A well-known open-source program for IT and application automation is called Ansible.
Infrastructure and application stacks like Linux, Windows, network devices, cloud platforms, or container platforms can be used to implement enterprise automation use cases.
Any of the numerous courses and resources offered by Simplilearn can be used to learn and practice using Ansible and other Ansible products.
Ansible, an open-source automation engine used in DevOps, can automate software provisioning, configuration management, and application deployment.
Complete Ansible Certification Guide
You can learn Ansible 2.0 installation with the help of Simplilearn’s Ansible certification, which is intended for beginners.
Additionally, it will guide you step-by-step through writing your playbooks, controlling an entire cloud region, and setting up network devices for Linux or Windows.
It’s a data serialization language that humans can read and is frequently used for configuration files. Still, it could also be applied to many other data storage applications.
Ansible uses playbooks written in YAML, a fundamental language easy for people to read, write, and understand, to describe automation jobs.
Because of this, one advantage is that even those who support the IT infrastructure can read and comprehend the playbook and, if necessary, debug it (YAML is in a form that is readable by humans).
Ansible was made with multi-tier deployment in mind. Ansible models information technology infrastructure by outlining how all of your systems are interconnected instead of managing a single system at a time.
Ansible performs its tasks by creating secure shell connections between your different nodes because it is entirely agentless (by default). However, Ansible allows you to connect using a different technique, such as Kerberos.
Ansible will send out “Ansible Modules,” brief computer programs, after successfully connecting to your nodes.
Ansible will execute the specified modules on your nodes and then delete them. Ansible organizes and manages your inventory using plain text files (These are the host’s files).
With the aid of Ansible’s “hosts” file, users can organize hosts into different groups and then manage the playbook’s actions that are carried out in each group.
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What does managing configurations entail?
As it relates to Ansible, configuration management is regularly updating a record of comprehensive information that describes an enterprise’s hardware and software to maintain the configuration of a product’s performance.
The unique software packages that have been installed, any updates or patches that have been applied to those packages, the locations and network addresses of any hardware devices, and the versions of those software packages all fall under this category of information.
It is impractical for you to manually visit each machine in your enterprise and update it, for instance, if you want to install the most recent version of WebLogic or WebSphere server on all of them.
Instead, you ought to look into a process automation solution. Using written Ansible playbooks and inventory, you can perform a single installation of WebLogic or WebSphere across your machines.
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The only two things you need to do are write a playbook to install WebLogic or WebSphere and enter the IP addresses of your nodes in the inventory. The playbook can be run on your control machine to install it on all network nodes automatically.
By connecting to your nodes and sending what is referred to as “Ansible modules” to each of them, Ansible operates. The modules will then be run by Ansible (by default over SSH), and after they are finished, they will be deleted.
There is no need for any servers, daemons, or databases to be present for your module library to be stored on any machine.
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Ansible is useful.
The management node manages the playbook’s overall execution, also referred to as the controlling or managing node. It is the node on which you are currently managing the installation.
The hosts that need to run the Ansible modules are listed in the inventory file. The management node creates an SSH connection to the hosts’ computers and uses that connection to install any necessary software and run any small modules.
It successfully connects to the host machine, runs the commands, and, if it’s installed successfully, deletes the code that was copied to the host machine and runs. This is what makes Ansible so lovely. Once those have been installed, the modules are removed.
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Process of Installation
When we discuss deployment, we mainly refer to two different categories of machines:
Machines handled or controlled by another machine are referred to as remote machines. The control machine serves as the command center for all other machines.
It is possible to have several remote machines controlled by a single control machine. We need to install Ansible on the control machine before we can manage remote machines.
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Machine Control Requirements
Ansible can be run on any machine that has Python 2 (versions 2.6 or 2.7) or Python 3 (versions 3.5 and higher) installed. The recommended version of Python is 3.
Windows do not support control machines, so please be aware of that.
For Ansible installations, SSH is the remote management protocol of choice.
Ansible adds no databases. It can be launched and maintained without the aid of any daemons.
While managing remote machines, Ansible does not leave any software open or running on those machines.
As a result, when switching to a new version, there is no need to be concerned about the upgrading procedure.
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Several ways to install Ansible on control machines meet the requirements mentioned earlier.
Any programs listed, including Apt, yum, pkg, pip, opens, and Pacman can install the most recent version.
YAML for Ansible
Ansible uses the YAML syntax, which is how playbooks are expressed. The YAML markup language is introduced in this chapter.
Compared to other data formats like XML and JSON, YAML is much easier for people to understand, read, and write. Ansible uses it for this reason.
Every YAML file must end with “…” and can start with “—-.” These two are both optional.
The “|” character in YAML is used to display multiple lines with newlines included, and the “>” character is used to display multiple lines with newlines hidden.
As a result, we can read and edit very long lines. In either case, intent won’t be taken into consideration.
Boolean values, which can only be true or false, are also represented in YAML, and their case is not always critical.
- A list of words frequently used in connection with Ansible.
- A process that runs on a computer and is in charge of providing the service is known as a server or service.
- A machine can be a physical server, a virtual machine, or a container.
- The “target machine” is the computer that Ansible will be used to configure.
- A task is an action Ansible controls (such as run this, delete that, etc.).
The playbook is a yml file that contains Ansible commands and is used to run those commands on a machine.
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Ansible has a relatively easy learning curve and a sizable support community. The most crucial step is to locate use cases for Ansible in side projects or at your place of employment and to practice using them.
You can always join and ask Ansible questions in community chat groups like techbeatly or Ansible telegram groups.
As you learn Ansible, there are individuals in the community who can aid and direct you. These people live in the neighborhood.
