For a higher-level overview of this release, see the blog post: http://blog.ansibleworks.com/2013/11/21/ansible-1-4-released/ http://blog.ansibleworks.com/2013/

For a higher-level overview of this release, see the blog post: http://blog.ansibleworks.com/2013/11/21/ansible-1-4-released/ http://blog.ansibleworks.com/2013/11/21/ansible-1-4-released... A lot of great new features in this release - very excited to see the tool become more and more powerful. I only came across Ansible this summer, but it really blew my mind. I've been doing systems contracting for a few years now and Ansible is the most valuable tool I've come across for systems management so far. Now, rather than have to use (and train my clients on) multiple tools, I can have them just learn one solid tool that can handle orchestration, deployment, configuration management, server inventory, etc. I can now do a systems project in days when before the same project would take weeks. Expect to hear a lot more about Ansible in the future. Ansible isn't awesome because of a feature-list. It's awesome because it saves me time and gives me a lot of power for very little investment. Whether you're setting up a single server or 10,000 nodes, you can use this tool to give you a ton of leverage without having to spend weeks learning complex tools. That's why I've been focusing on it so much in the last few months. Shameless (but highly relevant!) plugs: For weekly community updates and cowsay jokes, sign up for Ansible Weekly: http://devopsu.com/newsletters/ansible-weekly-newsletter.html http://devopsu.com/newsletters/ansible-weekly-newsletter.htm... For a comparison of Ansible with other configuration management tools (implementing an identical project in each tool), see my book on the subject: http://devopsu.com/books/taste-test-puppet-chef-salt-stack-ansible.html http://devopsu.com/books/taste-test-puppet-chef-salt-stack-a... For a brief introduction to Ansible in comparison to Shell Scripts, see: http://devopsu.com/blog/ansible-vs-shell-scripts/ http://devopsu.com/blog/ansible-vs-shell-scripts/