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Ansible

Ansible is an open source automation platform that helps with configuration management, application deployment, and task automation. It uses simple, human-readable YAML files (playbooks) to describe automation jobs, making it easy to manage infrastructure as code.

🌟 Key Features​

  • Agentless: No need to install agents on managed nodes; uses SSH.
  • Idempotent: Ensures tasks produce the same result, even if run multiple times.
  • Extensible: Supports modules for various tasks (e.g., package management, cloud provisioning).
  • Declarative: Define the desired state of your systems.
  • Scalable: Manage a few servers or thousands with the same approach.

🚀 Common Use Cases​

  • Server provisioning and configuration
  • Application deployment
  • Continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD)
  • Cloud resource orchestration
  • Security automation and compliance

📚 Resources​

⚡ Ad-Hoc Commands​

Ad-hoc commands let you run simple tasks without writing a playbook. Examples:

# Ping all nodes (default inventory)
ansible all -m ping

# Ping all nodes (specify inventory)
ansible all -i "/vagrant/data/hosts" -m ping

# Gather facts
ansible -i inventory <hostname or hostgroup> -m setup

# Specify host and user
ansible ip-192-168-100-11.local -m ping -u vagrant

# Execute a shell command
ansible all -a "/bin/echo hello"
ansible all -a "uptime"

# Use the shell module
ansible all -m shell -a "pwd"
ansible all -m shell -a 'echo $HOME'

# Update and upgrade packages (Debian/Ubuntu)
ansible all -m apt -a "update_cache=yes upgrade=dist" --become

# Install a package
ansible all -m apt -a "name=tree state=present" --become

📝 Notes​

  • Ansible playbooks are written in YAML and describe the desired state of your infrastructure.
  • Inventories define which hosts Ansible manages.
  • Use roles and variables to organize complex automation tasks.
  • Ansible is widely used in DevOps for its simplicity and power.