What Is Ansible? | How Ansible Works? | Ansible Tutorial For Beginners | DevOps Tools | Simplilearn

Why Ansible?
What is Ansible?
Ansible - Pull configuration tool
Ansible architecture
Playbook
What’s in it for you?
Inventory
Working of Ansible
Ansible Tower
Use case by Hootsuite

This is Sam, a system administrator. He is
responsible for his company’s infrastructure
Why Ansible?
[Web Servers]
[Database Servers]

Why Ansible?
He must install Apache on all the 3 web servers and
MySQL on the two database servers
[Web Servers]
[Database Servers]

Why Ansible?
That’s easy! Wouldn’t take much time either
[Web Servers]
[Database Servers]

Why Ansible?
But what if the number of servers increase?
[Web Servers]
[Database Servers]

The same task must be repeated multiple times.
Moreover, humans are prone to make errors
Why Ansible?
[Web Servers]
[Database Servers]

Why Ansible?
This is where Ansible comes to the rescue
[Web Servers]
[Database Servers]

Why Ansible?
With Ansible, a code is written once for the
installation and deployed multiple times
[Web Servers]
[Database Servers]

Why Ansible?
Sam can now work on more productive tasks rather
than the repetitive ones
[Web Servers]
[Database Servers]

Sounds great, right?
But what is Ansible?
What is Ansible?

IT automation
What is Ansible?
Instructions are written to
automate the IT
professional’s work
Ansible is a tool that provides:

IT automation Configuration management
What is Ansible?
automate the IT
Consistency of all
systems in the
infrastructure is
maintained

IT automation
automate the IT
Configuration management
Consistency of all
systems in the
infrastructure is
maintained
Automatic deployment
Applications are deployed
automatically on a variety
of environments
What is Ansible?

Pull configuration: Nodes check with the server periodically
and fetch the configurations from it

Pull configuration: Nodes check with the server periodically
and fetch the configurations from it
Push configuration: Server pushes configuration to
the nodes

Push configuration: Server pushes configuration to
the nodes
Unlike Chef and Puppet, Ansible is push
type configuration management tool

Local Machine
Node
Module
Inventory Node
Node
The local machine is where Ansible is installed

Local Machine
Node
Module
Inventory Node
Node
Nodes are the systems to be configured. They are
controlled by the local machine

Local Machine
Node
Module
Inventory Node
Node
Module is a collection of configuration code files

Playbooks
Local Machine
Node
Module
Inventory Node
Node
These configuration code files are called playbooks

Local Machine
Node
Module
Inventory Node
Node
Inventory is a document that groups the nodes under
specific labels
Playbooks

Local Machine
Node
Module
Inventory Node
Node
The local machine connects to the nodes through an SSH
client
SSH
Playbooks

The core of Ansible
is it’s playbook
Playbook
Playbook

So, what is a
playbook?
Playbook
Playbook

Playbook
Playbooks are the instructions to
configure the nodes
Playbook

Playbook
configure the nodes
They are written in YAML, a language
used to describe data
Playbook

Did you know, YAML
stands for “YAML Ain’t
Markup Language”
Playbook
configure the nodes
Playbook

Let’s have a look at the
structure of a playbook
Playbook
configure the nodes
Playbook

Let’s have a look at the
structure of a playbook
---
-name: play 1
hosts: webserver
tasks:
-name: install apache
yum:
name: apache
state: present
-name: start apache
service:
name: apache
state: start
-name: play 2
hosts: databaseserver
tasks:
-name: install MySQL
yum:
name: MySQL
state: present
Playbook

Playbook begins with ‘--
-’
---
-name: play 1
hosts: webserver
tasks:
yum:
name: apache
state: present
-name: start apache
service:
name: apache
state: start
-name: play 2
tasks:
yum:
name: MySQL
state: present
Playbook

A playbook is a list of
plays
---
-name: play 1
hosts: webserver
tasks:
yum:
name: apache
state: present
-name: start apache
service:
name: apache
state: start
-name: play 2
tasks:
yum:
name: MySQL
state: present
Playbook

Host is the target for the
play
---
-name: play 1
hosts: webserver
tasks:
yum:
name: apache
state: present
-name: start apache
service:
name: apache
state: start
-name: play 2
tasks:
yum:
name: MySQL
state: present
Playbook

Each play has a list of
tasks
---
-name: play 1
hosts: webserver
tasks:
yum:
name: apache
state: present
-name: start apache
service:
name: apache
state: start
-name: play 2
tasks:
yum:
name: MySQL
state: present
Playbook

Each element in the list
of tasks is given a name
---
-name: play 1
hosts: webserver
tasks:
yum:
name: apache
state: present
-name: start apache
service:
name: apache
state: start
-name: play 2
tasks:
yum:
name: MySQL
state: present
Playbook

The name is followed by
instructions to execute
the task
---
-name: play 1
hosts: webserver
tasks:
yum:
name: apache
state: present
-name: start apache
service:
name: apache
state: start
-name: play 2
tasks:
yum:
name: MySQL
state: present
Playbook

Have a look at the first
task
---
-name: play 1
hosts: webserver
tasks:
yum:
name: apache
state: present
-name: start apache
service:
name: apache
state: start
-name: play 2
tasks:
yum:
name: MySQL
state: present
Playbook

Module yum is used to
install the apache
service
---
-name: play 1
hosts: webserver
tasks:
yum:
name: apache
state: present
-name: start apache
service:
name: apache
state: start
-name: play 2
tasks:
yum:
name: MySQL
state: present
Playbook

Simple, isn’t it?
---
-name: play 1
hosts: webserver
tasks:
yum:
name: apache
state: present
-name: start apache
service:
name: apache
state: start
-name: play 2
tasks:
yum:
name: MySQL
state: present
Playbook

But where do these host
names come from?
---
-name: play 1
hosts: webserver
tasks:
yum:
name: apache
state: present
-name: start apache
service:
name: apache
state: start
-name: play 2
tasks:
yum:
name: MySQL
state: present
Playbook

This is why we have an
inventory
Inventory

An inventory file
classifies nodes into
groups
[webserver]
web1.machine
web2.machine
web3.machine
[databaseserver]
db1.machine
Inventory

We have two groups
here: ‘webserver’ and
‘databaseserver’
[webserver]
web1.machine
web2.machine
web3.machine
[databaseserver]
db1.machine
Inventory

The hostnames of the
nodes are specified
under the group name
[webserver]
web1.machine
web2.machine
web3.machine
[databaseserver]
db1.machine
Inventory

Local Machine
NodeNode Node
Ansible is installed only on the local machine.
This makes Ansible agentless
Working of Ansible

Local Machine
NodeNode Node
The playbook and inventory are written at the
local machine
Working of Ansible

Local Machine
NodeNode Node
The local machine connects to the nodes
through SSH
SS
H
Working of Ansible

Local Machine
NodeNode Node
The local machine gathers the facts of each
node. Facts indicate the state of the nodes
SS
H
Working of Ansible

Local Machine
NodeNode Node
The playbooks are sent to the nodes
SS
H
Working of Ansible

Local Machine
NodeNode Node
The playbooks are now executed. This
configures the nodes to their desired states
SS
H
Working of Ansible

Working of Ansible
So, let’s see if you can
answer a simple
question…

Working of Ansible
What is the major
leverage Ansible has
over Chef and Puppet?

Working of Ansible
Leave your answers on
the comment!

Now, let’s have a look at
the icing on the cake-
Ansible Tower!
Ansible Tower

Ansible Tower is a framework for Ansible
Ansible Tower

It provides a GUI. Thus, reducing the
dependency on the command prompt
window
Ansible Tower

It provides a GUI. Thus, reducing the
dependency on the command prompt
window
Instead of typing long commands, tasks
can now be performed in a single click
Ansible Tower

Hootsuite is a social media
management system

They assist businesses in
campaigning across
social media platforms

But as they gained
popularity, a crisis struck

Servers had to be rebuilt continuously

Unfortunately, there was no standard
documentation and the entire process
relied on memory

This is when the need for Ansible was
realised

Now, playbooks are written to deploy
servers providing a standardization

Servers are built and rebuilt in a matter of
seconds

Key Takeaways
Ansible- pull configuration tool
What is ansible?Why ansible?
playbook Inventory

Key Takeaways
Ansible towerWorking of ansible Use case by hootsuite

What Is Ansible? | How Ansible Works? | Ansible Tutorial For Beginners | DevOps Tools | Simplilearn

What Is Ansible? | How Ansible Works? | Ansible Tutorial For Beginners | DevOps Tools | Simplilearn

More Related Content

What's hot

Similar to What Is Ansible? | How Ansible Works? | Ansible Tutorial For Beginners | DevOps Tools | Simplilearn

More from Simplilearn

Recently uploaded

What Is Ansible? | How Ansible Works? | Ansible Tutorial For Beginners | DevOps Tools | Simplilearn

Editor's Notes