Why I built it
Reading about modern Ansible workflows is useful, but the platform only becomes intuitive when every component has to work together. I built an all-in-one, containerized Ansible Automation Platform 2.6 environment on a Proxmox-based home lab as a permanent place to develop, break, and repair automation.
What the lab covers
- AAP subscription manifest and registry service-account configuration.
- Automation Controller projects, inventories, credentials, job templates, surveys, and workflows.
- Custom execution environments built with
ansible-builder. - Git-based content workflows and project synchronization.
- Playbook execution and debugging through
ansible-navigator.
What it taught me
Building the platform from the ground up exposed the boundaries between the controller, source control, credentials, and execution environments. That context made troubleshooting much faster: instead of treating a failed job as a controller problem, I could reason about the whole execution path.
The environment became the foundation for my EX374 preparation and remains a useful sandbox for testing reusable automation content.