Automating with Ansible

Automate: A SysAdmin should automate as much as possible, except if it conflicts with the first law.

Previously, we discussed one of the most well-known statements among SysAdmins:

“If you typed it twice, you should have scripted it once.”

If a task gets scripted, it could be scheduled and, with this, automated. This means that the task must run without the SysAdmin’s intervention.

However, not all scheduled tasks might be automated. The easiest way to determine this is by applying the principles of automation:

• The rule of algorithmic thinking

  Everything is a system. Algorithmic thinking is a way of getting to a solution through a clear definition of the steps needed – nothing happens by magic.

• The rule of bottlenecks

  Bad decisions propagate. Every system, regardless of how well it works, has at least one constraint (a bottleneck) that limits performance.

• The rule of autonomy

  Humans always play a role. This...