Ansible

Score9.2 out of 10

339 Reviews and Ratings

What is Ansible?

The Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform (acquired by Red Hat in 2015) is a foundation for building and operating automation across an organization. The platform includes tools needed to implement enterprise-wide automation, and can automate resource provisioning, and IT environments and configuration of systems and devices. It can be used in a CI/CD process to provision the target environment and to then deploy the application on it.

Categories & Use Cases

Infrastructure Automation
Automate the setup of systems to achieve their desired state using configuration files.
Category average: 9
Automated Provisioning
Automatically and systematically deploy, configure, and manage IT infrastructure and resources.
Category average: 8.8
Parallel Execution
Allows for the simultaneous execution of configuration changes across multiple nodes or components.
Category average: 8.5

Version Control
Track changes made to configurations over time. Allowing for rollback to previous configurations if needed.
Category average: 8.5
Node Management
Allows for the administration and oversight of individual devices or systems within a network.
Category average: 8.2
Reporting & Logging
Generate reports and logs to track changes made to configurations, aiding in troubleshooting and auditing.
Category average: 7.7

#1 most frequent

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

29.8%

11,606 installations of 39,007

“Backstop for automation for infrastructure as Code. We wrap Ansible infra automation scripts with a declarative API that can then be leveraged by our internal development teams to provision on premise container based applicaitons”

#2 most frequent

Information

17.3%

6,734 installations of 39,007

“Automation across all business units and silos.”

#3 most frequent

Finance and Insurance

9.6%

3,745 installations of 39,007

“I got all my time back, we have 500 servers, can push a button in Ansible right away without much coding experience in YAML.”

Asad Khan View profile

Systems Solution Architect in Engineering at Nokia (10,001+ employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

As a Systems Architect, I deploy K8s clusters and set up deployment systems as a PoC in my lab, and troubleshoot the same in production. Most deployments involve multi-cluster 5G network nodes on any CaaS layer. Ansible helps me automatically configure node settings on top of any IaC tool. This includes multi-OS configuration, simplification of network device configuration, patching, and other related tasks.

Pros

It reduces custom scripting efforts because everything can be scripted in simple, human-readable YAML playbooks.
Not only servers, but also network devices, VMs, Containers, Kubernetes clusters, etc., can be automated via Ansible, showcasing its extensive list of supported devices.
It is agentless, which makes it lightweight and allows for easy integration into CI/CD and GitOps pipelines.
Many Tier-1 telcos use Ansible for Day 0/1/2 automation of RAN, transport, and core infrastructure (e.g., network function lifecycle management, NE configuration push, patching VNFs).

Cons

Ansible is still not truly declarative like Terraform.
Simple automation is fine, but creating complex, scalable automation scripts is very difficult to learn.
For a higher number of nodes, Ansible consumes a lot of resources. It needs the paid version of AAP, which requires a cost.

Return on Investment

In terms of time, around 70-80 % of savings can be achieved as compared to manually patching the nodes.
In terms of network deployment, automating Day-0 and Day-1 of network configuration can result in an overall reduction of 30-40%.
In terms of headcount, a reduction of around 40% in human resources can be achieved, as the same team can handle more tasks with Ansible.
Depending on scale, the overall ROI of 50-100% can be achieved in 1-3 years

Usability

Alternatives Considered

HashiCorp Terraform, Open Source Puppet and Red Hat OpenShift

Victor Williams

Linux Administrator in Information Technology at Blue Cross from Blue Shield of Alabama (1001-5000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We automate everything, automate all the things, as we say. From patch management to user management, anything to do on the RHEL box, we do it. We use it on Windows, we use it on our F5s, we use it on our network equipment. Just automate everything in our organization.

Pros

Automate. If you got to do something once, do it once. If you got to do it twice, automate it with Ansible.

Cons

I can't think of any right now because I've heard about the Lightspeed and I'm really excited about that. Ansible has been really solid for us. We haven't had any issues. Maybe the upgrade process, but other than that, as coming from a user, it's awesome.
Give out Lightspeed for free.

Return on Investment

I got all my time back, we have 500 servers, can push a button in Ansible right away without much coding experience in YAML. Just time saved. I don't see any negatives. I don't want to sound like a fanboy, but I kind of am so it's awesome.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Open Source Puppet and Chef Enterprise Automation Stack

Other Software Used

Red Hat Satellite

Jeff Jacober

Senior Systems Analyst in Information Technology at City of Medicine Hat (501-1000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are still fairly new to AAP and trying to figure out the best uses for us. Currently we are working to automate our virtual server deployment and configuration process. Going forward, we would like to use it for Application deployment, Snapshot automation and Network configuration. I would like to also explore event-driven Ansible to do things like restarting IIS or Windows services to help us recover from outages.

Pros

Makes Ansible easier to use, with a lower barrier of entry
Keeps records and provides analytics on job runs
Large collection of modules, including for Windows that allow the automation of a large variety of tasks

Cons

Better documentation of how all the options/parameters are meant to be used (when creating things like jobs, templates, inventories, etc)
More recommendations of best practices as far as the best way to organize job templates, workflows, roles. Much can be found on how to organize pure Ansible, but not so much for AAP specifically.
I have found some things that seem like they should be easy but are not possible. Things like moving a host from one inventory to a different inventory. As far as I know this is not possible and requires deletion and recreation. Maybe I just don't know how this could be done or don't understand the design decisions behind this?

Return on Investment

We are still early in our implementation and don't have much yet - but I can say that it has already improved the time it takes to deploy a new virtual server for us, as well as making them more consistent.
In working through what jobs are required, it has really improved the communication between our different teams

Usability

Alternatives Considered

HashiCorp Terraform and Microsoft Power Automate

Other Software Used

Microsoft Power Automate

Matthew Hyclak

Sr System Engineer in Information Technology at Silex Data Solutions (11-50 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform to help our customers solve business problems. We automate infrastructure and other business processes to ensure high quality and repeatability in addition to reducing time to delivery.

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform provides a consistent platform that can orchestrate other tools and encourages repeatability from dev up through production.

Pros

Day 2 configuration management reducing drift
Providing access to users without much Ansible experience
Promoting reusability and visibility of code

Cons

Architecture changes are leaving it in an uncertain state
Move to Openshift with full support could be better
Better ability to move code through environments

Return on Investment

Encouraging consistency from environment to environment
Reduction in outages on systems managed by Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
Pushing teams to own their own code

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Open Source Puppet

Other Software Used

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Jenkins

Blake Wallace

IT System Engineer IV in Information Technology at Banner Health (10,001+ employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Ansible for a wide variety of functions, from patching (both Linux and third-party Windows applications) to configuration Management and initial build configuration. Ansible is effective for pushing complex changes to a large number of hosts at once, with excellent conditional handling for different cases. Credential management also allows for extensive Role-based access without our environment without compromising security.

Pros

Credentials
Conditional updates.
Server management.

Cons

Better integration with Service Now and other CMDBs.
Better reporting - export job results in mass as an excel/PDF report for consumption.
Easier execution environment/development workflows around custom collections - a lengthy process to update and maintain in-house collections.

Return on Investment

Easy installers to deploy applications in mass.
Quick/easy to design a template or playbook to make a change across the environment.
Great, powerful tool to institute change across an environment that is not always consistent.

Usability

Other Software Used

Dynatrace, Splunk Enterprise, OneNote

Ansible

What is Ansible?

Categories & Use Cases

Key Features

Top Performing Features

Infrastructure Automation

Automated Provisioning

Parallel Execution

Areas for Improvement

Version Control

Node Management

Reporting & Logging

Most Frequent Users

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

Information

Finance and Insurance

Reviews

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Other Software Used