Ansible is an open-source automation tool used for IT tasks such as configuration management, application deployment, intra-service orchestration, and provisioning. It is designed to be simple to set up and use, making it a popular choice among system administrators and DevOps engineers for automating routine tasks across large numbers of systems.

Why Ansible is Used

1. Configuration Management: Ansible can manage and enforce the desired state of system configurations across multiple machines. This ensures consistency, reduces configuration drift, and makes managing complex environments easier.
2. Application Deployment: Ansible can automate the deployment of applications across servers. It helps streamline the process of moving code from development to production environments, ensuring that deployments are repeatable and reliable.
3. Orchestration: Ansible can orchestrate complex workflows by coordinating multiple services and systems. For example, it can automate the entire process of setting up a web server, database, and load balancer in a specific order.
4. Provisioning: Ansible can automate the setup of infrastructure, including cloud environments (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) and virtual machines, making it easier to build and scale environments quickly.
5. Agentless Architecture: Ansible uses an agentless architecture, meaning it doesn’t require any software to be installed on the target machines. It uses SSH (for Unix-like systems) or WinRM (for Windows systems) to communicate with remote systems, reducing the overhead and maintenance of managing agents.
6. Ease of Use: Ansible uses a simple, human-readable language called YAML to define automation workflows. This makes it accessible to a wide range of users, from beginners to experienced system administrators.
7. Idempotency: Ansible ensures that tasks are idempotent, meaning that running the same task multiple times will not change the system after it has reached the desired state. This helps prevent unintended changes and ensures predictable results.
8. Cross-Platform Support: Ansible can manage a variety of systems, including Linux, Windows, network devices, cloud services, and more. This makes it a versatile tool for managing diverse environments.

In summary, Ansible is used to automate repetitive tasks, ensure consistency across environments, improve efficiency, and reduce the risk of human error in IT operations.

By Aijaz Ali