Automation has transformed server patching and has reduced months of work to minutes
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is managing servers through automated deployment, automated management, security patching, and everything in between.
For automating deployments or security patching with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, we use it for Docker Swarm clusters. We install Docker and automate Docker deployment inside the Docker Swarm, checking which are the master nodes and which are the server nodes and connecting them to each other. All of these things are maintained by Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform.
I have around 100-200 servers that we need to maintain through security patching. We need to perform sudo apt update or install packages inside them and maintain those servers. For that, we use Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform. We maintain an inventory file and execute everything from there.
What is most valuable?
The best features that Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform offers is that it does not require any additional resources inside the servers. Python is the only requirement, and since Python is already present inside the servers, we can run it from our location and it automatically deploys things and does the work for us.
The minimal requirements and easy deployment have definitely impacted my daily work and my team's efficiency. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is one of the best features that we depend on. We have evaluated other options, but Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform was the best choice because it has saved us a tremendous amount of time. We do not need to manually intervene in the servers or install third-party software to maintain these things.
It is very easy to write playbooks for Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform. Ansible Galaxy contains many playbooks that are readily available and ready to be used. It is highly configurable with Jinja templating, making it easy to maintain.
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform has positively impacted my organization. Previously, we needed to go into the servers and maintain them manually, which used to take a lot of time. For 200 to 300 servers, the maintenance took about one to two months. New patches would arrive and we would have to repeat the process. Now, it is a one-night work or a 10 to 15 minutes task. We write a playbook, maintain an inventory, and roll out the updates and it starts working for us. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform uses conditional clauses and has rollback options, functioning like a standard coding language that is simple to use.
There is definitely a reduction in errors with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform because we have playbooks written with all the necessary clauses and rollback options. Manual work automatically creates more errors, whereas in automation, we have written sets that we do not forget every time we run it. We have protected written sets that we execute consistently.
What needs improvement?
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform could benefit from improvements in certain areas. Red Hat Tower is available for enhanced functionality, though it operates on a paid model. I found that acceptable.
Otherwise, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is very easy to use with Jinja templating capabilities that make it really straightforward. I do not believe there is anything that could be improved with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform that we have not already discussed.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform for the past eight years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In my experience, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is highly scalable. We are currently using 200 servers and we are adding more servers each day. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is easily maintainable and highly scalable.
How are customer service and support?
We are not using Ansible Tower for customer support, so we do not receive official support. However, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform has a large community with many written blogs and resources available, making it easy to maintain.
How would you rate customer service and support?
How was the initial setup?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform was very simple. There is no pricing and no licensing required, as Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is always free to use. If you do not use Ansible Tower, then it is definitely free and easy to maintain. Writing playbooks is just like writing a simple Bash script or writing code with clauses and everything.
What was our ROI?
I have seen a return on investment with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform. We need fewer employees and have saved significant time. The work that previously took two months now takes 10 to 15 minutes. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is automated, so we do not need as many employees to perform manual work. We have fewer employees, which also results in cost savings.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform was very simple. There is no pricing and no licensing required, as Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is always free to use. If you do not use Ansible Tower, then it is definitely free.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, I evaluated other options such as Chef and Puppet, but I did not use them.
What other advice do I have?
The advice I would give to others looking into using Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is that it is one of the best Ansible management tools available for servers. You should start using it. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform offers Jinja templating where you can write your own templates and NGINX configurations. It is very simple to use and you do not need any extra server or additional infrastructure. I give this product a rating of 9 out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
AAP is cool.
What do you like best about the product?
What I like best about Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is its ability to simplify complex IT tasks through consistent, agentless automation across hybrid environments. It provides a user-friendly yet powerful framework that allows teams to automate provisioning, configuration management, application deployment, and more with minimal overhead. The platform’s integration with Red Hat’s enterprise ecosystem, coupled with features like role-based access control, visual dashboards, and certified content collections, makes it an ideal solution for scaling automation securely and efficiently across large organizations.
What do you dislike about the product?
It’s hard to hire employees with existing AAP knowledge
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Image deployment
Just a few automatization tasks
What do you like best about the product?
It made my work faster, because before I used Ansible I had to log in different systems to make on a simple task, like adding vlan. Now, I only have to adjust parameters and start the playbook.
What do you dislike about the product?
It's hard to install all dependencies in an isolated environment.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
I only automated one task- adding vlans, but this playbook interacts with different software and devices.
Ansible Automation Review
What do you like best about the product?
I'm able to complete multiple tasks at once, creating more time for other tasks. I enjoy its ease of use and easy coding and development.
What do you dislike about the product?
Nothing dislikes about the product. I wouldn't change a thing.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
It it making our patching and server deployment efforts seamless and allow more time for new innovations.
AAP review
What do you like best about the product?
The ability to automated and the ease of adoption are great opportunities for conversion from other tools
What do you dislike about the product?
The licensing is a bit hard to understand. there should be a way to use this tool with a provisioning method with no intention of further automation.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
We are using AAP to configure systems, and are planning on replacing puppet with AAP and event driven automation.
Ansible Automation Rocks My World!!
What do you like best about the product?
AAP has been introduced into our org and has been amazing, it has helped streamlined our windows workflows and helped automate lots of minut tasks.
What do you dislike about the product?
It's still fairly new and some things need tweaking, will give it more time to mature.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
It's helping with server drift, patch management, server builds and code releases.
Better than Tower and user friendly
What do you like best about the product?
I like that it does not need any prior VM experience to run and use
What do you dislike about the product?
There is a learning curve and it is significantly different than Ansible Tower
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Ansible Automation platform solves the problem of provisioning cloud infrastructure and keeping it patched.
Good automation tool
What do you like best about the product?
Nice comprehensive manager to run Ansible Automation. Really much improved and needed items for Tower.
What do you dislike about the product?
A little clunky with organization. Sometimes hard to find things and have to jump around many screens. Hoping new AI capabilities will lower troubleshooting and finding jobs.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Automates our software updates and patching of existing software.
AAP was built for you and me
What do you like best about the product?
I love Ansible for all things configuration management. Ansible Automation platform provides an awesome way for others to join in on utilizing the benefits of Ansible in a more friendly way. The user interface is clean and easy to learn.
What do you dislike about the product?
Cost is definitely a thing that can be off putting with moving towards the GUI offering (as well as other associated features that come with it).
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Allows organizations a way to onboard developers to using Ansible for standardizing code roll-out and deployment as well as configuration changes.
Ansible Automation review
What do you like best about the product?
Most of our daily admin tasks made easy including deployemtns
What do you dislike about the product?
pipelines and ansible tower futures, and no one is getting the inventory details when needed
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
need more exposure within the teams to understand due to the access related issues
