Overview
Ansible is an agentless automation tool that uses SSH or APIs to communicate with network devices. It uses YAML-based 'playbooks' to define tasks.
Key Concepts
- Modules: Specific pieces of code designed to interact with different network platforms (e.g.,
cisco.ios.ios_config,arista.eos.eos_vlan). - Inventory: A list of network devices to be managed.
- Playbooks: Files that define the sequence of tasks to be performed on the inventory.
Advantages
- Agentless: No software needs to be installed on the network devices.
- Human-Readable: YAML is easy to read and write.
- Multi-Vendor Support: Supports a wide range of vendors (Cisco, Arista, Juniper, etc.).