Both Terraform and Ansible are DevOps tools, but how are these DevOps tools different? In short, Terraform is an open-source, Infrastructure as a coding platform, while Ansible is an open-source resource management tool focused on configuring that infrastructure.
It is often the subject of a discussion about whether one should use Terraform or Ansible in infrastructure management. Fortunately, there is an answer lying in the Gray area. The answer seems to be the same when asked by people who have experience working on both of these tools.
This post highlights the similarities between Terraform and Ansible, examines differences, and concludes with the best way to manage infrastructure.
Key Features of Terraform
- Using phrases, boundaries, and blocks, you can create short resource descriptions in HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL).
- Create new resources, remove unnecessary ones, and manage existing ones using code as a code to control the life cycle.
- You can apply the changes to most cloud providers using the “terraform enabled” command to get the configuration in the desired state.
- Improve the performance of major infrastructure, track metadata, and map real resources for your setup.
Key Features of Ansible
- You can make use of the latest certified modules easier with Content Content Collections (pre-named modules and roles in specific topic areas).
- Sensible Content Tools make it easy to create and use workspaces.
- The Automatic Controller acts as the control panel for the Ansible platform, which helps to set the default way for automatic-start, dispatch, shipping, and auditing.
- You can customize the scale in a native screen using Automation Mesh.
- Power allows you to set up complex, distributed, or remote automated installs while also providing visibility, control, and reporting.
- Provide, manage and deploy automated services for delivery and modeling with the Automation Services Catalog.
Similarities
At the highest level, considering the strengths of both products, Terraform and Ansible combine as identical tools. Both are able to provide new cloud infrastructure and configure the same with the required application components.
Both Terraform and Ansible are able to run remote commands on a newly built virtual machine. That is, both tools do not work. There is no need to invest in agent agents for operational purposes.
Terraform uses cloud provider APIs to create infrastructure and basic configuration tasks are accessed using SSH. The same goes for Ansible — it uses SSH to perform all the required configuration tasks. Both “status” information does not require a separate set of infrastructure to manage, so both tools are not smart.
Differences
The previous section gives an overview of the two tools for their broad similarity. At the highest level, it sounds like both Terraform and Ansible are able to provide and manage configuration. However, digging deep into them enables us to see the benefits of each other in certain areas.
In general, both tools are good in their own way. They have a number of responsibilities when it comes to infrastructure management. Infrastructure management in general includes 2 aspects — singing and editing.
Terraform and Ansible have their own management systems — with strong points and weak points when it comes to scratching. Therefore, it is important to examine some of the details of both tools to make “perfect” choices or combinations with parameters.
1) Proclamation vs. The process
Terraform is used to encode infrastructure as a code (IaC). It uses HCL (Hashicorp Configuration Language) which is a declaration by nature. It does not matter how the code is written. The code can also be scattered across multiple files.
No matter how you write the code, Terraform points to dependence, and the provision of infrastructure. Writing or translating existing infrastructure into code is easy with Terraform. See this post if you would like to know more about importing infrastructure under Terraform management.
Ansible uses the YAML syntax to describe the process to be performed and the targeted infrastructure. YAML logical text is a natural process — which means that when you write text, it will be used from top to bottom.
Functional texts are called “appropriate playbooks”. If you have to do a certain series of tasks, you explain the same in the playbook. Tasks will be done in a written order. For example, to install an Apache server on a specified machine provided as a root user, you need to write a user creation step before defining the function you will install.
2) Country Management
Terraform controls the entire life cycle of the resources under its control. Maintains a map of infrastructure resources with the current configuration in regional files. State officials play a very important role in Terraform.
Countries used to track changes in configuration and provision. It is also possible to import existing resources under Terraform administration by importing real-world infrastructure into state files.
At any time, it is possible to consult the Terraform region files to understand part of the infrastructure and its currently available features.
In contrast, Ansible does not support any life cycle management. Since Ansible is primarily responsible for configuration management and is considered to be an error in fixed infrastructure, any changes introduced in the configuration are automatically made on the target device.
What is the best IaC tool?
Terraform or Ansible should be selected based on your company’s specific needs and current infrastructure.
Terraform is great for maintaining a continuous atmosphere within your infrastructure without much communication because it is built in an advertising way. This is also true when it comes to developing infrastructure from the ground up and gaining a particular state.
The Ansible system is designed for people who need to manage and maintain their infrastructure in a way that allows it to change and evolve over time. Ansible surpasses Terraform when it comes to installing software or upgrading to a pre-set environment.
When it comes to ease of use, Ansible is considered the most straightforward of the two. There is a new web-based UI based on the command line interface, but it does not have all the functions of the first command-line tool. Terraform, on the other hand, is very simple and easy to use. As a result, Ansible has only a small advantage here.
Both of these instruments, as mentioned earlier, are better suited to different tasks. Both are fully integrated and secure, so the choice is either a tool that focuses on providing and editing music or a tool that focuses on managing a special setting.
How and when to combine Terraform and Ansible
The right tool should always be chosen for the specific job. However, Ansible and Terraform are two tools that are often used together. It’s not a binary choice between using Ansible and Terraform in your DevOps stack.
DevOps professionals should always use the best tool for the job. When comparing them, two tools that are regularly used together are Ansible and Terraform. In your DevOps stack, you don’t necessarily have to choose between Ansible and Terraform.
Create resources and services with Terraform, then use Ansible to configure the resources created by Terraform.
Consider the situation where you need to create an Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instance for infrastructure. You will also need to install a MySQL server on that machine and configure it with a number of port settings, security restrictions, and performance optimization factors.
In this case, Terraform should be used to define how to set up a virtual machine as an EC2 instance in the AWS cloud. The MySQL database will then be installed and configured using Ansible. As you can see, Ansible and Terraform each solves a different DevOps issue. They work together, not against each other.
Conclusion
As we know by now, Terraform works much better with orchestration and Ansible is good at controlling configuration.
Of course, they have the ability to do each other’s work, albeit in a limited way. In such a case, instead of making a solid choice, it is better to use both infrastructure management tools, based on their capabilities.
The toolkit of any DevOps or development, security, and operations (DevSecOps) team should include effective DevOps software. Procurement, continuous delivery, application distribution, endpoint security, and orchestration are just some of the labor-intensive development procedures that can be automated with a DevOps platform.
While Terraform’s core competency is to provide infrastructure across various clouds with over 200 providers, Ansible excels in both configuration management and provisioning. All in all, a model that combines Ansible for configuration management and Terraforms for orchestration services is a solid starting point.
The answer to the question of which tool is used. — it depends. It depends on how the infrastructure management process is currently shaping up. It is important to find the right balance of orchestration and configuration management to assign clear responsibilities to the tools involved.
Whether you use a single tool or a combination of the two, your decision should be based on the needs of the business and the best potential outcome.
So I hope this was very helpful and if you have any doubts or any questions you can write them down in the comment section below and I will try to answer you as soon as I can.
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