Ansible is a radically simple IT automation system that handles configuration management, application deployment, cloud provisioning, ad-hoc task execution, network automation, and multi-node orchestration. It enables complex changes like zero-downtime rolling updates with load balancers easily.
Key Features
Ansible boasts an extremely simple setup process with a minimal learning curve. It manages machines quickly and in parallel, and is agentless by leveraging the existing SSH daemon, avoiding custom agents and additional open ports. The system describes infrastructure in a language that is both machine and human friendly, focusing on security and easy auditability. New remote machines can be managed instantly without bootstrapping any software, and module development is possible in any dynamic language, not just Python. Ansible can be used as non-root and aims to be the easiest IT automation system to use.
Installation and Development
Users can install a released version of Ansible with pip or a package manager. The installation guide provides details for various platforms. Power users and developers can run the devel branch for the latest features and fixes, though it may have breaking changes. The community recommends getting involved for those running the devel branch.
Community and Contribution
The Ansible forum is the place to ask questions, get help, and interact with the community. Users can find help or share knowledge, and use tags to filter posts, such as ansible, ansible-core, and playbook. Social spaces allow meeting fellow enthusiasts, while the News & Announcements section tracks project-wide events. The Bullhorn newsletter provides release announcements and important changes. For more ways to get in touch, see Communicating with the Ansible community. Contributors can check the Contributor's Guide, read Community Information for ways to contribute, and submit code updates through pull requests to the devel branch. Larger changes should be discussed beforehand to avoid duplicate efforts.
Development and Roadmap
Development context for ansible-core is in the context directory. Coding guidelines are documented in the Developer Guide. The devel branch corresponds to the release under development, while stable-2.X branches correspond to stable releases. Contributors should create a branch based on devel and set up a dev environment for pull requests. The Ansible release and maintenance page has information about active branches. Based on team and community feedback, an initial roadmap will be published for major or minor versions (e.g., 2.7, 2.8). The Ansible Roadmap page details planned features and how to influence the roadmap.
History and License
Ansible was created by Michael DeHaan and has contributions from over 5000 users. The project is substantially coded by humans and is sponsored by Red Hat, Inc. It is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later.