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Using Ansible on Windows and BSD

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Welcome to the Ansible guide for Microsoft Windows and BSD. Because Windows is not a POSIX-compliant operating system, Ansible interacts with Windows hosts differently to Linux/Unix hosts. Likewise managing hosts that run BSD is different to managing other Unix-like host operating systems. Find out everything you need to know about using Ansible on Windows and with BSD hosts.

• Setting up a Windows Host
  • Host Requirements
  • WinRM Setup
  • Windows SSH Setup
• Using Ansible and Windows
  • Use Cases
  • Path Formatting for Windows
  • Limitations
  • Developing Windows Modules
• Windows Remote Management
  • What is WinRM?
  • WinRM authentication options
  • Non-Administrator Accounts
  • WinRM Encryption
  • Inventory Options
  • IPv6 Addresses
  • HTTPS Certificate Validation
  • TLS 1.2 Support
  • WinRM limitations
• Desired State Configuration
  • What is Desired State Configuration?
  • Host Requirements
  • Why Use DSC?
  • How to Use DSC?
  • Custom DSC Resources
  • Examples
• Windows performance
  • Optimize PowerShell performance to reduce Ansible task overhead
  • Fix high-CPU-on-boot for VMs/cloud instances
• Windows Frequently Asked Questions
  • Does Ansible work with Windows XP or Server 2003?
  • Are Server 2008, 2008 R2 and Windows 7 supported?
  • Can I manage Windows Nano Server with Ansible?
  • Can Ansible run on Windows?
  • Can I use SSH keys to authenticate to Windows hosts?
  • Why can I run a command locally that does not work under Ansible?
  • This program won’t install on Windows with Ansible
  • What Windows modules are available?
  • Can I run Python modules on Windows hosts?
  • Can I connect to Windows hosts over SSH?
  • Why is connecting to a Windows host through SSH failing?
  • Why are my credentials being rejected?
  • Why am I getting an error SSL CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED?
• Managing BSD hosts with Ansible
  • Connecting to BSD nodes
  • Bootstrapping BSD
  • Setting the Python interpreter
  • Which modules are available?
  • Using BSD as the control node
  • BSD facts
  • BSD efforts and contributions