portfolio/professional-infra/linux-operations-automation

Linux Operations Automation

Problem

Linux infrastructure work often starts as ticket-driven operations: deploy a server, patch it, harden SSH, check a failed service, expand a filesystem, and leave evidence that the change was safe. These tasks need automation that is readable, repeatable, and cautious enough for production-style environments.

CV Relevance

This project maps directly to Linux/Unix operations, server deployment, patching, troubleshooting, and storage/LVM work from enterprise infrastructure environments. The LVM resize workflow is written in an AAP-style shape: explicit survey variables, dry-run defaults, pre-checks, resize actions, and before/after evidence.

What This Project Demonstrates

• Ansible playbooks for common Linux node lifecycle operations.
• Role-based task organization with clear defaults and handlers.
• LVM filesystem expansion workflow suitable for Ansible Automation Platform job templates.
• Safe simulation scripts for failure, service, and scaling exercises.
• Reviewer-friendly evidence in examples/ without relying on a live enterprise lab.

Architecture

Operator -> Make targets -> Ansible inventory -> Playbooks/Roles -> Linux nodes
                         -> Simulation scripts -> Example evidence
                         -> AAP-style LVM workflow -> Before/after report

Core components:

• inventory/hosts.ini defines realistic host groups.
• playbooks/ contains provision, patch, harden, and decommission workflows.
• playbooks/lvm_resize.yml contains the storage expansion workflow.
• roles/ contains the implemented Ansible roles.
• scripts/ provides safe simulation helpers.
• docker-compose.yml is a lightweight local scaffold, not a production lab.

Quickstart

cd professional-infra/linux-operations-automation
make test
make demo

make test runs offline syntax and lint checks. make demo runs a safe simulation with SIMULATION_MODE=true and does not require reachable SSH hosts.

To run playbooks against real or lab hosts, update inventory/hosts.ini and run:

make run
make patch
make harden
make decommission

Review the LVM workflow:

ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts.ini playbooks/lvm_resize.yml --syntax-check
cat docs/aap_lvm_resize_workflow.md

Validation

make test
docker compose config --quiet

The optional compose scaffold can be started with:

make up
make down

Example Output

Sample evidence is available in examples/patch-output.txt, examples/failure-simulation.txt, and examples/lvm-resize-output.txt.

Interview Talking Points

• How to make LVM resize automation safe with dry-run defaults and explicit approval.
• Why before/after evidence matters for storage and filesystem changes.
• How Ansible roles keep Linux baseline operations repeatable.
• Where AAP surveys and job templates reduce ticket handling errors.

Roadmap

• Add complete service roles for application deployment examples.
• Add backup, security scan, and disaster recovery playbooks.
• Add a richer local lab with SSH-ready containers.
• Add cloud or Kubernetes deployment variants.