Ansible
By Red Hat
Ansible is an open-source, agentless IT automation tool that uses simple YAML-based 'playbooks' to configure systems, deploy applications, and orchestrate multi-tier infrastructure over SSH or WinRM.
Definition
Ansible is an open-source, agentless IT automation tool that uses simple YAML-based 'playbooks' to configure systems, deploy applications, and orchestrate multi-tier infrastructure over SSH or WinRM.
Overview
Ansible was created by Michael DeHaan and first released in 2012, with the goal of making automation approachable without requiring an agent to be installed on every managed machine. Unlike agent-based tools, Ansible connects to target hosts over standard SSH (or WinRM for Windows) and pushes out configuration changes, which lowers the operational overhead of keeping an automation fleet up to date. Automation logic is written in YAML 'playbooks', which describe a desired end state — such as 'Nginx installed and running' — rather than a step-by-step script. Ansible's modules are idempotent, meaning running the same playbook repeatedly produces the same result without unintended side effects. Reusable playbook components are packaged as 'roles' and can be shared through Ansible Galaxy, the community content hub. Red Hat acquired Ansible in 2015 and now offers Ansible Automation Platform as a commercial layer on top of the open-source project, adding a web UI, role-based access control, and job scheduling. Ansible is commonly used alongside Docker and Kubernetes for provisioning the hosts that run containers, and is often discussed alongside declarative infrastructure-as-code tools like Terraform — the two are frequently used together, as explained in this overview of Infrastructure as Code and Terraform basics, with Terraform provisioning infrastructure and Ansible configuring what runs on it. Compared to older configuration management tools such as Chef or Puppet, Ansible's agentless design and lower learning curve helped it become one of the most widely adopted automation tools in DevOps pipelines, frequently triggered from Jenkins or other CI/CD systems.
Key Features
- Agentless architecture using SSH or WinRM — no software to install on managed nodes
- Human-readable YAML playbooks describing desired system state
- Idempotent modules that safely re-apply the same configuration
- Large library of official and community modules for cloud, network, and OS tasks
- Roles and Ansible Galaxy for reusable, shareable automation content
- Static and dynamic inventory for managing fleets of servers
- Ansible Vault for encrypting secrets and sensitive variables
- Integrates with cloud providers, container platforms, and CI/CD pipelines
Use Cases
History
Ansible is an open-source automation tool for configuration management, provisioning, and application deployment. It was created by Michael DeHaan — previously the author of the Cobbler provisioning tool — and released as open source in February 2012. DeHaan designed Ansible to be a simpler, agentless alternative to tools like Puppet and Chef: it works over SSH in a push-based model, so no special agent software needs to run on managed machines, and playbooks are written in readable YAML. The company AnsibleWorks (later Ansible, Inc.) was founded in 2013, and Red Hat acquired Ansible in October 2015, making it a cornerstone of Red Hat's automation portfolio.
Sources
- Ansible — official website · as of 2026-07-17
- Ansible on GitHub — ansible/ansible · as of 2026-07-17