Ansible Tower and alternatives

Ansible Tower provides a centralized platform for managing Ansible automation workflows, making it easier for IT teams to collaborate, share knowledge, and maintain their infrastructure. Some of its key features include a web-based interface for managing Ansible playbooks, inventories, and job runs, role-based access control (RBAC) for managing user permissions, a built-in dashboard for monitoring job status and results, and an API for integrating with other tools and platforms.

It was first released in 2013 by Ansible, Inc. (now part of Red Hat), and has since become one of the most popular tools for automating IT workflows.

Since its initial release, Ansible Tower has undergone numerous updates and enhancements, including support for more complex automation workflows, integration with cloud platforms such as AWS and Azure, and improved scalability and performance. Ansible Tower is a commercial product shipped by the Red Hat company. The closest alternative to Ansible Tower is Ansible WorX (AWX).

Ansible AWX is an open source alternative to Ansible Tower, offering many of the same features as Tower but with a greater degree of customization and flexibility. AWX was first released in 2017 and has since become a popular choice for organizations looking to implement Ansible automation at scale without the cost of a commercial license.

One of the primary differences between Ansible Tower and Ansible AWX is their licensing model. While Ansible Tower requires a commercial license and is sold as part of Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, Ansible AWX is open source and freely available for download from the Ansible website. This means that organizations can deploy AWX on their own infrastructure and customize it to their specific needs, rather than relying on a pre-built commercial solution.

Feature-wise, Ansible Tower and Ansible AWX are quite similar, with both platforms offering a web-based interface for managing Ansible playbooks, inventories, and job runs, RBAC for managing user permissions, and a built-in dashboard for monitoring job status and results. However, Ansible Tower does offer some additional features not found in Ansible AWX, such as native integration with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, advanced analytics and reporting, and certified modules and collections.

Another open source alternative to Ansible Tower is Ansible Semaphore. Similar to Tower, it is a web-based application designed to simplify the management of Ansible playbooks and projects. It is an open source, free, and easy-to-use alternative to Ansible Tower that allows users to easily automate their infrastructure tasks without the need for extensive coding knowledge. The first release of Ansible Semaphore was in 2016, and since then it has become a popular choice for those who want a simple yet powerful web-based interface for managing their Ansible automation workflows.

You can read more about these alternatives on their respective websites:

• Ansible Tower: https://access.redhat.com/products/ansible-tower-red-hat
• Ansible AWX: https://github.com/ansible/awx
• Ansible Semaphore: https://www.ansible-semaphore.com/