Exploring Configuration Management with Ansible

What is Ansible?

Ansible is a configuration management and deployment system, like Puppet, Capistrano, Fabric, and Chef. Its aim is to be radically simple and let you use your existing scripts to help with cluster configuration and software deployment whenever possible. Here are the ways that Ansible differentiates itself.

Simplicity

Ansible does not include a client/server architecture with pull-based clients (although in more recent versions, it does include pull-based configuration and deployment). Rather, it uses pre-existing network infrastructure: SSH. Every company has SSH installed on their cluster servers, and Ansible simply rides on top of this infrastructure to get the code and configuration out to the nodes.

Language Agnostic

You can write modules for Ansible in whatever language you desire. You simply tie into its API and go. If you have wanted to use configuration management tools like Chef, but felt put off by the need to learn Ruby, this would be an ideal choice for you.

Configuration Management and Deployment

Ansible playbooks can run steps in a defined order between roles, allowing you to be sure that, for example, the database is set up before the WWW servers start and attempt to create their database schemas. 

Why Recommend Ansible?

Ansible fills a very useful niche. It is good for companies that have grown to the point where configuration management and deploy tools would save time and help manage complexity, but not large enough to hire specialised Ruby-speaking configuration management experts.

It is good for companies that already have invested effort into an SSH infrastructure for inter-node communication. Because Ansible piggybacks onto your already-existing SSH communications infrastructure, there is no need to build large, complex server infrastructure and schedule client runs.

Finally, Ansible is good for companies that don't have a lot of time to invest into learning a new tool. There is no need to spend weeks reading tutorials and watching videos from conferences; the tool is radically simple. A few hours with the documentation, and you're off and running.

If you'd like to hear more about how Palomino can help you with installing and configuring Ansible, feel free to contact us! If you have experience with Ansible, feel free to comment, and let's start a dialogue.