oliverdavies.uk/content/node.82839e74-b53c-4d18-af5d-024d8f09fb3f.yml

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      <p>Ansible is a tool for automating IT tasks. It's one of my preferred tools to use, and one that I've written about and <a href="/talks/deploying-php-ansible-ansistrano">presented talks on</a> previously.</p>

      <p>It's typically thought of as a tool for managing configuration on servers. For example. you have a new VPS that you want to use as a web server, so it needs Nginx, MySQL, PHP, etc to be installed - or whatever your application uses. You define the desired state and run Ansible, which will perform whatever tasks are needed to get to that state.</p>

      <p>Ansible though does include modules for interacting with services like Amazon AWS and DigitalOcean to create the servers and resources, and not just configure them.</p>

      <p>It also doesn't just work on servers. I use Ansible to configure my local development environment, to ensure that dependencies and tools are installed, and requirements like my SSH keys and configuration are present and correct.</p>

      <p>Lastly, I use Ansible to deploy application code onto servers and automatically run any required steps, ensuring that deployments are simple, robust and repeatable.</p>

      <p>In the next few emails, I'll explain how I've been able to utilise Ansible for each of these situations.</p>

      <hr />

      <p>Want to learn more about how I use Ansible? <a href="/ansible-course">Register for my upcoming free email course</a>.</p>

              
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      <p>Ansible is a tool for automating IT tasks. It's one of my preferred tools to use, and one that I've written about and <a href="/talks/deploying-php-ansible-ansistrano">presented talks on</a> previously.</p>

      <p>It's typically thought of as a tool for managing configuration on servers. For example. you have a new VPS that you want to use as a web server, so it needs Nginx, MySQL, PHP, etc to be installed - or whatever your application uses. You define the desired state and run Ansible, which will perform whatever tasks are needed to get to that state.</p>

      <p>Ansible though does include modules for interacting with services like Amazon AWS and DigitalOcean to create the servers and resources, and not just configure them.</p>

      <p>It also doesn't just work on servers. I use Ansible to configure my local development environment, to ensure that dependencies and tools are installed, and requirements like my SSH keys and configuration are present and correct.</p>

      <p>Lastly, I use Ansible to deploy application code onto servers and automatically run any required steps, ensuring that deployments are simple, robust and repeatable.</p>

      <p>In the next few emails, I'll explain how I've been able to utilise Ansible for each of these situations.</p>

      <hr>

      <p>Want to learn more about how I use Ansible? <a href="/ansible-course">Register for my upcoming free email course</a>.</p>

              
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