Ansible automates application deployment and manages configurations across servers or network devices. DevOps teams define the desired state of their infrastructure or applications using Ansible's declarative language (YAML) in Playbooks, which contains a series of tasks to be performed on target systems.Ansible Roles provide a structured way to organize tasks, templates, files, and variables. This structure makes it easier to manage complex automation setups, as everything related to a specific role is contained within its directory.An Ansible collection maintainer is a contributor trusted by the community who makes significant and regular contributions to the project and who has shown themselves as a specialist in the related area. Collection maintainers have extended permissions in the collection scope.
What is the purpose of Ansible : Ansible® is an open source IT automation engine that automates provisioning, configuration management, application deployment, orchestration, and many other IT processes.
Who should use Ansible
IT Architects. IT architects can manage the IT infrastructure by orchestrating, automating, configuring, and using Ansible. They use Ansible for multi-tier deployments because no agents or custom security design is needed in the Ansible architecture.
What is difference between Docker and Ansible : Ansible is an orchestration tool used to manage the applications or software in the given environment. Docker is a containerization technology used to isolate applications from the host OS. Configuration execution is easy to process in Ansible and there is no containerization process.
What is the difference between roles and playbook in Ansible A role is a set of tasks and additional files that are used to configure a host to serve a specific role. A playbook is a mapping of hosts and roles.
Let us start by creating the role folder:
- Step 1: Create the Ansible role folder.
- Step 2: Create the Ansible role using Ansible Galaxy.
- Step 3: Define Ansible role default variable.
- Step 4: Create a motd template.
- Step 5: Create the role task.
- Step 6: Create Ansible Playbook to use the role.
- Step 7: Create an inventory file.
How do I create a role in Ansible
Create roles directory.
- mkdir roles. cd roles.
- ansible-galaxy init singleurl.
- cd singleurl. cd defaults. vim roles/singleurl/defaults/main.yml.
- cd singleurl. cd tasks. vim roles/singleurl/tasks/main.yml.
- vim /home/ansible/dev/singleurltesting.yml. —
- ansible-galaxy init multiurl.
- cd multiurl. cd meta.
- cd multiurl. cd tasks.
Ansible is efficient in:
- Configuration management.
- Change the configuration of an application, OS, or device.
- Start and stop services.
- Install or update applications.
- Implement a security policy.
- Perform a wide variety of other configuration tasks.
Jenkins is the preferred solution for smaller jobs that need the use of many tools, such as build, testing, and code quality analysis. Ansible is the ideal tool for complex infrastructures with too many servers. It is known for its efficient system of inventory management, which is great for managing systems.
Ansible started as a solution for configuration management and that is still a major use case. In configuration management, Ansible is used to manage configuration files, install software, create users, and perform similar tasks to guarantee that the managed systems all are in the desired state.
What is the Ansible role in Docker registry : docker_registry Ansible role can be used to install and manage a Docker Registry instance. A Docker Registry is a service which allows you to publish and distribute Docker container images. It can be used to create a private, local alternative to a Docker Hub.
Is Ansible better than Kubernetes : In other words, Ansible deploys changes to hosts, while Kubernetes manages containers and keeps them working properly. Ansible is an excellent useful tool for front-end developers, particularly in situations where some programming is required. Kubernetes is best suited to developing larger apps.
What is the difference between a role and a task
A role: what someone is expected to do (possibly the name of the position). A task is an individual job, a subset of one's responsible role.
Role names must contain only lowercase alphanumeric characters and the underscore _ character. Role names must also start with an alphabetic character. For more information see the roles directory topic in Ansible documentation. role-name[path] message tells you to avoid using paths when importing roles.Tasks: clear overview of the tasks to be executed, but could get difficult to understand with longer playbooks. Roles: reusable tasks that can schedule other tasks, but it's more difficult to figure out which tasks are performed.
How do you call a role in Ansible : Using roles at the play level
- If roles/x/tasks/main.yml exists, Ansible adds the tasks in that file to the play.
- If roles/x/handlers/main.yml exists, Ansible adds the handlers in that file to the play.
- If roles/x/vars/main.yml exists, Ansible adds the variables in that file to the play.