Ansible vs AWS CodePipeline

Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

Ansible

19.1K
15.2K
+ 1
1.3K
AWS CodePipeline

562
917
+ 1
30
Add tool

AWS CodePipeline vs Ansible: What are the differences?

Introduction

In this article, we will compare AWS CodePipeline and Ansible, two popular tools in the field of DevOps, and highlight their key differences.

  1. Scalability: AWS CodePipeline is a fully managed service that can scale to handle large-scale deployments in a distributed environment. It leverages the extensive infrastructure of AWS to provide an elastic and scalable solution. On the other hand, Ansible is an agentless tool that relies on the resources of the host machine, making it suitable for smaller deployments or environments with limited resources.

  2. Flexibility: AWS CodePipeline is tightly integrated with other AWS services, providing seamless integration and easy management of the entire software release process within the AWS ecosystem. It offers a wide range of pre-built integrations with various AWS services and third-party tools. Ansible, on the other hand, is a flexible tool that can be used with any infrastructure, not limited to AWS. It offers a broad set of modules and plays well with different platforms, making it platform-agnostic.

  3. Complexity: AWS CodePipeline abstracts much of the underlying complexity of the deployment process by providing a simple and visual interface for configuring the release pipeline. It incorporates all the necessary stages and actions required for continuous delivery, such as build, test, and deployment. Ansible, on the other hand, requires more manual configuration and scripting to define the deployment process. While it provides comprehensive control and customization, it can involve a steeper learning curve and more effort to set up initially.

  4. Automation: AWS CodePipeline is designed primarily for continuous delivery and automation of software releases. It provides a seamless integration with other AWS services, allowing for automated deployments and updates. Ansible, while also capable of automation, is a more general-purpose IT automation tool that can be used for various tasks beyond software deployment. It provides a wide range of modules and features for infrastructure automation, configuration management, and more.

  5. Cost: AWS CodePipeline is a managed service offered by AWS, which means it requires a subscription and incurs costs based on usage and the resources used. The cost can vary depending on factors such as pipeline complexity and the number of monthly active pipelines. Ansible, on the other hand, is an open-source tool that is free to use. While it may require resources to host and manage, there are no subscription fees or direct costs associated with using Ansible.

  6. Community and Support: AWS CodePipeline is backed by the extensive resources and support of AWS, which includes documentation, forums, and professional support services. It benefits from a large and active community of users and developers. Ansible, being an open-source tool, also has a vibrant community and provides extensive documentation, tutorials, and user forums. However, professional support options may vary depending on the support agreements offered by different vendors.

In summary, AWS CodePipeline is a scalable and tightly integrated service within the AWS ecosystem, providing a simplified deployment process. Ansible, on the other hand, offers flexibility, platform-agnostic capabilities, and extensive customization options, making it suitable for various infrastructure setups and automation tasks.

Advice on Ansible and AWS CodePipeline
Needs advice
on
AnsibleAnsibleChefChef
and
Puppet LabsPuppet Labs

I'm just getting started using Vagrant to help automate setting up local VMs to set up a Kubernetes cluster (development and experimentation only). (Yes, I do know about minikube)

I'm looking for a tool to help install software packages, setup users, etc..., on these VMs. I'm also fairly new to Ansible, Chef, and Puppet. What's a good one to start with to learn? I might decide to try all 3 at some point for my own curiosity.

The most important factors for me are simplicity, ease of use, shortest learning curve.

See more
Replies (2)
Recommends
on
AnsibleAnsible

I have been working with Puppet and Ansible. The reason why I prefer ansible is the distribution of it. Ansible is more lightweight and therefore more popular. This leads to situations, where you can get fully packaged applications for ansible (e.g. confluent) supported by the vendor, but only incomplete packages for Puppet.

The only advantage I would see with Puppet if someone wants to use Foreman. This is still better supported with Puppet.

See more
Gabriel Pa
Recommends
on
KubernetesKubernetes
at

If you are just starting out, might as well learn Kubernetes There's a lot of tools that come with Kube that make it easier to use and most importantly: you become cloud-agnostic. We use Ansible because it's a lot simpler than Chef or Puppet and if you use Docker Compose for your deployments you can re-use them with Kubernetes later when you migrate

See more
Get Advice from developers at your company using StackShare Enterprise. Sign up for StackShare Enterprise.
Learn More
Pros of Ansible
Pros of AWS CodePipeline
  • 284
    Agentless
  • 210
    Great configuration
  • 199
    Simple
  • 176
    Powerful
  • 155
    Easy to learn
  • 69
    Flexible
  • 55
    Doesn't get in the way of getting s--- done
  • 35
    Makes sense
  • 30
    Super efficient and flexible
  • 27
    Powerful
  • 11
    Dynamic Inventory
  • 9
    Backed by Red Hat
  • 7
    Works with AWS
  • 6
    Cloud Oriented
  • 6
    Easy to maintain
  • 4
    Vagrant provisioner
  • 4
    Simple and powerful
  • 4
    Multi language
  • 4
    Simple
  • 4
    Because SSH
  • 4
    Procedural or declarative, or both
  • 4
    Easy
  • 3
    Consistency
  • 2
    Well-documented
  • 2
    Masterless
  • 2
    Debugging is simple
  • 2
    Merge hash to get final configuration similar to hiera
  • 2
    Fast as hell
  • 1
    Manage any OS
  • 1
    Work on windows, but difficult to manage
  • 1
    Certified Content
  • 13
    Simple to set up
  • 8
    Managed service
  • 4
    GitHub integration
  • 3
    Parallel Execution
  • 2
    Automatic deployment
  • 0
    Manual Steps Available

Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions

Cons of Ansible
Cons of AWS CodePipeline
  • 8
    Dangerous
  • 5
    Hard to install
  • 3
    Doesn't Run on Windows
  • 3
    Bloated
  • 3
    Backward compatibility
  • 2
    No immutable infrastructure
  • 2
    No project boards
  • 1
    No integration with "Power" 365 tools

Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

- No public GitHub repository available -

What is Ansible?

Ansible is an IT automation tool. It can configure systems, deploy software, and orchestrate more advanced IT tasks such as continuous deployments or zero downtime rolling updates. Ansible’s goals are foremost those of simplicity and maximum ease of use.

What is AWS CodePipeline?

CodePipeline builds, tests, and deploys your code every time there is a code change, based on the release process models you define.

Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

What companies use Ansible?
What companies use AWS CodePipeline?
See which teams inside your own company are using Ansible or AWS CodePipeline.
Sign up for StackShare EnterpriseLearn More

Sign up to get full access to all the companiesMake informed product decisions

What tools integrate with Ansible?
What tools integrate with AWS CodePipeline?

Sign up to get full access to all the tool integrationsMake informed product decisions

Blog Posts

PythonDockerKubernetes+14
12
2597
GitHubGitSlack+30
27
18260
JavaScriptGitHubGit+33
20
2078
GitHubDockerAmazon EC2+23
12
6559
JavaScriptGitHubPython+42
53
21790
What are some alternatives to Ansible and AWS CodePipeline?
Puppet Labs
Puppet is an automated administrative engine for your Linux, Unix, and Windows systems and performs administrative tasks (such as adding users, installing packages, and updating server configurations) based on a centralized specification.
Chef
Chef enables you to manage and scale cloud infrastructure with no downtime or interruptions. Freely move applications and configurations from one cloud to another. Chef is integrated with all major cloud providers including Amazon EC2, VMWare, IBM Smartcloud, Rackspace, OpenStack, Windows Azure, HP Cloud, Google Compute Engine, Joyent Cloud and others.
Salt
Salt is a new approach to infrastructure management. Easy enough to get running in minutes, scalable enough to manage tens of thousands of servers, and fast enough to communicate with them in seconds. Salt delivers a dynamic communication bus for infrastructures that can be used for orchestration, remote execution, configuration management and much more.
Terraform
With Terraform, you describe your complete infrastructure as code, even as it spans multiple service providers. Your servers may come from AWS, your DNS may come from CloudFlare, and your database may come from Heroku. Terraform will build all these resources across all these providers in parallel.
Jenkins
In a nutshell Jenkins CI is the leading open-source continuous integration server. Built with Java, it provides over 300 plugins to support building and testing virtually any project.
See all alternatives