In this article, we will discuss what is ansible in DevOps and its use cases? If anyone asks you about ansible you can say simply this is an automation tool. But he/she can ask again there is a lot of automation tools like Jenkins, Nagios, Docker, Kubernetes so what is new in ansible? Simply you can say that all these tools are also automation tools, but it’s depended on you what kind of automation you want to achieve like if you want to automate your monitoring then use Nagios. If you want to automate your deployment and testing, then use Jenkins. Similarly, if you want to automate your configuration level task then use ansible.
How does Ansible work?
In Ansible, there are two categories of computers: the control node and managed nodes. The control node is a computer that runs Ansible. There must be at least one control node, although a backup control node may also exist. A managed node is any device being managed by the control node.
Ansible works by connecting to nodes (clients, servers, or whatever you’re configuring) on a network, and then sending a small program called an Ansible module to that node. Ansible executes these modules over SSH and removes them when finished. The only requirement for this interaction is that your Ansible control node has login access to the managed nodes. SSH Keys are the most common way to provide access, but other forms of authentication are also supported.
Working in IT, you’re likely doing the same tasks over and over. What if you could solve problems once and then automate your solutions going forward?
Ansible is here to help.
Complexity kills productivity
Every business is a digital business. Technology is your innovation engine, and delivering your applications faster helps you win. Historically, that required a lot of manual effort and complicated coordination. But today, there is Ansible — the simple, yet powerful IT automation engine that thousands of companies are using to drive complexity out of their environments and accelerate DevOps initiatives.
How Ansible Works?
Ansible works by connecting to nodes and pushing out small programs called as ansible modules. Ansible then executes these modules over SSH by default and then removes them when finished.
The Ansible management node is the controlling node, which controls the entire execution of the Playbook. It’s the node from which you are running the installation, and the inventory file provides the list of the host where the modules need to be run. The management node makes ssh connection, and then it executes the modules on the host machines and installs the product. It removes the modules once they are installed. So that’s how ansible works.
Why industry need Ansible?
PROVISIONING
Your apps have to live somewhere. If you’re PXE booting and kickstarting bare-metal servers or VMs, or creating virtual or cloud instances from templates, Ansible and Red Hat® Ansible® Tower help streamline the process.
CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT
Centralizing configuration file management and deployment is a common use case for Ansible, and it’s how many power users are first introduced to the Ansible automation platform.
APPLICATION DEPLOYMENT
When you define your application with Ansible, and manage the deployment with Ansible Tower, teams can effectively manage the entire application lifecycle from development to production.
SECURITY AUTOMATION
When you define your security policy in Ansible, scanning, and remediation of site-wide security policy can be integrated into other automated processes and instead of being an afterthought, it’ll be integral in everything that is deployed.
ORCHESTRATION
Configurations alone don’t define your environment. You need to define how multiple configurations interact and ensure the disparate pieces can be managed as a whole. Out of complexity and chaos, Ansible brings order.
CONTINUOUS DELIVERY
Creating a CI/CD pipeline requires buy-in from numerous teams. You can’t do it without a simple automation platform that everyone in your organization can use. Ansible Playbooks keep your applications properly deployed (and managed) throughout their entire lifecycle.
How VMWARE is using Ansible??
THE SIMPLICITY OF ANSIBLE MEETS THE POWER
— VMWARE
Ansible maximizes your VMware investment
Make it possible to do more with what you already have. Ansible will help you automate your VMware infrastructure and accelerate the process from development to production.
Changing the economics of virtualization
Many enterprise's IT teams have an operations team managing the VMware infrastructure and second-team deploying apps to this environment. Using Ansible with VMware allows your team to enable a simple self-service IT model across all environments. Besides, Red Hat Ansible Tower can be used as a common tool across both teams, reducing complexity. The operations team can write Ansible Playbooks and job templates to describe the environments and the App team can build environments and deploy apps with a single button click.
When you automate, you accelerate
With Ansible, one member of your team can figure out how to solve a problem, automate the solution with Ansible, and then everyone knows how to solve the problem. Expanding automation to allow everyone to participate will ensure you get the most out of your existing infrastructure, and will prepare your organization for tools such as a cloud manager — helping you realize even greater benefits.
Ansible is acting Glue for VMWARE and DEVOPS.
Thank you !! 😃
