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(note: Ansible creator here) Yeah, there's no Windows now. If we do it, I'd want it to push powershell over native means. I'm still not 100% convinced it's so

(note: Ansible creator here) Yeah, there's no Windows now. If we do it, I'd want it to push powershell over native means. I'm still not 100% convinced it's something Windows admins want to do in a large enough number to focus on it, but input is always good and would be interested in hearing more about use cases folks want. As for lifecycle, Ansible has significantly less provisioning integration required than some of the other systems because all you need to do is get your SSH keys in there -- less bootstrapping. It also has a pluggable inventory system so you can get your list of hosts/variables from things like EC2 or OpenStack, so with things like cloud-init, that is usually what folks need. And there are some modules for spinning up new guests in various systems. (I'd like to see a vcenter inventory plugin too). I'm also the original author of Cobbler and there's integration with that on the provisioning side, and for something else similar, it's largely the case of writing an inventory plugin and making sure the key is installed.

jessaustin 13y ago
I'm still not 100% convinced it's something Windows admins want to do in a large enough number to focus on it... I think this is much more common now that windows in the cloud is quite easy. (My company seems to have as many windows instances in EC2 as linux.) I do agree with your preference for powershell over cygwin.
mncolinlee 13y ago
I'm glad to hear from the creator. That's one reason I love HN. Our Windows folks are big Powershell fans here. You wouldn't find too many complaints with it. The biggest problem going with Powershell would be bootstapping it into the environment if it's not already installed or if you depend upon a more recent version. Since we're actively evaluating lifecycle management tools right now, this is our main concern. Many of the integrations to provisioning tools flow downhill from frontends which manage the state of many systems. We find ourselves choosing the best-integrated stack rather than evaluating provisioning software. The plumbing is very important, but a well-written lifecycle tool should make the copper pipes less visible.
csears 13y ago
I think there is significant demand for a good Windows solutions in this space. Chef and Puppet have Windows support, but I don't see much community momentum around it. Powershell is the obvious choice, and, as of v3, I think it would be a viable transport for Ansible. If you or anyone on this thread wants to put some ideas on paper for a PoC, I'd be glad to help. Email in profile. PS. Thanks for your work on Cobbler. We used it recently for automating VM template builds.
- kryten 13y ago
  There is already SCOM+SCCM for this but you better have some bars of gold lying around that you can afford to toss out of the window.

jessaustin 13y ago

I'm still not 100% convinced it's something Windows admins want to do in a large enough number to focus on it... I think this is much more common now that windows in the cloud is quite easy. (My company seems to have as many windows instances in EC2 as linux.) I do agree with your preference for powershell over cygwin.

mncolinlee 13y ago

I'm glad to hear from the creator. That's one reason I love HN. Our Windows folks are big Powershell fans here. You wouldn't find too many complaints with it. The biggest problem going with Powershell would be bootstapping it into the environment if it's not already installed or if you depend upon a more recent version. Since we're actively evaluating lifecycle management tools right now, this is our main concern. Many of the integrations to provisioning tools flow downhill from frontends which manage the state of many systems. We find ourselves choosing the best-integrated stack rather than evaluating provisioning software. The plumbing is very important, but a well-written lifecycle tool should make the copper pipes less visible.

csears 13y ago

I think there is significant demand for a good Windows solutions in this space. Chef and Puppet have Windows support, but I don't see much community momentum around it. Powershell is the obvious choice, and, as of v3, I think it would be a viable transport for Ansible. If you or anyone on this thread wants to put some ideas on paper for a PoC, I'd be glad to help. Email in profile. PS. Thanks for your work on Cobbler. We used it recently for automating VM template builds.

kryten 13y ago
There is already SCOM+SCCM for this but you better have some bars of gold lying around that you can afford to toss out of the window.