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Ansible vs Deployer: What are the differences?
# Introduction
1. **Installation and Configuration**: Ansible is agentless and only requires SSH and Python on the remote machines for execution, while Deployer requires installation of PHP on the server.
2. **Language Differences**: Ansible uses YAML for writing playbooks, while Deployer uses PHP for defining deployment tasks.
3. **Scalability**: Ansible is more suitable for large-scale deployments due to its robust orchestration capabilities, while Deployer is better for smaller projects with simpler deployment requirements.
4. **Community Support**: Ansible has a larger community and extensive documentation, while Deployer has a smaller community and limited resources available for troubleshooting.
5. **Integration with Other Tools**: Ansible can easily integrate with various third-party tools and services through modules, while Deployer has limited integration options.
6. **Ease of Use and Learning Curve**: Ansible has a steeper learning curve but provides more flexibility and power once mastered, while Deployer is easier to learn but may lack advanced features for complex deployments.
In Summary, Ansible and Deployer differ in installation, language usage, scalability, community support, integration options, and ease of use. Both tools have their strengths and are suited for different types of deployment scenarios.
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.
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.
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
Pros of Ansible
- Agentless284
- Great configuration210
- Simple199
- Powerful176
- Easy to learn155
- Flexible69
- Doesn't get in the way of getting s--- done55
- Makes sense35
- Super efficient and flexible30
- Powerful27
- Dynamic Inventory11
- Backed by Red Hat9
- Works with AWS7
- Cloud Oriented6
- Easy to maintain6
- Vagrant provisioner4
- Simple and powerful4
- Multi language4
- Simple4
- Because SSH4
- Procedural or declarative, or both4
- Easy4
- Consistency3
- Well-documented2
- Masterless2
- Debugging is simple2
- Merge hash to get final configuration similar to hiera2
- Fast as hell2
- Manage any OS1
- Work on windows, but difficult to manage1
- Certified Content1
Pros of Deployer
- Simply to use8
- Easy to customize7
- Easy setup6
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Cons of Ansible
- Dangerous8
- Hard to install5
- Doesn't Run on Windows3
- Bloated3
- Backward compatibility3
- No immutable infrastructure2