Ansible is a radically simple IT automation engine that automates cloud provisioning, configuration management, application deployment, intra-service orchestration, and many other IT needs.

Highlights

• Human readable and simple to understand
• Agent less
• Access is done with SSH
• Large support community
• Many roles and modules available
• Host inventory handles and defines the infrastructure
• Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)

Ansible core components

Controller Machine

The machine where Ansible is installed, responsible for running the provisioning on the servers you are managing.InventoryAn initialization file that contains information about the servers you are managing.

Playbook

The entry point for Ansible provisioning, where the automation is defined through tasks using YAML format.

Task

A block that defines a single procedure to be executed, e.g. Install a package.

Module

A module typically abstracts a system task, like dealing with packages or creating and changing files. Ansible has a multitude of built-in modules, but you can also create custom ones.

Role

A pre-defined way for organizing playbooks and other files in order to facilitate sharing and reusing portions of a provisioning.

Facts

Global variables containing information about the system, like network interfaces or operating system.

Handlers

Used to trigger service status changes, like restarting or stopping a service.