How does Ansible work?
Ansible is an open-source automation tool used for configuration management, application deployment, and task automation. It operates on a simple agentless architecture, making it lightweight and easy to deploy. Ansible uses a declarative language to define the state of the system, which allows for easy understanding and maintenance.
Key Components:
- Inventory: Ansible maintains a list of target machines in an inventory file, which can be dynamic or static.
- Modules: Ansible uses modules to perform various tasks on the target systems. These modules can configure packages, services, files, and much more.
- Playbooks: Playbooks are YAML files that describe the desired state of the systems. They define what actions to take on which hosts.
- Plugins: Ansible has a variety of plugins that extend its functionality, including connection types, callback handlers, and lookup plugins.
Execution Process:
- Ansible connects to target machines via SSH (or WinRM for Windows).
- It executes tasks in the defined order as specified in the playbook.
- Modules are run, making changes based on the desired state defined in the playbook.
- Finally, Ansible generates a report detailing what changes were made.
Overall, Ansible simplifies the complexity of managing configurations across thousands of systems, fostering consistency and enabling DevOps practices.