Red Hat Debuts Ansible 2.1 

RALEIGH, N.C., May 26 -- Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today announced the general availability of Ansible 2.1, the latest version of the leading simple, powerful, and agentless open source IT automation framework. Ansible 2.1 introduces support for network automation, which helps further extend Ansible as a common language in enterprise IT environments--from the foundation of the network to container-based deployments.

Ansible enables developers and IT operators to more easily and quickly deploy IT applications and environments, empowering them to remove barriers between IT teams by automating routine activities such as network configuration, cloud deployments, and creation of development environments. Ansible’s modular code base, combined with ease of contribution, and a community of contributors in GitHub, enables the powerful IT automation platform to manage today’s infrastructure, but also adapt to new IT needs and DevOps workflows.

Ansible 2.1 includes many new features, including:

Support for Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Azure

Ansible 2.1 now includes support for Microsoft Windows environments, enabling users to use a single automation platform for complete cross-platform automation. New features include:

• Broader support for Microsoft Azure, expanding Ansible’s support for hybrid cloud deployments, including the ability to take advantage of Azure’s Resource Manager functionality.
• New Windows modules, enabling the management of Windows file sharing and the Windows firewall, further increasing Windows’ automatable surface area within Ansible.
• Easier management of domain-joined machines with NT LAN Manager (NTLM), enabling more secure authentication of domain users with just a username and password - reducing the need to configure and manage Kerberos on the Ansible control machine.
• Kerberos delegation expanded for multi-hop scenarios, enabling better credential flow for legacy scripts and installations that need transparent access to domain file shares, Microsoft SQL Server, and more.
• Simple reboots with new win_reboot action, helping to solve the challenge of automating software installations on Windows platforms that also require a system restart as part of a workflow.

Expanded Support for Containers 

Ansible 2.1 introduces a powerful new module, docker-service, as well as a rewrite of Ansible’s existing Docker modules:

• docker_service: Enables Ansible users to consume Docker Compose and manage and scale multi-container applications.
• docker_container: Managing basic container lifecycle
• docker_image: Build, push, pull, and tag images for Docker
• docker_login: for managing access to Docker registries
• docker_image Facts: Inspect images for metadata

With Ansible 2.1’s new docker-service module, users can embed Docker Compose into broader Ansible playbooks, to configure the network, operating systems, and deployment infrastructure that lives outside of a container environment.

General Availability of Networking Automation

Ansible 2.1 fully integrates the network automation support that debuted in February. By extending Ansible automation to the network, Ansible now enables network infrastructure to be managed in the same simple, powerful, and agentless manner that systems and applications already utilize. This helps network teams to take advantage of new deployment paradigms, including configuration automation, test-driven network deployment, and continuous compliance.

Ansible 2.1 adds more than 40 new core modules providing network automation support across a variety of network platforms including: Arista EOS; Cisco IOS; Cisco IOS-XR; Cisco NXOS; Cumulus Networks; Juniper Networks Junos OS; and OpenSwitch.

Availability

Ansible 2.1 is now available via GitHub, PyPi, and package manager for most major Linux distributions. For users seeking more control, knowledge, and delegation for their Ansible deployments, Ansible Tower is available as a subscription suitable for teams ranging from small companies to full-scale, enterprise IT organizations.

Source: Red Hat