Ansible Dev Server using VSCode Remote SSH

Why USe Remote SSH for Ansible Development?

When developing Ansible playbooks, you might want to:

• Keep all dependencies on a central development server.
• Avoid installing Ansible tools locally.
• Work from multiple devices without reconfiguring each one.
• Access servers in secure or restricted environments.

Remote SSH in VS Code allows you to connec to a remote machine and use it as your development environment as if it were local.

Prerequisites

• Remote Development Server (Linux, with SSH enabled)
• VS Code installed on your local machine
• SSH key-based authentication configured between your local machine and the remote server.

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Setup

1. Install the Remote SSH Extension in VS Code

• Open VS Code.
• Go to Extensions
• Search for Remote - SSH and install it.

2. Configure SSH connection

• Edit your local ~/.ssh/config file:

  Host ansible-dev
      HostName 203.0.113.10
      User devuser
      IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa
  

3. Connect from VS Code

• Press F1, type in Remote-SSH: Connect to Host…
• Select ansible-dev
• Or go to the Remote Explorer and click on the remote server from the SSH list

4. Set Up your Ansible Remote Workspace

• Once connected, instrall VS Code extensions in the remote environment

  • Red Hat Ansible
  • Dev Containers

  

  or via the terminal

  code-server --install-extension redhat.ansible
  

• Install Podman (for container execution)

• Git

  sudo apt install podman
  sudo apt install git
  podman --version
  git --version
  

• Ansible-Navigator

  sudo apt install python3-pip
  pip install ansible-navigator --user
  echo 'export PATH=$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.profile
  source ~/.profile
  

5. Test playbook run

   git clone https://github.com/enzobercasio/ansible-demo.git
   

   

Remote SSH in VS Code is a powerful and flexible way to develop Ansible playbooks without worrying about local setup inconsistencies. It’s ideal for enterprise teams, secure environments, and scenarios where maintaining one central Ansible development server simplifies operations.