NOTE: This solution should only be used in non-production environments as a method to get familiar with Ansible. For production use, I recommend installing Ansible on a dedicated Linux server.

An automated deployment tool is a must have for any IT environment. In my lab, that’s Ansible. I’ve used Ansible in my lab to automate VM deployment/destruction, adding SSH keys for remote access to my servers, joining/leaving AD domain, and monitoring the newly deployed VMs. This is very useful as I frequently deploy/destroy VMs for testing a specific use case.

For a Windows admin, Ansible can seem daunting… For one, it runs on linux. Second, it’s based off of Python. I’m here to tell you, it’s not that difficult. In fact, did you know that Ansible is one of the few configuration management tools out there that can easily/natively use PowerShell code?

In this post, I’m going to review the steps involved in getting Ansible installed & running on Windows Server 2019. While install times may vary due to lab resources and internet speed, I’m able to complete the steps outlined below for installing Ansible in a little over 20 minutes.