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We use Ansible for all of our legacy tech, the non-container stuff. Rather than a dev ask a server guy to make a vm, then join it to the domain, then move it t
by myu701 7y ago
We use Ansible for all of our legacy tech, the non-container stuff.
Rather than a dev ask a server guy to make a vm, then join it to the domain, then move it to the right OU, then install anti-virus, etc. then ask a dba to install SQL server, import the database schema, setup permissions, and enable network access, we write an ansible playbook that does it all in a repeatable manner, the same way every time.
You have an n-tier app with a reverse proxy load balancing for 3 web servers and 1 database server, and you want one copy of this app for dev, one for staging, and one for prod, and you want them all the same?
Ansible to the rescue (or better, Terraform, which gives you more control IMO)
You need one more environment for testing the changes to a new system? Add a line in Ansible and rerun the whole thing.
CM systems like Ansible or Terraform let you do Infra As Code and treat your servers like cattle, not pets.
A server acts weird? take out of load balancer, delete the entire VM, re-run ansible to recreate it, poof its happy again.
- fredrb 7y agoTerraform as a Server Provisioning I can understand. What I don't understand is: why would you use an Ansible script for server configuration rather than have a Template Engine (e.g. Packer) with a readymade image?
- billman 7y agoJust from personal experience, Ansible is relatively simple to use, and requires minimal setup. I think some of the other alternatives might require a larger up front investment in time and capital.
- rumanator 7y agoAnsible is awesome because all it requires is a working ssh connection to a fleet of instances with python installed, and that's it. You don't need to worry about anything. Just write your playbooks, run them when needed, and go on with your lives. No need to install fancy software or run special OS imagens. You can't beat that.