Thoughts on Anible?

From	RavenLX <ravenlx@sitesplace.net>
Newsgroups	linux.debian.user
Subject	Thoughts on Anible?
Date	2017-08-19 01:10 +0200
Message-ID	<ufYyR-1Tk-3@gated-at.bofh.it> (permalink)
Organization	linux.* mail to news gateway

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Please forgive my goofy questions. I am not really that well versed in 
CM (Configuration Management) and this post is really going to show it.

Because this will more than likely be tltr (too long to read), I'll try 
to make it as fun as possible. Forgive if my humor is a bit strange.

I noticed "Anible" isn't in the debian repos. Seems to be a Red Hat 
scripting engine for creating automated installs.

I wrote my own automated install script in Bash. Crude but worked. It 
didn't run as root (but would ask for sudo password if a command 
required it), and it ran on the machine that was to use apt-get and 
install packages, sed for editing configs, etc. Like I said, crude.

I'm currently learning Python (as in writing something while learning at 
the same time). So I'm re-writing my Bash script in Python as a practice 
project to learn from, and making it more general so I can use it with 
anything. I'm still in the process of creating the library of functions 
that will do the stuff like unzipping/untaring, installing packages, 
making directories, updating configuration files, etc. So far, it's 
really a lot easier than doing it all in Bash and I'm enjoying the 
learning process. It's going very well, actually.

I heard about "Ansible" and how it is supposed to make it easier to 
write installation scripts.

I took a look at the Ansible site's Quick Start video and was like 
'huh?' 'what?' "what just happened??" "What is he DOING??" I couldn't 
even decipher what he was saying, either (and English is my mother 
language). Then my eyes nearly popped out of my head. "Why in the blue 
blazes is he running this script on ONE machine, then ssh'ing into 
another machine as ROOT nonetheless and doing stuff on that remote 
machine as root via this scripting engine on the first machine? Isn't 
that supposed to be a big no-no or something??" I was thinking that's a 
lot of work to do when all you could do is write a Python (or bash) 
script and run it on the machine it's to install stuff on, then remove 
the script when done, and not have to ssh in as root! I felt too 
uncomfortable with the way the video was going about things.

Oh wait. He installs Ansible on the machine he just ssh'ed into as root 
and is running the script via Ansible on that machine. Ok, now that I 
think about it, how do you make sure all of Ansible is removed when 
done? I would at least want to uninstall Ansible afterwards so someone 
can't break in and use it to screw up the system. But then again, would 
they be able to?

I googled and saw that to make a directory using Ansible, you need to 
remember and write several lines in the YAML script. In python, it seems 
only one line was needed to create a directory (and with permissions).

I tried looking at Ansible's documentation. I recoiled worse than a 
(wait for it) Python! I'm one that learns by doing, not by reading "War 
and Peace" (which like this post, is tltr)!

My bash script (and python script) both run as current user and beep 
then ask for a sudo password whenever it needs to run something as sudo 
(if the sudo time hasn't timed out). It does the task as sudo and then 
goes on to the next task (which may or may not be sudo - if it's not, 
then it doesn't use sudo or root). So much of the script is run NOT as 
root/sudo. I assumed that is the best way to go about it? Also my script 
has colored output and a log file I can look at to see what got 
installed, when and where and how, or why something didn't get done, or 
edited, installed, etc.) The Ansible video only showed something was 
done but not what, and an IP address (which is not something useful in 
my situation).

For some strange reason, I'm finding my script easier to use and Python 
easier to write than trying to figure out Ansible. Besides, Python and 
Bash come pre-installed anyway.

Am I goofy or what? Someone please talk me into using Ansible. It seems 
googling, many people sing it's praises, but I'm not getting it for some 
reason. I'm petrified of that thing! I'm enjoying the process of 
learning Python, though.

Should I learn Ansible as well? Would it be a good skill? Or is it OK to 
just skip that idea and continue doing things my old-fashioned way using 
what's already there - bash or python?

I would like to have some decent linux development skills. I do know 
Perl quite well, and Bash I'm pretty decent at for the most part. I can 
write in C or C++ (and get myself in trouble, as you'd imagine). :)

Should Ansible be added to my list? Or do devs recommend something else?

(I am wondering if the "user" mailing list is even the right place to ask?)

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Thread

Thoughts on Anible? RavenLX <ravenlx@sitesplace.net> - 2017-08-19 01:10 +0200
  Re: Thoughts on Anible? deloptes <deloptes@gmail.com> - 2017-08-19 08:50 +0200
    Re: Thoughts on Ansible? RavenLX <ravenlx@sitesplace.net> - 2017-08-20 15:50 +0200
      Re: Thoughts on Ansible? deloptes <deloptes@gmail.com> - 2017-08-20 17:50 +0200
        Re: Thoughts on Ansible? RavenLX <ravenlx@sitesplace.net> - 2017-08-22 14:50 +0200
          Re: Thoughts on Ansible? deloptes <deloptes@gmail.com> - 2017-08-22 18:40 +0200
  Re: Thoughts on Anible? Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org> - 2017-08-19 17:20 +0200
    Thoughts on Ansible? [was: Thoughts on Anible?] <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2017-08-19 17:20 +0200
      Re: Thoughts on Ansible? [was: Thoughts on Anible?] RavenLX <ravenlx@sitesplace.net> - 2017-08-19 20:40 +0200
        Re: Thoughts on Ansible? [was: Thoughts on Anible?] Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org> - 2017-08-19 21:50 +0200
          Re: Thoughts on Ansible? [was: Thoughts on Anible?] RavenLX <ravenlx@sitesplace.net> - 2017-08-20 01:50 +0200
        Re: Thoughts on Ansible? [was: Thoughts on Anible?] Zenaan Harkness <zenaan@freedbms.net> - 2017-08-20 00:00 +0200
          Re: Thoughts on Ansible? [was: Thoughts on Anible?] deloptes <deloptes@gmail.com> - 2017-08-20 01:40 +0200
            Re: Thoughts on Ansible? [was: Thoughts on Anible?] Zenaan Harkness <zenaan@freedbms.net> - 2017-08-20 12:50 +0200
              Re: Thoughts on Ansible? [was: Thoughts on Anible?] deloptes <deloptes@gmail.com> - 2017-08-20 13:00 +0200
            Re: Thoughts on Ansible? [was: Thoughts on Anible?] RavenLX <ravenlx@sitesplace.net> - 2017-08-22 15:00 +0200
              Re: Thoughts on Ansible? [was: Thoughts on Anible?] deloptes <deloptes@gmail.com> - 2017-08-22 18:50 +0200
          Re: Thoughts on Ansible? [was: Thoughts on Anible?] RavenLX <ravenlx@sitesplace.net> - 2017-08-22 15:00 +0200
  Re: Thoughts on Anible? Eduardo M KALINOWSKI <eduardo@kalinowski.com.br> - 2017-08-20 13:10 +0200
    Re: Thoughts on Anible? deloptes <deloptes@gmail.com> - 2017-08-20 17:50 +0200

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