[[Ansible]] is an open-source automation tool that is designed to simplify IT infrastructure management, application deployment, and configuration management. It is widely used in [[DevOps]] practices to automate repetitive tasks and ensure consistent state across multiple systems. Here are some key features of Ansible: 1. Agentless: Ansible uses [[SSH]] (Secure Shell) protocol to communicate with remote systems, eliminating the need for any additional software or agent installation on managed nodes. 2. YAML-based language: Ansible uses a simple and human-readable [[YAML]] syntax for defining configurations, playbooks, and tasks. This makes it easy to understand and write automation scripts. 3. Idempotent nature: Ansible ensures that the desired state of the system is achieved regardless of the current state. This means running the same playbook multiple times would result in the same outcome. 4. Playbooks: Ansible organizes tasks into playbooks, which are written in YAML format. Playbooks define a series of steps or actions that need to be executed on target hosts to achieve a desired state. 5. Modules: Ansible provides a vast collection of modules that can be used in playbooks for various tasks such as package installation, file management, service management, user management, etc. 6. Inventory management: Ansible maintains an inventory file that contains information about all the hosts it manages. This helps in organizing hosts into different groups and allows executing tasks on specific groups or individual hosts. 7. Roles: Roles allow organization and reuse of code by encapsulating related tasks and configurations into a single unit. They enable modularization and promote code reusability across different playbooks. 8. Extensibility: Ansible can be easily extended with custom modules written in programming languages like Python or PowerShell to cater to specific requirements. 9. Community-driven development: As an open-source tool, Ansible benefits from a large community of contributors who actively develop modules, share playbooks, provide support, and contribute to its overall improvement. Overall, Ansible's simplicity, flexibility, and robustness make it a popular choice for automating infrastructure management and application deployment in many organizations. # References ```dataview Table title as Title, authors as Authors where contains(subject, "Ansible") ```