In this module, you will learn the ins and outs of Ansible with the goal of managing and automating your infrastructure and code’s deployment.

DevOps for Developers

Ansible is one of the leading tools for software provisioning, configuration management, and application deployment. In this module, you will learn the ins and outs of Ansible with the goal of managing and automating your infrastructure and code’s deployment.

You will learn how to set up a docker environment, connect with cloud providers like AWS and Azure, manage infrastructure on AWS and Azure using Ansible, and lastly how to automate configuration and state management processes. Throughout each section, you will dive into the fundamentals of Ansible through practical and real-world scenarios.

By the end, you will have a great new skill that will open a lot of doors for you like cloud computing and DevOps. This will definitely be a good tool to put on your resume and will help you further your career.

Ansible

Ansible lifts a huge operational burden. So much so, in fact, that the friction of build and release go unnoticed. In contrast to manual configuration, entering a few keystrokes to run Ansible is a godsend. With frequency, however, that novelty diminishes. And your next constraint becomes __velocity__.

To achieve a higher velocity, human interaction has to be removed. However, velocity isn’t just about speed. It does little good to go fast if the system is unreliable or unsafe. So, automated testing also becomes part of the process. The answer is well-defined by a release pipeline model. The release pipeline has four stages: 
- source
- build
- testing
- release

# Source
You already have the first stage in place. Storing your Ansible code in a Git repository checks that box. Using __source control__ provides a single path for changes. It answers the following questions:
- Who changed the environment? 
- What did they change? 
- When did the change occur?

# Build
The next stage is __build__. Build runs scripts when changes are checked in. Within this stage, you define tasks that help catch problems at the earliest stage and set up notifications for the pipeline problems.

# Testing
__Testing__ is another step in the build process. Build and testing are both a part of __continuous integration (CI)__. Broadly speaking, there are three types of __tests__: 
- Lint
- Unit
- Integration

Linting verifies syntax and enforces coding standards. Unit tests validate that the code’s logic is sound, while integration tests validate expectations by running against real components.


# Release
The __release__ is the final stage. It takes the `Run` button away. The release is responsible for deploying code to production. And all the other environments you have to maintain. 

Start simple. Start small. It takes time to mature this process.

> <span>_**Destroyed Infrastructure**_</span><br>
> In case you deleted the Ansible development environment, make sure to re-deploy the infrastructure for [AWS](https://www.educative.io/courses/ansible-zero-to-production-ready/deploy-to-aws) and [Azure](https://www.educative.io/courses/ansible-zero-to-production-ready/deploy-to-azure#ansible-environment) by following the links.



Get introduced to different stages of a release pipeline.

Introduction