You will need to set up a large-ish Ubuntu system. This will be home to the Oracle VirtualBox virtual machines (VM's). You can use any Ubuntu system, but you get points for using a NUC. This system will also be the Ansible controller for this lab.

The first step is to install Ubuntu 20.04 Desktop on the host system. It's a good idea to use a “minimal installation” of Ubuntu for this Lab. If you need help with this step, see the tutorial below.

See Tutorial: Install Ubuntu Desktop

Once installation is complete, follow best practice to upgrade software packages on the system. Open Terminal and enter the commands below.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y

Next we will add the ppa:ansible repository and install a number of packages.

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ansible/ansible
sudo apt update
sudo apt install openssh-server vim ansible p7zip xorriso ansible python3-passlib -y

You should now be able to ssh to your host.

See Tutorial: Enable SSH

1. Create the user ansible and give sudo permission (and enter a password for the user when prompted)

   • sudo useradd -m -s /bin/bash ansible
     sudo usermod -aG sudo ansible
     sudo passwd ansible

   • See How to Create Users in Linux (useradd Command)
2. Test the new user
   • From your regular login switch to the ansible user
     • su - ansible
     • Enter the password
     • sudo uptime
     • exit
   • Test connecting to your host via SSH with user ansible
   • For the rest of the lab, we will be logged in as the ansible user
3. Create Keys for Ansible Management
   • Ensure you are logged as the user ansible

   • ssh-keygen -o

   • Do not enter a passphrase
   • View the public key and save it for a later step

     • cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

     • It will look like this:

       • ssh-rsa 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 ansible@labbox

NOTE There are many references out there if you don't want to use Ansible to install VirtualBox (e.g., https://linuxconfig.org/install-virtualbox-on-ubuntu-22-04-jammy-jellyfish-linux)

Run the following playbook to install VirtualBox.

install-virtualbox.yml

---
- hosts: localhost
  connection: local
  become: true
  tasks:
    - name: Add Oracle apt key
      apt_key:
        url: https://www.virtualbox.org/download/oracle_vbox_2016.asc
        state: present
    - name: Add Virtualbox repo
      apt_repository:
        repo: "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian {{ ansible_distribution_release }} contrib"
        state: present
    - name: Install Virtualbox
      apt:
        pkg:
          - virtualbox
        state: present
        update_cache: true
    - name: Ensure vboxdrv kernel module is loaded (optional)
      modprobe:
        name: vboxdrv
        state: present

Run as ansible-playbook install-virtualbox.yml –ask-become-pass, and enter the password for the user ansible when prompted.

Continue to Step 2 - Deploy the VMs

Or back to Start