As the complexity and scale of IT operations grow, IT teams face increasing pressure to deliver fast, reliable, and repeatable results. This is where IT automation becomes essential. It refers to the use of specialized software and tools to perform repetitive tasks, streamline workflows, and accelerate the deployment and management of infrastructure and applications.
There are several well-known automation tools on the market, including Puppet, Chef, Salt, Terraform, and Ansible. Each comes with its own strengths and limitations, and each has found a distinct place within the industry. While we won’t compare them in detail here – many such comparisons already exist – we will focus on what makes Ansible particularly effective and appealing.
So, what is Ansible and what makes it so effective?
Ansible is an open-source IT automation and configuration management tool initially developed by Michael DeHaan and later acquired by Red Hat, which now maintains and develops it as part of its IT automation portfolio. It’s worth noting that Ansible itself is free to use; however, Red Hat offers a commercial solution called Ansible Automation Platform (AAP), which provides centralized management of Ansible in enterprise environments.
At intive, Red Hat Ansible plays an important role in delivering automation solutions that are scalable, secure, and aligned with enterprise IT goals.
Ansible allows us to automate tasks like:
- Provisioning servers and infrastructure
- Configuring systems and service
- Deploying applications
- Orchestrating complex workflows
There are several key features that make Ansible a powerful and desirable tool:
- Agentless – Ansible doesn’t require any software agents installed on the target systems. Task execution is performed over temporary remote connections using SSH (Linux/Unix systems) or WinMR (Microsoft Windows systems).
- Simplicity – Ansible uses human-readable YAML to define automation logic and the desired state of target systems, making it easy to learn and maintain. Complex tasks can be achieved through a few lines of code.
- Idempotent – Properly written tasks are repeatable and ensure that systems reach the desired state without making unnecessary or redundant changes. This means running the same playbook multiple times won’t cause unintended side effects—provided the tasks are designed to be idempotent.
- Modular – Ansible includes a wide range of built-in modules for managing files, packages, services, users, and other system resources.
- Extensible – Its functionality can be expanded easily through existing custom modules developed by the community, as well as by creating your own to meet specific requirements.
Ansible is built around a set of key concepts that make it easier to use and manage:
- Control node - The machine where Ansible tools are installed and from which you run Ansible commands. It manages the execution of playbooks on remote systems
- Managed nodes - Also referred to as hosts, these are the target machines (e.g., servers, network devices, etc.) that Ansible configures and manages. Control Nodes can also be managed, so the Ansible system can manage itself.
- Inventory – A file that lists the managed nodes. It defines which hosts Ansible will target and can group them for easier management.
- Playbooks – YAML file that contains one or more plays organized in a structured way. It defines the sequence of actions that Ansible executes on target systems.
- Play – A section within a playbook that defines a set of tasks to run on specific hosts. It maps hosts, variables, plays, and roles into a single unit of execution.
- Roles – reusable units that bundle tasks, variables, templates, files, and other components, typically organized around a specific function or behavior. They help structure and share automation logic across multiple playbooks.
- Variables – Key-value pairs used to store data that can be referenced and reused throughout playbooks, roles, and tasks to make automation more dynamic and flexible.
Installing Ansible
Ansible is widely available and can be installed in several ways, depending on the operating system and preferred method.
- Via pip (Python Package Index) - Ansible can be installed on any system using Python's pip tool, regardless of the operating system.
- Via system package managers - Many Linux distributions provide Ansible through their native package managers.
Important Considerations - There are two main Ansible packages available
- ansible – the community package, full featured automation package that includes ansible-core plus set of popular collections.
- ansible-core – a lightweight version that contains only the core CLI tools and functionality needed to run playbooks. It does not include collections or extra content
When installing Ansible using a system package manager, it's important to verify the version provided. Some distributions may offer older versions that lack the latest features or bug fixes. For more control and the most up-to-date release, using pip is often recommended.
Ansible in action at intive
As part of a decade-long strategic partnership with Red Hat, intive offers its clients the full potential of Red Hat Ansible automation platform, tailored to specific business needs and environments. We have successfully used Ansible to automate infrastructure and deployment tasks in several client projects. These implementations improved system reliability, reduced manual work, and simplified configuration management. Ansible proved to be an effective tool for delivering consistent and maintainable solutions.
If you’re interested in exploring what Red Hat Ansible can do for your company, we’d be happy to share our experience. Feel free to reach out with any questions or if you’d like to discuss how Ansible could fit into your environment.
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