Using Ansible's pull method
The way we set up our Ansible configuration in the previous section works very well if we have a list of specific servers that we want it to manage. To add a new server, we create the user account and set up the SSH configuration on the new host, and then add it to the inventory file. If we decommission that server, we simply remove it from the inventory file. This works well in a static environment, where servers you deploy typically stay around for a while. In a dynamic environment, though, this may not work as well.
Dynamic environments are very typical in the cloud. With cloud computing, you typically have one or more virtual servers that provide a service to your company or users. These servers may come and go at any time. With dynamic environments, servers will come online as needed to handle load, and will also get decommissioned automatically as load decreases. Therefore, you never really know when a server is going to come online, and...