Network Automation with Ansible

Years ago, the standard practice was to configure every single network device by hand. This way of managing devices was possible mainly because the routers and switches were routing the traffic of physical servers, so only a little configuration was needed on each networking device, and changes were slow-paced. In addition, humans were the only ones with enough information on machines to set up networking. Everything was very manual in terms of both planning and execution.

Virtualization changed this paradigm, as it has resulted in thousands of machines being connected to the same switch or router, each with potentially different networking requirements. Changes are fast paced and expected frequently, and with virtual infrastructures defined in code, it becomes a full-time job for a human administrator just to keep up with the changes to the infrastructure. Virtualization orchestration platforms have far better knowledge of the machine’s location...