Ansible: How industries have overcome their challenges using Ansible -Automation Tool

Ansible is a agentless automation platform which will help you to solve the challenges regarding management- configuration , App-Deployment, task automation etc; If we consider a scenario where you want to configure apache server on 1000+ systems, so the manual procedure will be, installing and configuring server on each system one by one. This process is hectic and time consuming. Also it may some time caught up with some error when while manual configuring you might have done a wrong process, So to be ensure that every step is done correctly a smart way of using a tool which not only in single execution configures the web-server but also reduces the fact of getting any error, as same configuration will be done in all systems, reliability will also increase.

Configuration Management:

What is Imperative Language ?

To write any auto-script, we need to know what commands are supported by that specific version of operating system

What is Declarative Language ?

Declarative languages only focuses on how we can achieve the result. So there no need to specify what command supports and what not.

Ansible make use of declarative language, where the code designed using declarative language supports in all platforms (OS)

Basic Flow:

Controller node:

Controller node is the system where we configure and install ansible, to know how to configure the controller node refer my blog Ansible configure. Through controller node we prepare the playbook and execute on the controller node, via controller node using SSH protocol(default for Linux) it connects to target node and carry out with managing configuration.

Here Ansible Playbook comes into picture :

Playbook is one of the core feature of ansible where it comprises of instructions and tasks which ansible needs to perform on target node. Generally modules of ansible is used inside the playbook, which helps to make ansible understand each statement inside it and do the needful tasks.

Now Let us know some industries usecases where they made use of ansible:

Arista Network:

ARISTA CLOUD NETWORKING

Arista’s software driven cloud networking model is helping to redefine cloud architectures as data centers adapt to achieve better agility and economy. Arista enables the use of standard provisioning and automation systems such as Ansible through our open Linux approach, bringing Net-Ops and Dev-Ops unification.

Integrated Solution

Arista Networks and Ansible have collaborated together to bring the strength and agility of Ansible in the network. Arista is built on extensibility and continues to leverage third-party integrations like Ansible helps to get most out of the switch.

1. Arista modules leverage the syntax of the running configuration — mirroring the syntax with which most network engineers are familiar.
2. Ansible can communicate with your Arista switch using using CLI or eAPI. The CLI-based connection utilizes SSH to securely manage your device.
3. Leverages existing EOS CLI or TACACS users which provides built-in authorization.
4. Add vEOS instances and a build tool like Jenkins to create an end to end continuous testing solution.
5. Arista EOS modules include: eAPI, command, config and template.

Following are the benefits they have observed:

The combined Ansible and Arista solution provides:

1. Improved speed and accuracy
2. No third-party EOS extensions required
3. No additional switch configuration required
4. Complete control of your configuration with idempotency built in
5. Make intelligent, dynamic decisions in your playbooks
6. Enables continuous compliance of EOS configuration

Reference: Ansible-usecase

Thats it..!

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