Ansible is an open-source automation platform that automates software provisioning, configuration management, and application deployment. It consists of a set of components that work together to provide a complete automation solution.
The basic architecture of Ansible consists of the following components:
1. Control Node: This is the host where Ansible is installed and from where all tasks and playbooks are executed.
2. Managed Nodes: These are the hosts that are managed by the control node.
3. Inventory: This is a file containing information about all managed nodes.
4. Modules: These are small programs that can be used to perform specific tasks on managed nodes.
5. Playbooks: These are YAML files containing instructions for automation tasks to be executed on managed nodes.
6. Plugins: These are programs that can be used to extend the capabilities of Ansible.
Example:
Let’s say we want to deploy a web application on two servers. We can use Ansible to automate this process.
First, we need to create an inventory file containing information about the two servers. Then, we can create a playbook containing instructions for deploying the web application on the two servers.
Next, we can use the Ansible modules to execute the tasks defined in the playbook. Finally, we can use the Ansible plugins to extend the capabilities of the automation process.