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by jjnoakes 1694 days ago
> idempotency implies that Ansible always starts from nothing and builds from there

No, it doesn't. In Ansible you say something like "make sure apache is installed" and if apache is installed, nothing happens. If it isn't, it gets installed. Then you say "make sure apache is running" and if apache is running, nothing happens. If it isn't, it is started.
1 comments
Arch-TK 1693 days ago
Okay, this is a rather limited form of idempotency. I don't see the advantage. My system's package manager and service manager already perform this function.
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jjnoakes 1693 days ago
You should really spend a little time learning ansible before you critique it. Ansible isn't perfect, but the things you describe aren't how ansible works in general, so they aren't even valid criticism.

For example, it has idempotent modules for all sorts of things - contents in files, files and directories in the file system, etc - things that you COULD script in an ad-hoc and verbose way, but things which come built-in as one-liners in ansible.

It's quite convenient.

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Arch-TK 1692 days ago
There are no resources which are seemingly suitable for my environment. If you're going to claim that I'm missing something, rather than telling me that I have things to learn (no shit sherlock), you could tell me specifically which initial impressions are wrong.
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jjnoakes 1688 days ago
I did, a few comments up. This:

> idempotency implies that Ansible always starts from nothing and builds from there

...is wrong. It might be true that Ansible is unusable in your environment for some reason, but that's quite different fromage this specific false claim.

Here are a few more quotes that imply you should learn about Ansible before critiquing it for your use case (or, if you don't have time, then refrain from critiquing it in general):

> Don't I still need to know shell programming for Ansible?

No, Ansible uses a custom non-shell syntax and python modules. You can dip into shell scripts but you don't have to. Examples are everywhere in the Ansible documentation.

> Does this mean that every time I want to change my server I have to wait 15 minutes for it to re-install the distro and re-configure everything?

No. Ansible will examine your existing system and apply the changes you configure. Idempotency does not imply or require a functional-like OS or rebuilding from scratch; Ansible is more imperative.

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