Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform Reviews

I like Ansible because it is:

• Easy to use.
• Easy to read.
• Easy to maintain.
• Easy to support.
• It works without an agent.

It has made software installation and updates much easier. Tasks including changing or checking configurations and files have been improved especially considering the big scope of servers.

It could work with a larger number of servers.

I've been working with Ansible since v0.7 and still use v2.2.

We only encountered issues with syntax, as sometimes it was changed and then one has to adapt.

There were a few scalability issues. I had no problems as long as the number of servers was less than 500. When the number of servers has exceeded 500, I encountered an increased number of failures when trying to provision all together. I tried to play with forks, timeouts, and other options, but as the number of servers grew, I got more failures, so I had to provision smaller groups.

I haven't yet used it.

I used bash scripts before, but bash is not idempotent and you should write more code whereas Ansible already has them as a module. Ansible gives you an informative report after each task.

It was easy to install and easy to use.

I use the free version with Jenkins, it's enough for my needs.

We did not evaluate other options.

It should work easily.

1600 host environment, which is mainly used for software updates. As a production environment, it is used for security compliance.

We are still implementing it. I have used it in a very small environment (10 hosts), and it performed well.

Role-based access control and agentless architecture are the main features which may attract users. It is also easy to learn. 

Ansible Tower provides a GUI, which is an enhancement, and a well-liked feature by operation teams.

The cost is high but it sill works well.

• Agentless architecture, relying on SSH only.
• Great documentation.

Provision and configure from nothing on Amazon.

Speed but it only can go as fast as SSH does.

6 months

No.

A little slow.

Used S before.

Switched because of coworkers and even if I find SaltStack easier to learn, the documentation of Ansible made me choose it over Salt.

Not at all, just need to have general knowledge of SSH.

Open source.

It is used to support WAN network equipment.

Saved time as well as helped support compliance and standards.

The countless modules and products supported.

Error codes are not very descriptive.