What is Ansible?

Introduction

Ansible is an open-source automation tool that simplifies IT automation, configuration management, and application deployment. It is agentless, meaning it does not require any special software to be installed on the managed nodes. Instead, it uses SSH to connect to the managed nodes and execute tasks on them.

Also, it's written in Python and uses YAML for its playbooks.

Scenario

Scenario without Ansible

Imagine you have 10 servers and you need to install Git on all of them. Typically, what you will do is to SSH into each server and run the following command:

ssh user@server1 "sudo apt update && sudo apt install git -y"
ssh user@server2 "sudo apt update && sudo apt install git -y"
ssh user@server3 "sudo apt update && sudo apt install git -y"
ssh user@server4 "sudo apt update && sudo apt install git -y"
ssh user@server5 "sudo apt update && sudo apt install git -y"
ssh user@server6 "sudo apt update && sudo apt install git -y"
ssh user@server7 "sudo apt update && sudo apt install git -y"
ssh user@server8 "sudo apt update && sudo apt install git -y"
ssh user@server9 "sudo apt update && sudo apt install git -y"
ssh user@server10 "sudo apt update && sudo apt install git -y"

This is a tedious and time-consuming process. Also, it is prone to human error. If you have 100 servers, this process will be even more time-consuming and error-prone.

Scenario with Ansible

Now, let's consider the same scenario with Ansible. You can create a playbook that will install Git on all the servers. The playbook will look like this:

- name: Install Git
  hosts: all
  become: yes
  tasks:
    - name: Install Git
      apt:
        name: git
        state: present

Now, you can run this playbook using the following command:

ansible-playbook playbook.yml

This will install Git on all the servers in the playbook.

ssh user@server1
sudo adduser newuser

- name: Add new user
  hosts: all
  become: yes
  tasks:
    - name: Add new user
      user:
        name: newuser
        state: present

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