating. Managed nodes get added to your inventory and fed into the control node through a playbook: the playbook defines what you want to automate, and the inventory defines where. You'll also see how modules, plugins, and the CLI tie into that same workflow... In the first lab, "Ansible Engine Setup", you'll set up your Ansible development environment on an Ubuntu jump host, then write and run your first playbook to automatically back up configurations across simulated Cisco IOS-XE and NX-OS routers