Ansible
Ansible is an open-source IT automation platform developed by Red Hat that provides agentless configuration management, application deployment, cloud provisioning, and orchestration. Using YAML-based playbooks and an SSH-native architecture, Ansible automates infrastructure at scale without requiring agents or custom security infrastructure on managed nodes.
APIs
Ansible Automation Platform API
RESTful API for Ansible Automation Platform (formerly Ansible Tower) that provides programmatic access to job templates, inventories, credentials, workflow templates, schedules,...
AWX API
AWX is the open-source upstream project for Ansible Automation Platform, providing a web-based UI, REST API, and task engine for Ansible under the Apache 2.0 license. The AWX AP...
Ansible Galaxy API
REST API for Ansible Galaxy — the community hub for sharing and downloading Ansible roles and collections. The v1 API covers roles and the v3 API covers collections with namespa...
Ansible Automation Hub API
The Red Hat Ansible Automation Hub API provides access to certified Ansible collections and roles curated by Red Hat and partners. Available through console.redhat.com, it serve...
Features
Ansible connects to managed nodes via SSH or WinRM without requiring any agent software, simplifying deployment and reducing attack surface.
Automation is defined in human-readable YAML playbooks that describe the desired state of managed systems without complex programming.
Ansible tasks are idempotent — running the same playbook multiple times produces the same result, making deployments safe to rerun.
Over 3,000 built-in modules covering cloud providers, network devices, databases, containers, storage, and operating system tasks.
The Ansible Collections packaging format bundles related modules, roles, plugins, and documentation for modular content distribution.
Query cloud providers, CMDBs, and external systems dynamically to build host inventories at execution time rather than static files.
Use Cases
Ensure servers and services remain in a consistent desired state by applying configuration playbooks across fleets of hosts.
Deploy and update applications across development, staging, and production environments with zero-downtime rolling strategies.
Provision cloud resources on AWS, Azure, GCP, and other providers using cloud-specific Ansible modules and dynamic inventory.
Configure routers, switches, and firewalls from Cisco, Juniper, Arista, and Palo Alto using vendor-specific Ansible collections.
Enforce security baselines, CIS benchmarks, and STIG compliance across infrastructure using Ansible hardening playbooks.
Integrations
Ansible is the primary configuration management tool for Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems with deep integration into the RHEL platform.
Manage Kubernetes clusters, namespaces, deployments, and OpenShift workloads using the kubernetes.core collection.
Combine Terraform for cloud resource provisioning with Ansible for post-provisioning OS and application configuration.
Integrate Ansible playbook execution into CI/CD pipelines using the AAP Action for GitHub or Ansible Tower Plugin for Jenkins.
Trigger Ansible automation from ServiceNow ITSM workflows using the ServiceNow ITX collection for change management automation.