Automation

Windows Automation with Ansible: Getting Started Guide

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Overview

In this article we will focus on how to get started with automation of windows using Ansible. Specifically we will look at installing 3rd party software and OS updates. Automation is the basis for cloud-computing or cloud-native patterns and breeds a culture of innovation. Let’s face it, we cannot innovate, if we are stuck doing mundane tasks and manual labor. Ansible has revolutionized automation because until Ansible, automating was rather complicated and required lots of domain knowledge. Ansible provides an automation language that the entire organization can use because it is so easy and so flexible. The best thing about Ansible though it it brings teams together and fosters a devops culture. It brings the Linux and Windows world together!

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Automation on the Edge – Ansible Tower with Isolated Nodes

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Overview

In this article we will look at providing an automation platform for edge computing. Generally I would say edge computing is about moving data-handling away from centralized systems, towards local sources of data capture. An edge can be a remote office, server, laptop, tablet, smartphone or IoT anything endpoint. Edge computing is really just taking distributed computing one step further and removing the requirement to have always-connected network segments.

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Automated Infrastructure in the On-Premise Datacenter – OpenShift 4.2 on OpenStack 15 (Stein)

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Overview

In this article we start a new journey, automated infrastructure in the on-premise datacenter. We will deploy OpenShift 4.2 on OpenStack. As I am sure you are aware, OpenShift is Red Hat’s enterprise kubernetes platform. Kubernetes is of course the brains but by itself is not a platform. OpenShift brings with kubernetes, monitoring, aggregate logging, container registry, security, automated deployment/upgrade, developer experience, huge middleware tooling built around JBoss, serverless frameworks, ISTIO (service mesh), CI/CD integration and the key word “ENTERPRISE“.

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Ansible Tower Cluster Configuration Guide

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Overview

In this article we will setup and configure an Ansible Tower cluster on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). If you are interested in a single all-in-one deployment, I have already documented this here.

Ansible Tower clustering replaces the traditional active/passive with an active/active configuration. It provides not only HA but scalability as well. Ansible Tower has two critical components: Tower instances running API/Scheduler and the database. RabbitMQ is used for communication between the Tower instances.

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Ansible Tower and Satellite: End to End Automation for the Enterprise

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Overview

In this article we will look at how Ansible Tower and Red Hat Satellite 6 integrate with one another, providing end-to-end automation for the enterprise. Satellite is a systems management tool that combines several popular opensource projects: Foreman (provisioning), Katello (content repository), Pulp (database), Candlepin (subscription management) and Puppet (configuration management). While puppet is directly integrated into Satellite, many organizations would rather use Ansible because of its power, simplicity and ease-of-use.

Ansible Tower integrates with Satellite, allowing organizations to run playbooks against the hierarchy and groups of servers defined in Satellite. Additionally, Ansible Tower can dynamically update its inventories with hosts and their updated facts from Satellite at anytime. Hosts show up in Ansible Tower under the groups defined by Satellite. This allows organizations to use Satellite to define their infrastructure, provision hosts, provide patch management while leveraging Ansible to deploy and manage software configuration. It also allows other teams the ability to run playbooks and automation against the infrastructure defined by Satellite. Personally I am a huge fan of this loose coupling and find this solution much more advantageous than a direct coupling of Ansible in Satellite.

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Ansible Tower Installation and Configuration Guide

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Overview

In this article we will setup and configure Ansible Tower on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). By now unless you are hiding under a rock, you have heard about Ansible. Ansible is quickly becoming the standard automation language used in enterprises for automating everything. Ansible is powerful, simple, easy to learn and these of course are the main reasons it becoming the standard everywhere. Ansible has two components: Ansible core and Ansible Tower. Core provides the Ansible runtime that executes playbooks (yaml files defining tasks and roles) against inventories (group of hosts). Ansible Tower provides management, visibility, job scheduling, credentials, RBAC, auditing / compliance and more. Installing Ansible Tower also installs Ansible core so you kill two birds with one stone.

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