Hi Benjamin,

Benjamin Lefoul <[log in to unmask]> writes:

> Hi all,
>
> I am actually interested in the automated install topic (currently
> taking place in the other discussion, but I don't want to feed the
> troll so I'll start a new one).
>
> Someone just mentioned Cobbler, and the fact that it's RH's baby. Is
> this in any way linked to the recent acquisition of Ansible ?  In
> fact, I never really understood what Ansible was, and does it have its
> place in automated install? Can it replace Kickstart?
>
> As you can see I am pretty naive about the topic...

I don't know very much about kickstart but am currently using ansible to
set up two administration servers for a test cluster.  My meagre
understanding is that kickstart is mainly aimed at the initial
lower-level installation (partitioning the disk, installing the base OS
and other packages, ...).

Ansible on the other hand requires the machines you are managing to be
already up and running and, normally, accessible via ssh.  Thus it seems
it is a more fancy way of doing what kickstart can probably do in the
post-install section.  However, Ansible works with 'playbooks', which are
sets of 'plays', which in turn are sets of tasks to be carried out on a
set of hosts.  You can run entire playbooks or just groups of tasks and
you can also define roles, such as 'ldapserver' or 'dbserver' to bundle
associated tasks together.  In general it seems slightly more orientated
towards automated day-to-day management of multiple, heterogeneous hosts.

That having been said, I am no expert.

Regards

Loris

-- 
Dr. Loris Bennett (Mr.)
ZEDAT, Freie Universität Berlin         Email [log in to unmask]