top | item 39983746

(no title)

txutxu | 1 year ago

I like to say that Ansible is a CMS (Configuration Management System).

For me, infrastructure as code, is another thing. The things you can "touch" with your hands.

How do I get a new physical rack, new server, new router with a new IP range, new switch, plan or segment the network layout(s), how do I connect the cables, how do I add disks, how do I install Debian, etc. As code.

For Hosting or Cloud providers, Iac (Infrastructure as Code) is easy. They need pools of resources already deployed, waiting for you, and an API.

For home... it doesn't make too much sense to have pools of public IP ranges, pools of datacenters, racks, routers and switches with SDN capabilities (Software defined network) servers waiting, storage servers waiting, load balancers waiting, and 200x software X/Y waiting...

Maybe the most similar thing of IaC you can do at home, is a PXE install server.

Or, enter the vIaC concept, Virtual Infrastructure as Code?

That you can do, you can define as code switch VLANs, Virtual Switches, Virtual interfaces, DHCP/NAT/bridge, etc, Virtual Machines, Virtual disks, Virtual Hosts (in balancers and webservers already running), and of course, you can cosplay IaC with containers, qemu, etc.

Ansible excels in the area of *configuration management system*. I want X part of the operative system (user, file, package, etc), to be in this state, and I wan to track how it evolves over time, ensure that it continues in such state, or analyze the delta.

IaC -> helps with things that previously were done with the hands

CMS -> helps with things that nobody can touch with the hands, and run inside IaC elements

discuss

order

ghostfoxgod|1 year ago

Hey, thanks for bringing this up, I believe this was a miss from my end to not mention that the article was more geared towards Infrastructure configurations via code and not Infrastructure setup via code.

I have updated the title of the article, the URL remains the same for now, might update the URL and create a redirect later.