Automate LNMP Deployment with Ansible Playbooks: Step‑by‑Step Guide

Install Ansible

Configure the Alibaba yum repository, install the EPEL release package, and then install Ansible on a CentOS 8 system.

/etc/yum.repos.d# rm -rf *
curl -o /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo https://mirrors.aliyun.com/repo/Centos-vault-8.5.2111.repo
yum install -y https://mirrors.aliyun.com/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm
sed -i -e '/mirrors.cloud.aliyuncs.com/d' -e '/mirrors.aliyuncs.com/d' /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo
sed -i 's|^#baseurl=https://download.example/pub|baseurl=https://mirrors.aliyun.com|' /etc/yum.repos.d/epel*
sed -i 's|^metalink|#metalink|' /etc/yum.repos.d/epel*
cd / && dnf -y install platform-python
dnf -y install centos-release-ansible
dnf -y install ansible --nobest
ansible --version

Prepare Basic Environment with Ansible

Create an inventory file, map host IPs to groups, generate SSH keys, copy the public key to each managed host, and verify connectivity. Also disable firewalld and SELinux on the control node.

# vim /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1   localhost
192.168.222.137 nginx
192.168.222.138 mysql
192.168.222.139 php
mkdir playdemo && cd playdemo
cp /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg .
vim ansible.cfg   # set inventory = /etc/ansible/hosts
vim inventory   # define groups and hosts
ansible all --list-hosts
ssh-keygen -t rsa
ssh-copy-id 192.168.222.137
ssh-copy-id 192.168.222.138
ssh-copy-id 192.168.222.139
ansible all -m ping
systemctl stop firewalld.service
sed -i 's/^SELINUX=.*/SELINUX=disabled/' /etc/selinux/config
setenforce 0
systemctl disable --now firewalld.service

Write Playbook

Create a playbook directory, add lnmp.yml, and define tasks to stop firewalld, disable SELinux, install and configure Nginx, MySQL, and PHP, copy service files, set PATH variables, and start the services.

# mkdir playbook && cd playbook
vim lnmp.yml
---
- name: nginx mysql php stop firewalld and selinux
  hosts: all
  tasks:
    - name: stop firewalld
      service:
        name: firewalld.service
        state: stopped
        enabled: no
    - name: Ensure SELinux is disabled
      lineinfile:
        path: /etc/selinux/config
        regexp: '^SELINUX='
        line: SELINUX=disabled
- name: install nginx
  vars_files:
    - ../var/dir.yml
    - ../var/hos.yml
    - ../var/package.yml
  hosts: "{{ host_ip['nginx'] }}"
  tasks:
    - name: create nginx user
      user:
        name: nginx
        system: yes
        shell: /sbin/nologin
        create_home: no
        state: present
    - name: copy nginx tarball
      copy:
        src: "{{ url_dir }}{{ package['nginx'] }}.tar.gz"
        dest: "{{ dow_dir }}"
    - name: unarchive nginx
      unarchive:
        src: "{{ dow_dir }}{{ package['nginx'] }}.tar.gz"
        dest: "{{ una_dir }}"
        remote_src: yes
    - name: install build dependencies
      yum:
        name: pcre-devel,openssl,openssl-devel,gd-devel,make,gcc,gcc-c++,wget
        state: present
    - name: configure nginx
      shell: |
        cd {{ una_dir }}{{ package['nginx'] }} && \
        ./configure --prefix={{ ins_dir['nginx'] }} \
        --user=nginx --group=nginx --with-debug \
        --with-http_ssl_module --with-http_realip_module \
        --with-http_image_filter_module --with-http_gunzip_module \
        --with-http_gzip_static_module --with-http_stub_status_module
    - name: make and install nginx
      shell: |
        cd {{ una_dir }}{{ package['nginx'] }} && \
        make -j $(grep -c processor /proc/cpuinfo) && \
        make install
    - name: set nginx PATH
      copy:
        dest: /etc/profile.d/nginx.sh
        content: "export PATH=$PATH:{{ ins_dir['nginx'] }}/sbin"
    - name: create nginx service file
      copy:
        dest: /usr/lib/systemd/system/nginx.service
        content: |
          [Unit]
          Description=nginx server daemon
          After=network.target

          [Service]
          Type=forking
          ExecStart={{ ins_dir['nginx'] }}/sbin/nginx
          ExecStop={{ ins_dir['nginx'] }}/sbin/nginx -s stop
          ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID

          [Install]
          WantedBy=multi-user.target
    - name: modify nginx configuration
      copy:
        dest: "{{ ins_dir['nginx'] }}/conf/nginx.conf"
        content: |
          user  nginx;
          worker_processes  1;
          events { worker_connections  1024; }
          http {
            include mime.types;
            default_type application/octet-stream;
            sendfile on;
            keepalive_timeout 65;
            server {
              listen 80;
              server_name localhost;
              location / { root html; index index.php; }
              error_page 500 502 503 504 /50x.html;
              location = /50x.html { root html; }
              location ~ \.php$ {
                root /var/www;
                fastcgi_pass {{ host_ip['php'] }}:9000;
                fastcgi_index index.php;
                fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
                include fastcgi_params;
              }
            }
          }
    - name: create index.php
      file:
        path: "{{ ins_dir['nginx'] }}/html/index.php"
        state: touch
    - name: start nginx
      service:
        name: nginx.service
        state: restarted
        enabled: yes
# (Similar blocks for MySQL and PHP are defined below, using the same variable files and host groups.)

Use Variables

Define three variable files ( dir.yml, hos.yml, package.yml) that store directory paths, host IP mappings, and package names, then reference them in the playbook with Jinja2 syntax.

# dir.yml
url_dir: ../package/
 dow_dir: /usr/local/src/
 una_dir: /usr/src/
 ins_dir:
   nginx: /usr/local/nginx
   mysql: /usr/local/mysql
   php: /usr/local/php
# hos.yml
host_ip:
  nginx: 192.168.222.137
  mysql: 192.168.222.138
  php: 192.168.222.139
# package.yml
package:
  nginx: nginx-1.22.0
  mysql: mysql-5.7.38-linux-glibc2.12-x86_64
  php: php-8.1.11

After running ansible-playbook playbook/lnmp.yml -vv, the playbook reports successful execution on all three hosts, with tasks marked as ok and changed, confirming that Nginx, MySQL, and PHP are installed, configured, and running.