5 Powerful Ansible Use Cases: Real-Life Examples

Ansible, the open-source automation tool, has become a cornerstone in the world of IT automation. It simplifies complex tasks, accelerates workflows, and enhances the efficiency of system administrators and DevOps teams. In this article, we'll delve into five powerful Ansible use cases, providing real-life examples to illustrate the versatility and impact of this tool in various scenarios.

1. Infrastructure as Code (IaC):

Managing infrastructure has never been more seamless with Ansible's Infrastructure as Code capabilities. Through YAML-based scripts, you can define your infrastructure and its configuration. Consider the following example where Ansible automates the provisioning of a web server:

---
- name: Provision Web Server
  hosts: webservers
  tasks:
    - name: Install Apache
      apt:
        name: apache2
        state: present
    - name: Start Apache Service
      service:
        name: apache2
        state: started

By running this playbook, Ansible will install and configure Apache on the specified servers, ensuring consistency across your infrastructure.

2. Configuration Management:

Ansible excels in configuration management, allowing you to enforce and maintain consistent configurations across multiple servers. Let's take an example where Ansible ensures a specific configuration for the SSH service:

---
- name: Configure SSH
  hosts: all
  tasks:
    - name: Set SSH Port
      lineinfile:
        path: /etc/ssh/sshd_config
        regexp: '^Port'
        line: 'Port 2222'
      notify: Restart SSH Service

  handlers:
    - name: Restart SSH Service
      service:
        name: ssh
        state: restarted

This playbook adjusts the SSH port on all servers and triggers a service restart to apply the changes uniformly.

3. Application Deployment:

Simplify and streamline your application deployment process with Ansible. Consider a scenario where you want to deploy a Django application:

---
- name: Deploy Django App
  hosts: webserver
  tasks:
    - name: Clone Git Repository
      git:
        repo: https://github.com/example/django-app.git
        dest: /var/www/django-app
    - name: Install Dependencies
      pip:
        requirements: /var/www/django-app/requirements.txt

This playbook fetches the Django app from a Git repository and installs its dependencies, facilitating a quick and consistent deployment process.

4. Security Compliance:

Maintaining security compliance is crucial in any IT environment. Ansible allows you to automate security checks and remediation. For instance, to enforce password policies:

---
- name: Enforce Password Policies
  hosts: all
  tasks:
    - name: Set Password Policies
      lineinfile:
        path: /etc/security/pwquality.conf
        line: 'minlen = 12'

This playbook sets a minimum password length across all servers, enhancing security by ensuring compliance with organizational policies.

5. Dynamic Inventory and Scaling:

Ansible's dynamic inventory makes it easy to scale your infrastructure dynamically. In this example, let's explore scaling a web server fleet based on demand:

---
- name: Scale Web Servers
  hosts: tag_webserver
  tasks:
    - name: Ensure Minimum Number of Servers
      ec2_asg:
        name: my-web-server-asg
        desired_capacity: 5
        min_size: 5
        max_size: 10
        vpc_zone_identifier: subnet-12345678

This playbook uses Ansible to interact with AWS EC2 Auto Scaling Groups, ensuring that the web server fleet maintains the desired capacity.