So far in this book, we have covered in detail the groundwork for the remainder—that is to say, we have set the rationale for what we intend to do next and provided a crash course in our automation tool of choice, Ansible. From the preceding chapter, we know that, in an enterprise-scale environment, there are two fundamental methods for deploying Linux, and which of these to use is determined by the technologies in use in your environment and your intended goals.

In this chapter, we will cover in detail how to build virtual machine images that will serve on most virtualization and cloud platforms. The differences between these two platforms are subtle but distinct as we shall find out, and by the end of this chapter, you will know how to handle both environments with ease. We will start with a discussion on the initial build requirements, and then move on to configure and prepare the images for use in your chosen environment.

The following topics will be covered in this chapter:

• Performing the initial build
• Using Ansible to build and standardize the template
• Cleaning up the build with Ansible