Word of the Day: Ansible playbook

Word of the Day Daily updates on the latest technology terms | August 28, 2018 Ansible playbook An Ansible playbook is an organized unit of scripts that defines work for a server configuration managed by the automation tool Ansible. Ansible is a configuration management tool that automates the configuration of multiple servers by the use of Ansible playbooks. The playbook is the core component of any Ansible configuration. An Ansible playbook contains one or multiple plays, each of which define the work to be done for a configuration on a managed server. Ansible plays are written in YAML. Every play is created by an administrator with environment-specific parameters for the target machines; there are no standard plays. Ansible plays are flexible due to modules, which pertain to various aspects of the target managed servers. The module script written in Ruby. Modules exist for many parts of system configuration, including software installation and user management. Ansible, a Red Hat company, provides many modules, as does the open source community that uses and supports Ansible. The playbook is therefore composed of plays, which are composed of modules. It executes when the administrator runs the ansible-playbook command against target machines. The administrator must use an inventory file to specify the hosts under the playbook's management. The inventory file contains a list of all hosts that are managed by Ansible, and it offers an option to group hosts according to their functionality. For example, an administrator can apply a play to a group of web servers in the playbook, and a different play to a group of database servers. Ansible offers an enterprise-level features package, Ansible Tower, that is proprietary and not open source. With Ansible Tower, a user can create a workflow from multiple playbooks, integrate playbook run status alerts into third-party collaboration tools, and delegate playbooks with role-based access control, among other capabilities. Quote of the Day "An Ansible playbook presents IT organizations with a human- and machine-readable way to describe infrastructure configurations, build containers and do other tasks." - Sander van Vugt Trending Terms Ansible configuration management Red Hat open source role-based access control OpenStack Learning Center How to start using Ansible for Windows management Ansible for Windows gives administrators versed in Microsoft technology a versatile tool that's easy to configure and scales up to manage multiple machines using the PowerShell technology they already know. Two Ansible playbook examples illustrate config management Delve into these Ansible playbook examples to learn how the configuration management tool makes short work of tasks. Learn Ansible basics in this video tutorial Follow along with this video through the Ansible basics of effective configuration management and automation, via ad hoc commands and playbooks. Ansible variables give structure to playbook execution Ansible variables organize and direct playbook execution by conditions such as server type -- and that's a fact. Use Ansible in vSphere to automate management tasks Using Ansible in vSphere allows you to script many management responsibilities including VM provisioning and tasks related to adding, removing or modifying VMKernel interfaces, vSwitches and portgroups. Quiz Yourself Due to a configuration problem, _____ email servers are down and users have no access. a. you're b. your Answer Stay in Touch For feedback about any of our definitions or to suggest a new definition, please contact me at: mrouse@techtarget.com Visit the Word of the Day Archives and catch up on what you've missed! FOLLOW US About This E-Newsletter This e-newsletter is published by the TechTarget network. To unsubscribe from Whatis.com, click here. Please note, this will not affect any other subscriptions you have signed up for. TechTarget, Whatis, 275 Grove Street, Newton, MA 02466. Contact: webmaster@techtarget.com Copyright 2018 TechTarget. All rights reserved.