Ansible Configuration Management
by Alpha01
For starters, Ansible is hands down my favorite configuration management tool. Part of the reason why I really like Ansible is its simplicity design and use. So when I noticed this book only had 92 pages, I originally imaged it was a testament to Ansible and saw as a positive thing at first. Sadly, I was wrong. At just 92 pages, this book is extremely short for the topic its covering. While it mentioned the core Ansible functionalities and some modules, it lacked the in depth explaining that I wanted to see. Quite frankly, this is why I buy lots of technical books, because the explanation in them is for the most part more comprehensive than the official documentation. On this case, the official Ansible documentation is fairly straight forward and easy to understand, and perhaps a better choice than purchasing this book. This book will only helpful to anyone who is absolutely brand new to Ansible, and need to learn the basics of it. Thus said, the custom modules chapter which is an advance topic was well covered in this book. With two examples on how to write a simple module using the shorthand variable/value output in Bash and using the native AnsibleModule Python API.
On a side note, in my opinion Packt Publishing should have labeled this book as a “Starter” series book, since it’s essentially an Ansible pocket reference. Additionally, as of the time of this writing they are charging $20.99 for the e-book and $34.99 for both the dead-tree and digital copy. This is ridiculous given the length of the book. I bought the book during a %50 discount special, and even then I feel is quit a lot for the material covered.
Rating: 3/5
Ansible Configuration Management: Leverage the power of Ansible to quickly configure your Linux infrastructure with ease
- Chapter 1: Getting Started with Ansible
- Chapter 2: Simple Playbooks
- Chapter 3: Advance Playbooks
- Chapter 4: Larger Projects
- Chapter 5: Custom Modules
ansible