As with other automation tools, Ansible started out first by managing servers before expanding to manage the networking equipment. For the most part, the modules and what Ansible refers to as the playbook are the same between server modules and network modules, but there are still some differences. Therefore, it is helpful to see the server example first and draw comparisons later on when we start to look at network modules.
A quick Ansible example
The control node installation
First, let us clarify the terminology we will use in the context of Ansible. We will refer to the virtual machine with Ansible installed as the control machine, and the machine is being managed as the target machines or managed nodes. Ansible can be...