All about Ansible…

Firstly we need to understand why we need automation in the IT industry??

And why only ansible is used widely in the Industries??

🧐🧐🤔🤔

We all don’t like to perform the same tasks again and again while doing any projects,tasks,etc. We hate resolving the same errors which we had already resolved a week ago🤐🤐

We wish that without repeating the task we can resolve our problems in the Industry. So, to avoid these repeated tasks we need automation that can easily in just one click can resolve our errors and other work like creating a similar file multiple times in different OS/servers,executing the same commands n number of times,etc .

Automation also gives us relief from remembering a tons of commands. We can have a single file which will contain all the necessary commands required for performing a particular configuration on particular OS/servers.

As an IT guy we open cmd prompt and install the required OS by using some cmd and this command varies from OS to OS. For linux it’s different,for windows installation cmd varies from others.So it’s a very frustrating task to install and then configure the OS separately for each requirement of the customers ☹️☹️☹️

This installations and along with configuration can be easily done by

Ansible😌

But why only ansible??🤔🤔

Ansible does not only supports the automation it has some unique features which makes it to stand different from other automation tools.

For automation from ages we are using the scripts written in languages like python,perl,Ruby on rails,etc. But these scripts have a drawback. They use imperative language i.e to run the code we nees to specify the script what to do means what to automate and how to do means how to perform that task.

Here in how to do the task we need to specify the OS respective commands version wise e.g for Red hat Linux ver 6 we need to specify different cmds as compared to Red hat Linux ver 8 because both do not support same commands.

But in ansible we only need to specify- what to do i.e what we have to automate, because it’s a declarative language. How to do that task with OS respective commands is automatically handled by ansible . And so ansible has a very much demand in the market and Industry.

Below diagram shows the working of ansible.

Use case of Microsoft:

📌 ABOUT THE COMPANY:

Microsoft Corporation develops, manufactures, and supports software, consumer electronics and computers, and related services. To simplify and scale at pace with market demands, Microsoft worked with Red Hat to create a scalable, technology-agnostic automation framework to reduce manual workloads with efficient tools and processes, and mitigate performance and security issues with standardized, tested code. As a result, Microsoft has standardized network automation at scale, established a collaborative and creative development mindset, and saved thousands of hours of operational work.

📌 THE PATH TO SUCCESS:

Opportunity: Accommodate growth with new network approach

Microsoft needed to address increasing complexity across their corporate network infrastructure—comprised of tens of thousands of endpoints—that connects Microsoft locations worldwide. “We have thousands of devices of various makes and models and software versions, so at times, it’s hard to keep up with all the different vendors and ways that we interact with those devices,” said Bart Dworak, Software Engineering Manager at Microsoft. Their issues were compounded as code created by development and engineering teams was not version-controlled or peer-reviewed, leading to duplication and quality issues.

📌Solution:

Build a culture of modern development

Using Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and working with Red Hat Consulting, Microsoft created a standardized, centralized network automation environment that reduces routine, repeatable tasks and complexity. “Digital transformation is really changing the way that we think about how we solve problems,” said Dworak. “In the past, we had to manually do the same deployment again and again. With Ansible, we can create blueprints to deploy it multiple times. And every time we deploy, it’s exactly the same.”

📌Results:

Establish collaborative, creative development mindset

By focusing on people, process, and technology, Microsoft has evolved its automation journey from manual scripting and changes to a continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) approach supported by a centralized, service-based architecture. Their DevOps teams can now focus on sharing knowledge, building skills, and creating innovative technology solutions. “Teams are coming together to solve engineering problems in a shared environment of co-creation,” said Sonika Munde, Remote Access Services Engineer, Core Service Engineering, at Microsoft. “We are truly seeing One Microsoft in action.”

“Every single process, service, and application at Microsoft is going through digitization and optimization. We are investing in automating all of our critical business processes. So technology is important. It’s critical. But culture comes first.”

- LUDOVIC HAUDUC, GENERAL MANAGER, CORE PLATFORM ENGINEERING, MICROSOFT

So here we have seen how Microsoft implemented ansible to solve their business problems.

Well friends, I think you all will also get some sort of idea of what ansible is exactly and it’s place in the industry!!🧐🧐🌐🖥️

Thanks for reading my blog and hope you all will like it.✍️😇😌