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Really Enjoy Ansible
What do you like best about the product?
The syntax is very easy, I typically use YAML for all of my application configuration so I'm happy Ansible uses YAML.
It's great that I can run playbooks against servers just over SSH, I don't have to install any agents on the remote servers.
I like how everything just describes what the desired state is and it works idempotently.
We had previously worked with Chef and Puppet and Ansible by far has been the easiest for us to get up and running.
We started out with configuration generated by http://phansible.com/ which helped us get up and running quickly.
It's great that I can run playbooks against servers just over SSH, I don't have to install any agents on the remote servers.
I like how everything just describes what the desired state is and it works idempotently.
We had previously worked with Chef and Puppet and Ansible by far has been the easiest for us to get up and running.
We started out with configuration generated by http://phansible.com/ which helped us get up and running quickly.
What do you dislike about the product?
We had a developer running on Windows and we were unable to get it working. Had to jump through some hoops to get that developer onboard.
We tried using Cygwin which is what tutorials on the net suggested, but we were unable to get it to work. We were using it with Vagrant so it's possible it's an issue with Vagrant and Ansible on Windows. This developer was able to get Vagrant running with Puppet.
We tried using Cygwin which is what tutorials on the net suggested, but we were unable to get it to work. We were using it with Vagrant so it's possible it's an issue with Vagrant and Ansible on Windows. This developer was able to get Vagrant running with Puppet.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Initially, it was only for configuring vagrant development boxes. Recently we've started experimenting with using it to configure our VPSs. It's coming along very nicely.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
Ansible has been great for us. It can be tricky if you have developers using Windows. We are a PHP shop so we found the site http://phansible.com/ to be a great asset to get a starting set of configuration.
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Config Management for the Rest of Us
What do you like best about the product?
Ansible is simple:
It works with Python and uses SSH on Linux + UNIX systems. Write YAML "playbooks" and run them any platform you need. We use it on CentOS, FreeBSD, and Ubuntu - but Windows works as well.
What do we use Ansible for?
To deploy configuration to many systems, to stand up web applications we use, to backup files and data, to secure services on our servers, and much more.
Modules exist for every service or application you can think of. Would you like to manage KVM with Ansible? Can do! Want to manage your ssh keys across multiple employees? No problem!
The Ansible Galaxy site has many playbooks where you can learn by example. There are also hundreds of playbooks freely available to be forked on GitHub.
It works with Python and uses SSH on Linux + UNIX systems. Write YAML "playbooks" and run them any platform you need. We use it on CentOS, FreeBSD, and Ubuntu - but Windows works as well.
What do we use Ansible for?
To deploy configuration to many systems, to stand up web applications we use, to backup files and data, to secure services on our servers, and much more.
Modules exist for every service or application you can think of. Would you like to manage KVM with Ansible? Can do! Want to manage your ssh keys across multiple employees? No problem!
The Ansible Galaxy site has many playbooks where you can learn by example. There are also hundreds of playbooks freely available to be forked on GitHub.
What do you dislike about the product?
I think there's a bit of a learning curve with Ansible as far as writing the playbooks out. There's a large gap in my mind between a simple playbook that maybe configures one service or hardens a server, and a super complex playbook that can manage applications at a large scale. It takes time and planning and most importantly TESTING. We test our playbooks a lot because one variable can make a difference between a success or a disaster.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
We use it to stand up new servers, setup new applications, deploy a new service to more than one machine in your fleet. Can also use it to copy config files or other important things between the 'master' (even though Ansible is designed so you don't need one).
Recommendations to others considering the product:
I would read the documentation and get completely buried in everything it can do.
Deploy machines in AWS
What do you like best about the product?
Ansible is extremelly easy to use. The project organization is clear, the AWS Dynamic Inventory works great.
What do you dislike about the product?
Only the paid version has slave tracking and allows pulling. It would be great to see ansible providing a free alternative to Puppet and Salt.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Deploy and manage a large set of machines in AWS
Can't live without it now that I use it - Use it for Orchestration of deployments and new buildouts
What do you like best about the product?
The YAML syntax is so easy that anyone can use it. No more excuses from people that they are not a coder, they can now declaratively define their infrastructure via code just by knowing YAML. It allows me to version control my infrastructure now that it is defined by code.
What do you dislike about the product?
Sometimes the data structures available seem limiting but once you really learn the tool, it all comes into focus. The documentation can be limited for the modules but you can always read the source code as its just python and really easy to read and understand.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Reduce the lead times when provisioning new complex multi-tier stacks from Linux VM's to load balancer VIP's and SSL certification installations.
I also rely on Ansible for deployments of multi-tier application from my CI/CD server (Bamboo). Ansible is available on the Bamboo server so the deployment playbook gets version controlled alongside the app's source code and is executed by Bamboo/Ansible at deploy time. I also rely on Liquibase for DB schema evolution which is also executed by Ansible.
I also rely on Ansible for deployments of multi-tier application from my CI/CD server (Bamboo). Ansible is available on the Bamboo server so the deployment playbook gets version controlled alongside the app's source code and is executed by Bamboo/Ansible at deploy time. I also rely on Liquibase for DB schema evolution which is also executed by Ansible.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
Start with the community edition and see if its enough before purchasing Ansible Tower. Remember to always version control your playbooks.
Easy and powerful, fast results
What do you like best about the product?
So simple and easy to use. Require no server, no infrastructure configuration. It runs on my machine and do the job remotely. Fast, power, well documented, a lot of modules included in core.
What do you dislike about the product?
There is not much that I disliked. Maybe the file structure, would be better documented and specified.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
I solved problems of windows and linux machine configuration management, triggering deploys, providing cloud infrastructure. Easy to maintain and fast response.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
Simple and easy. All you need to configure your machines without pre-requisites.
Our entire infrastructure is based on Ansible
What do you like best about the product?
Ansible is amazing product because ot it's ease of use. A whole infrastructure can be binged times faster compared to Chef or Puppet.
What do you dislike about the product?
Compared to Chef or Puppet, Ansible has less contributed community modules.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Provisioning of new nodes is times faster Ansible.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
You can always use roles from Ansible Galaxy.
Easy provisioning
What do you like best about the product?
It is easy to get started(especially with ansible galaxy) but still powerful enough for the most complex setup.
The newer Amazon web service features made my life easier!
The newer Amazon web service features made my life easier!
What do you dislike about the product?
Larger setups can have a very large folder tree with multiple groups and roles (hardly a negative but couldn't think of anything else)
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Project environments provisioned at the click of a button.
Spawning test environments during deployment
Spawning test environments during deployment
Recommendations to others considering the product:
Really easy to get started with. Simple yml syntax and great documentation.
Continuous Delivery with Ansible, Jenkins and Docker
What do you like best about the product?
Ansible is really easy to use. Its default plugins covers most of the core needs that a DevOps could use. Unlike Chef, you don't need any client on the nodes you want to manage as everything is done through SSH. This reduction in complexity helps a lot in plugin development, bug fixing and debugging.
What do you dislike about the product?
Most of the times documentation is nice or enough but, sometimes, it's a bit tricky to understand some of the characteristics or commands of some plugins, sometimes because you need deep understanding of the things you're going to do, sometimes because description isn't perfect. You'll manage to do everything at the end.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Deployment of dozens of nodes at the same time. Our benefits are the development and testing of our playbooks, that are lot easier that with Chef (our previous solution) without the deployment of the Chef Server + an Chef Agent on each machine in our cluster.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
If you are starting in DevOps world, start with Ansible. If you have spend some time in DevOps world or you're already an expert that haven't used it yet, give it a try, I'm sure that most of the users will enjoy its simplicity and ease of use.
Effortless server configuration
What do you like best about the product?
I love that there is no agent to install on each server that you want to manage. Everything is done over SSH. I started writing playbooks and doing the same actions on multiple servers in minutes.
What do you dislike about the product?
Sometimes, the documentation is a little vague. More concrete examples would be very helpful for new users. Luckily, there are some good guides online from other sources.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
I manage ~400 servers and I needed a way to easily spin up a new VPS and install our application on it. What used to take about an hour now takes about a minute. I also use Ansible for continuous deployment. Application updates are scripted with Ansible and can be on each server almost instantly. Ansible also allowed us to keep a consistent server configuration across our business.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
Read the documentation. Almost everything is covered very well, but because it is so flexible they can't put every situation in the documentation. Search online for how others user Ansible in their environments. Search GitHub for playbooks.
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