Simple IT Automation.

Smart DevOps.
Your guide to accelerating DevOps with Ansible automation
No matter where you are on your DevOps journey,
Ansible automation can help.
Implementing DevOps tools and processes can help revolutionize your organization. But adopting a DevOps framework doesn’t
require updating your entire IT stack to newer agile implementations first. Quite simply, your organization can embrace DevOps
through automation, even if you are running only on bare metal, migrating to the cloud, or already going full force into
containers. And your team can start today.

In this guide we introduce three key phases of Ansible automation for DevOps and how you use them to deliver with greater
efficiency and speed.

MODERNIZE MIGRATE
Automate existing processes Define applications
one step at a time once so you can deploy
them anywhere

OPTIMIZE
Encourage broad
participation and
knowledge sharing
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Modernize
Becoming more agile in today’s digitally-driven market
is business critical. Your competitors are launching new
offerings at an exponentially increasing pace, and new
competitors are showing up every day. From releasing
an app upgrade to deploying a full-fledge offering, you
must innovate faster than your competition. These
business demands can put unprecedented pressure on IT
departments.

Many IT departments are running a multitude of legacy

systems and stacks. However, the age and state of your
hardware does not mean you cannot compete. Through
automation you can modernize your existing infrastructure.

This section explores the easiest way to get started with

automation and actionable steps you can take on the path
to modernization.

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Start with the OS

When you begin to look at how to inject more agility and speed into your existing
infrastructure, start with the operating system. As you automate the existing
tooling and other components of your OS build process, automation allows you to
fluidly and dynamically make sure the same copies of your operating environment
are then deployable everywhere.

You get a succinct flow when you’re using a modern automation platform like
Ansible to spearhead or frontend OS deployment. Automation replaces many of
the individual or manual steps for delivering configured and approved servers to
your app delivery team.

You may start with the OS, but a lot of the same processes and approaches
are easily applicable to other aspects of your infrastructure as well. Whether
application development team, additional security requirements, or networking—
all are automatable.

As you implement a similar process across the board, you’ll have a much more
fluid environment. And you are going to be significantly more flexible wherever
you need to deploy your applications in the future.

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Focus on the process

Ansible automation provides continuous compliance,
feedback loops, portability, cooperation, and coordination.

THE PROCESS ITSELF UNIFY YOUR CURRENT ENABLE AUTO-APPLICATION

IS THE SECURITY BUILD PROCESS OF UPDATES THROUGH CI/CD

If you have a manual security You probably have a lot of disparate Have patch day every day.
baseline, it’s not a strong security tools. Glue them together with automation CI/CD allows you to test ahead of
baseline. Manual processes make to make a succinct flow. You might the curve. Build an environment
environments insecure. When find steps you don’t need because that is no longer patchwork.
you automate, security will be you can accomplish them in one.
ingrained in every step.

Ansible for DevOps: Modernize 5

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You can make an impact

with an automation-first approach to modernization.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. Start with the operating system

Start with the OS because you understand it and you probably have a significant
amount of control over it.

2. Focus on the process

Because you have a clear process, your organization will be ready for adoption.
Automation will allow you to migrate and deploy your applications and
environments pretty much anywhere you want.

ON DEMAND WEBINAR
From Legacy to Devops: Modernizing Application Infrastructure

GET STARTED
We can help you get started on your path to automation.
Talk to an Expert

Ansible for DevOps: Modernize 6

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Migrate
Migrating applications to a new infrastructure is typically full
of challenges.

Whether you’re migrating an application from physical to
virtual, virtual to cloud, cloud to cloud, or perhaps even
traditional to containerized—automation is critical in more
rapidly understanding all of the components needed to
effectively redeploy your application.

This section will explore modern migration techniques.

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Manual approaches to migration

Whether it’s formal or not, migrating without automation usually involves a checklist of tasks.

DEPLOY SERVERS INTO AN

ENVIRONMENT FROM SCRATCH
Why doesn’t this manual process work?
• Start with physical, virtual, or cloud

• Clone a template or use a kickstart file and install IT’S NON-REPEATABLE

a brand new system from scratch • Restricts you to a “build it once, run it once” process

• Assures that you can’t treat two applications the same

GET CONFIGURING
• Once you get it deployed the way you want, any time
• Follow your deployment checklists, walk through you need to touch it, you’ll need to treat it individually
your deployment guides, etc...

• Work from a configuration management system

IT’S 100% BESPOKE

SPOT-MODIFY CONFIGURATION • Bespoke might be good for a suit, but it’s not great for your
servers in an application environment
• Use when you have to layer an application on top
of your deployment • Every process is highly manual

• Continue to do so until it eventually works • Long delays every time you might need to make
a change

LATHER, RINSE, REPEAT

• Repeat this process for every environment IT’S ERROR-PRONE
and deployment • Spot modification and manual steps are inherently
error-prone

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There is a better way

Define, deploy, discover and repeat with automation.

DEFINE DEPLOY DISCOVER

As you’re choosing individual By continually deploying these When you find gaps, that means you’ve
components, you’re defining them Playbooks in a repeated manner in your discovered something new that you
with Ansible Playbooks and you’re environment, you can slowly build up need to automate.
modeling how your application is the sophistication of your automation
going to look. We then use those to the point where you have your Remember this is a continuum. Because
definitions to execute a deployment. application working perfectly. it’s an iterative approach, you don’t
have to get it 100% right
You can then accurately define each Ultimately it’s up to you to decide the first time.
step, string them all together in a the best way to deploy. It’s about
Playbook, and apply that Playbook to the process in which you help make • Discover gaps through testing
a new environment. applications repeatable across multiple
• Expand the breadth
environments.
of automation
• Define as much of the initial
deployment as possible • Apply your automation • Inform the beginning of a
new cycle
• Automate each component • Test your newly deployed
separately, and then pull them application
together
• Learn what you missed (e.g.,
• Account for the process along firewall ports, permissions, one
the way service didn’t start properly, etc.)

REPEAT

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You can make an impact

with an automation-first approach to migration.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. Migration without automation isn’t efficient

If it takes you a full day every time you need to test a deployment, that’s
a painful process. But when automation makes it quickly repeatable,
that same process may only take a few hours or even minutes.

Rapid repetition is critical. The end result is that you have a much more
fluid mechanism to pick pieces up and move them wherever you want.
Remember that repeatable applications are portable applications.

2. Define, deploy, discover and repeat with automation

Automating migration allows you to rapidly iterate and rapidly repeat your
process. Every time you automate, you will learn how to refine your process
further. These lessons will allow you to increase your use of automation.

ON DEMAND WEBINAR
Transitioning To Cloud: Migrating Application Infrastructure

GET STARTED
We can help you get started on your path to automation.
Talk to an Expert

Ansible for DevOps: Migrate 10

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Optimize
Ultimately the expansion of DevOps initiatives are determined
by the ability to share and spread solutions across your
organization. Once one person on your team learns how to do
something, they can capture their solution with Ansible and
enable everyone to use it.

When solutions are shared openly, you’re one step closer to

modeling everything and deploying continuously.

This section will explore the philosophy of a sharing-driven

culture and how optimize DevOps approaches for success.

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Heroics vs. Shared Knowledge

In IT we love heroics. Heroes always get the job done.
You can always rely on them. It would be great if you
could have a team made entirely of heroes, but that’s
not realistic.

HEROES ARE EXPENSIVE

• I f you could afford all heroes, you’d have an entire
company of heroes

HEROES ARE LIKE UNICORNS

• They’re hard to find and harder to recruit

• And when you do find one, they are

really expensive

HEROES BURN OUT

• They can become overwhelmed. And what happens
when they leave?

You need a way to share knowledge across your teams.

Heroes actually make that more difficult. If just one
person or a small number of people are able to do
everything, their first priority is doing, not sharing
across your environment.

When you start to optimize your process and various

aspects of your IT systems through automation, you’ll
be more successful at communicating and sharing
solutions across the organization.

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Success Story: Splunk and Ansible

Watch how Ansible has helped Splunk share solutions

and knowledge through automation:

SOLVE IT.
“When we encounter a new problem, one person
figures out how to solve it…”

AUTOMATE IT.
“Then we automate that solution with Ansible…”

SHARE IT. Mike Regan

Cloud Operations Engineer
“And then everyone knows how to solve it.” Splunk

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How to optimize for success

EMPOWER YOUR PEOPLE SHARED CONTENT, SHARED GOALS

• Make sure your people feel empowered to •  Provide individual teams with the ability to automate
participate in automation. Enable teams to what they know and share that knowledge across
own what they focus on, but encourage broad multiple teams and the entire organization.
participation in the process.
• Show team members exactly how what they do affects
• Experiment with feedback mechanisms. Ask staff the end customer. For many teams, this may be their
to make suggestions on how the overall process first experience ever in this area.
and automation can be improved in ways that help
•  Treat your automation as code and use version control.
them and help the customer.
Software code is written in a common languages and
protocols so everyone can read and repeat it. Your
automation should be just as readable and sharable.

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You can make an impact

with an automation-first approach to optimization.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. Make sharing a priority

When we take on and solve challenges completely by ourselves it doesn’t help spread
that knowledge across the organization. Ansible gives you a common language for
describing your IT infrastructure and makes it easy to share solutions.

2. Empower your people

Encourage broad participation in the process of automating IT. Enable teams to automate
what they know, share that knowledge and make suggestions on how the overall process
of automation can be optimized.

ON DEMAND WEBINAR
Optimize Automation: Model Everything, Deploy Continuously

GET STARTED
We can help you get started on your path to automation.
Talk to an Expert

Ansible for DevOps: Optimize 15

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