Ansible exploration - notes and musings

So I ran across ansible as an automation tool today....

Design Principles

• Have a dead simple setup process and a minimal learning curve
• Manage machines very quickly and in parallel
• Avoid custom-agents and additional open ports, be agentless by leveraging the existing SSH daemon
• Describe infrastructure in a language that is both machine and human friendly
• Focus on security and easy auditability/review/rewriting of content
• Manage new remote machines instantly, without bootstrapping any software
• Allow module development in any dynamic language, not just Python
• Be usable as non-root
• Be the easiest IT automation system to use, ever.