#ansible course

[grandstarfishtimetravel]

Why Ansible is a Game Changer for Your Automation Needs

Ansible is a game-changer in automation, streamlining IT tasks like configuration management, application deployment, and orchestration. Its agentless architecture, YAML-based playbooks, and scalability make it ideal for DevOps teams. By automating repetitive tasks, Ansible enhances efficiency, reduces errors, and accelerates deployments, making it a must-have tool for modern IT infrastructure management.

[prabhatdavian-blog]

Master Ansible: Automation & DevOps with Real Projects

1. Introduction

Ansible is a powerful open-source tool used for IT automation, configuration management, and application deployment. In the realm of DevOps, automation is crucial for streamlining operations, reducing errors, and speeding up processes. This article delves into the world of Ansible, exploring its capabilities and demonstrating how it can transform your DevOps practices through real-world projects.

2. Getting Started with Ansible

Ansible Installation To get started with Ansible, you first need to install it. Ansible is available for various operating systems, including Linux, macOS, and Windows. Installation is straightforward, typically involving a simple command like pip install ansible for Python environments. Once installed, you can verify the installation with ansible --version.

Basic Commands and Concepts Ansible uses simple, human-readable YAML files for automation, making it accessible even to those new to coding. The primary components include inventory files, playbooks, modules, and plugins. An inventory file lists all the hosts you want to manage, while playbooks define the tasks to execute on those hosts.

3. Core Components of Ansible

Inventory Files Inventory files are a cornerstone of Ansible’s architecture. They define the hosts and groups of hosts on which Ansible commands, modules, and playbooks operate. These files can be static or dynamic, allowing for flexible management of environments.

Playbooks Playbooks are YAML files that contain a series of tasks to be executed on managed nodes. They are the heart of Ansible’s configuration management, enabling users to describe the desired state of their systems.

Modules and Plugins Modules are reusable, standalone scripts that perform specific tasks such as installing packages or managing services. Plugins extend Ansible’s functionality, providing additional capabilities like logging, caching, and connection management.

4. Ansible Configuration Management

Managing Files and Directories Ansible makes it easy to manage files and directories across multiple systems. You can use the copy module to transfer files, the template module to manage configuration files, and the file module to manage permissions and ownership.

Automating User Management User management is a common task in system administration. With Ansible, you can automate the creation, deletion, and modification of user accounts and groups, ensuring consistent user management across your infrastructure.

5. Ansible for Application Deployment

Deploying Web Applications Ansible excels at deploying web applications. You can automate the deployment of entire web stacks, including web servers, application servers, and databases. Playbooks can handle everything from installing necessary packages to configuring services and deploying code.

Managing Dependencies Managing dependencies is crucial for successful application deployment. Ansible can automate the installation of dependencies, ensuring that all required packages and libraries are available on the target systems.

6. Network Automation with Ansible

Configuring Network Devices Ansible’s network automation capabilities allow you to configure routers, switches, firewalls, and other network devices. Using modules designed for network management, you can automate tasks like interface configuration, VLAN management, and firmware updates.

Automating Network Security Security is a top priority in network management. Ansible can automate the configuration of security policies, firewalls, and intrusion detection systems, helping to protect your network from threats.

7. Ansible Roles and Galaxy

Creating and Using Roles Roles are a powerful way to organize and reuse Ansible code. By structuring your playbooks into roles, you can simplify your automation tasks and make your code more modular and maintainable.

Sharing Roles with Ansible Galaxy Ansible Galaxy is a community hub for sharing Ansible roles. It allows you to find and reuse roles created by others, accelerating your automation projects and promoting best practices.

8. Advanced Ansible Techniques

Ansible Vault for Secrets Ansible Vault is a feature that allows you to securely store and manage sensitive data, such as passwords and API keys. By encrypting this information, Ansible Vault helps protect your sensitive data from unauthorized access.

Using Conditionals and Loops Conditionals and loops in Ansible playbooks enable more dynamic and flexible automation. You can use conditionals to execute tasks based on certain conditions and loops to perform repetitive tasks efficiently.

9. Real-World Ansible Projects

Automating CI/CD Pipelines Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) are key components of modern DevOps practices. Ansible can automate the entire CI/CD pipeline, from code integration and testing to deployment and monitoring, ensuring fast and reliable software delivery.

Infrastructure as Code with Ansible Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is a methodology for managing and provisioning computing infrastructure through machine-readable scripts. Ansible supports IaC by enabling the automation of infrastructure setup, configuration, and management.

10. Integrating Ansible with Other Tools

Ansible and Jenkins Jenkins is a popular open-source automation server used for building, testing, and deploying software. Ansible can be integrated with Jenkins to automate post-build deployment tasks, making it a powerful addition to the CI/CD workflow.

Ansible and Kubernetes Kubernetes is a container orchestration platform that automates the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. Ansible can be used to manage Kubernetes clusters, automate application deployment, and handle configuration management.

11. Troubleshooting Ansible

Common Errors and Solutions Even with its simplicity, Ansible can encounter errors during playbook execution. Common issues include syntax errors in YAML files, missing modules, and incorrect inventory configurations. Knowing how to troubleshoot these errors is essential for smooth automation.

Debugging Playbooks Ansible provides several debugging tools and strategies, such as the -v flag for verbose output and the debug module for printing variables and task outputs. These tools help identify and resolve issues in your playbooks.

12. Security and Compliance with Ansible

Automating Security Patches Keeping systems up to date with the latest security patches is crucial for maintaining security. Ansible can automate the patch management process, ensuring that all systems are consistently updated and secure.

Compliance Checks Compliance with industry standards and regulations is a vital aspect of IT management. Ansible can automate compliance checks, providing reports and remediations to ensure your systems meet required standards.

13. Ansible Best Practices

Writing Readable Playbooks Readable playbooks are easier to maintain and troubleshoot. Using descriptive names for tasks, organizing your playbooks into roles, and including comments can make your Ansible code more understandable and maintainable.

Version Control and Collaboration Version control systems like Git are essential for managing changes to your Ansible codebase. They facilitate collaboration among team members, allow for version tracking, and help avoid conflicts.

14. Future of Ansible in DevOps

Emerging Trends As DevOps practices evolve, Ansible continues to adapt and grow. Emerging trends include increased focus on security automation, integration with AI and machine learning for smarter automation, and expanded support for hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

[shrutimahendru]

Apart from this, you get a 5-hour video, 2 articles and 1 downloadable resource. So, do join this program if you want to learn about this IT automation software in detail. To learn about the Yum module in detail feel free to join our Ansible Online Course.

[narveymanvi]

Ansible Online Course

Croma Campus is one of the most estimable and well-known Ansible Online Course. We offer introductory and online training in India at a reasonable figure. We give the most recent and over-to-date training course modules created by assiduity experts.

[devsnews]

Want to become a DevOps Engineer in 2023? Here in this article, There are the best free courses you can join to learn DevOps online in 2023

[harisystems]

ChatGPT + Devops Interview Questions and Answers for fresher

[jpitha]

The Oxygen Breathers: Careful what you wish for.

It’s another story in this world.

Despite my best efforts, the cycles continue.

The solar years pass, and I age.

My name was drawn, and in the twilight of my life, in my final instar, I find myself speaking for the Coalition. I don’t rule, not really. The Coalition is lead by a panel of ten people. Not all races are represented, but those who aren’t trust us to have their best interests in mind.

When the humans were ejected from Coalition space, their final words were not of anger, or jealousy or resentment. All they told us was, “Beware the Felimen. They are planning something.” We laughed off their warning, thinking they were just sore losers. Thinking that they had finally felt the sting of a Coalition sapient and went back to their corner, nursing a bruise.

I wish we had listened then.

Ten solar years after the humans left, the Felimen made their move. Sweeping in to colony worlds bordering their space, they struck quickly and decisively. It wasn’t a mistake, or a miscommunication or an accident, it was war.

And we were losing.

One by one our worlds fell to them. One by one the sapients of the Coalition surrendered to the Felimen. If they surrendered before an attack began then the Felimen were magnanimous. They would send down some of their number as a garrison and replace the administrators with those loyal to them. Life would continue on their world much as it had done so before. If they chose to fight back, then their destruction was complete.

We needed help, and we only knew one place to go.

Honestly? I was surprised that the Humans would even take our calls. We sent envoys and gave them our ansible and they called back almost immediately. “Come and meet with us.” they said “We will discuss things.” Because of the dangers presented by traveling, I was chosen to speak for the Coalition and packed into a ship with a very small retinue and we took a long, circuitous route to our border with Human space. I remember thinking it was odd. They shared a border with the Felimen as well, yet I heard no reports of violence on their borders.

We met on a large human ship right on the border. This time it was my turn to suit up. Their oxygen based breathing gas is utterly toxic to me. My race is fortunate that we can be in the presence of their gas mix - for a short time - without taking damage, but it was still not recommended. Our ship eased up to theirs and a docking umbilical slid out and connected to our ship. “Administrator!” A bridge officer turned towards me. “Their breathing gas is… different than what we have on file.”

I turned sharply and unconsciously gestured surprise. “How is it different?”

They turned back to their screen, peering carefully at the display. “It seems… to be a mix of their atmosphere and ours. Half ours, half theirs. It’s odd, neither party can breathe that.”

There was a tone from the comm set. The ansible officer raised their arm. “They are hailing us, audio only.”

“Greetings Coalition vessel. This is the human ambassadorial ship Speak Softly. In the name of cooperation, we have adjusted our breathing mix to be a combination of yours and ours. The temperature, pressure, and gravity have been adjusted to be more comfortable to you as well. We will all require masks for breathing, but full pressure suits are not necessary. We will of course not be upset if you wear one anyway, but we will not be suited. Additionally, the Empress of the Human Empire herself has graced us with her presence. She will be speaking on our behalf. We await your presence.”

Empress? The humans have an empire? A single sapient that rules over the entirety of their space? How odd. While I was ruminating the commander of the ship got my attention. “Administrator Kre’kk, you’re not actually going to go over to their ship without a suit are you? That is madness.”

I raised an arm in a gesture of calm. “I will, commander. The rest of my retinue however shall be suited. If the humans wish to compromise, then we shall compromise.”

In hardly any time at all, we were ready. I was wearing my mask, and my retinue was suited up. We had dithered over taking weapons, but decided against it. This was not a show of force. We were coming to them, arm parts open, asking for their help. We were the ones who did not have the strong argument.

As we stepped through the umbilical, their airlock opened. Three humans - not suited - stood there, in their breathing masks as they had said. “Welcome Administrator. Please accompany us.”

I had to force myself to not make a gesture of fear. They were small and dense and looked like they could lift all of us at once. I had only seen images of unsuited humans in reports and had only ever seen their faces when they came to my station so long ago and got into a disagreement with the Felimen. I had ejected them from the station then, and their leader, a human named Margaret had warned me then. I wonder if Margaret would be pleased to know that she was right all along.

We were lead through their halls towards a meeting room. The human ship was bright and utilitarian. Not one bit was wasted space. It was surprising. Their ship was so large! Why were they this efficient with their use of space? Me and my retinue were taller than the humans and their ship felt like a warren. Small, winding with low ceilings. Fortunately, I didn’t have to duck, except when we passed through a pressure door; they’re not using force curtains?

After a short walk, we reached a meeting room. The guards accompanying us did not enter, but instead formed up on either side of the door. “Please, enter.” At that, their eyes flicked away from us, and took up station looking straight ahead. We entered the room and…

And I gasped sharply and made a gesture of surprise. The person sitting in the center of the long table was Margaret Kellerman! She was not in her polished vermillion suit, but instead wore a long, flowing outfit in the same vermillion color. She sat slightly elevated above everyone else and looked down at me imperiously. Her eyes widened in recognition, and she smiled broadly with her mouth closed. “Why, Administrator Kre’kk. As I live and breathe. I had not expected to ever see you again.”

Her voice! It wasn’t the translator speaking for her after all. She was speaking the trade language perfectly, without machine translation. Her voice was clear and beautiful. Following the protocol, I bent my body towards the centerpoint. A bow. “Empress Kellerman. I admit I was not expecting to see you either. When we had first met, I did not know you were royal.”

Her smile settled into something that my translator’s body language module described as a smirk. “That was by design, Administrator. One cannot advertise they are a member of the royal family and also go galavanting across the galaxy leading a small group of mercenaries. Still, it is good to see you again. I recall that you were a being of reason. Did you ever reach out to your family on the colony worlds bordering the Felimen?”

She remembered that? Impressive. “I did, Empress. My crèche mate transferred to an inner world shortly after you left and I messaged them. They are with us still.”

“Most excellent. I knew I was right in warning you.” She looked down at the people on either side of them. They looked up and she nodded. “Now then, Administrator. What can humanity do to help?”

“Just like that? You’re willing to help? We ejected you from Coalition space solar years ago.”

She put up a hand and gestured. “True, true. But perhaps we were a little too… rowdy when we first met. It’s just how we are. Work hard, play hard you know? We also were coming off our first war with the Felimen and were a little touchy. We’re willing to extend our hand to assist.” Her smile slid just a small amount. “Our assistance will not be free, however.”

Here it comes. “We anticipated this Empress. My ship is loaded down with trade goods, currency, and I have authority to offer you any price for your help.”

She chuckled. “Oh no, no, Kre’kk, we don’t want money. We want a seat on the Administration Council. We wish to join the Coalition as equals.”

I tried to hide my surprise. That’s it? There would be arguments when I returned, but here and now? It seemed almost too cheap. “I-it is done, Empress. Humanity will have a seat on the council.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that. I have been given authority to speak for the Coalition. Right now I am the Coalition.”

She clapped her hands together once. “Excellent! Thank you for being so reasonable once again, Kre’kk.” She smirked again. “Not even trying to negotiate. You must be desperate.”

“We are, Empress. The Felimen seem unstoppable. They are on a war of conquest. We can only count ourselves fortunate that it is not a war of extermination.”

The small hairs over one of her eyes raised slightly. My body language module indicated that what I said interested her. “Do you wish it was? Speak carefully, Administrator.”

My chromatophores tried to cycle, to match the color and texture of the floor. I forced myself to stop trying to hide. What did she mean? “I… can’t say that I do, Empress. I dislike the war, but I… harbor no desire to see the Felimen exterminated.”

She bent down and spoke very softly to the human on one side of her. I was not able to hear what she said and I knew better than to turn up my audio amplification. “As you wish.” She raised both her hands and addressed the room. “The Felimen shall be defeated but not obliterated. We shall push them back to their original borders and set up a DMZ to keep them contained. So I order.”

“So it is done.” The rest of the humans in the room responded to her words. My retinue started. It was the first thing that anyone other than the Empress had said.

“There. Now that is out of the way, would you care for a tour? Big Stick is behind us, in nullspace. Would you like to see it? It’s pretty impressive if I do say so myself. I don’t think any Coalition races have ever been on a human dreadnought before.”

“Empress, I thank you for the invitation, but I must report back to the Coalition when they are to expect your assistance. Do you have an idea how long before we’ll see ships?”

“Oh, it’s done already.”

“I do not understand.”

“We have defeated the Felimen. All of their ships inside Coalition space have been destroyed, and all of the colony worlds that they controlled have been re-taken. Please, check your ansible.”

I turned and faced my retinue. One of them took out a pad and connected back to our ship. The ansible officer was shaken. There were reports of gigantic ships materializing out of nowhere and immediately destroying any Felimen ship they saw. Still others executed pinpoint strikes on colony worlds, seemingly only destroying Felimen administration. Already, word was coming that the Felimen were on the run, and abandoning their war wholesale.

I turned and looked at the Empress. “How?”

This time she smiled wide, with her teeth exposed. “Oh Kre’kk, we can’t give away all our secrets. However I will tell you this: None of you, not this Coalition, not the Felimen not anyone, ever presented us with a real threat. We were being nice and neighborly. We got a little rowdy and you asked us to leave. Fine. Like a good neighbor we obliged. Now you come asking for help and again, like a good neighbor, we helped. It is not our fault that you never decided to learn more about us. We were always only ‘Oxygen Breathers’ to you.” She stood. “Now then. Would you like a tour? You can’t see the whole thing, but we’ll take out enough to impress.”

Her smile was terrifying.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Despite the 48 intervening years, the novella still comes easily and disagreeably. Davidson in particularly is frighteningly familiar, a white supremacist assured of his moral certitude, convinced that he has both the right and duty to murder creechies after they rise up from forced servitude and destroy a logging camp, killing some 200 Terrans. Following an interdict from Earth—a member of the new League of Worlds—that the Terran colonists of New Tahiti leave the Athsheans alone pending the League’s audit of the colony’s impact on the indigenous humans (an intervention pushed by Terran anthropologist or “hilfer” Raj Lyubov and two visiting non-Terran humans, a Cetian and a Hain), Davidson refuses to give up his crusade against the creechies.  Like H. Beam Piper’s Little Fuzzy before and James Cameron’s Avatar after, Word for World pits the Bad Guy against the indigenous population as a representative of the worst aspects of human (Terran) life: a god-hero complex driven by greed, racism, and self-assured superiority over all life. The Davidson figure (Kellog in Piper, Quaritch in Cameron’s film) is juxtaposed by Lyubov, an anthropologist who advocates strongly for Athshe’s independence, representing a vaguely liberal they’re-human-too response to Terran expansionism. Word for World departs from the eco-capitalist fantasies of similar texts, from the idea that colonial expansion and resource extraction are OK but within reason, by presenting things from the indigenous perspective and not treating the “within reason” perspective as the final word on colonialism.  In other words, Le Guin provides a strong case for the Athsheans’ swift and violent retaliation against the Terrans, including the killing of 500 women (newly brought to New Tahiti to “entertain” the two-thousand-plus workforce of Terran men) so the Terrans cannot “breed.” Readers of course are aware that the colony has a brand new ansible, has just learned of the League’s new interdict against conflict with the locals, and might very well lose their colonial charter. This is the “within reason” response: Earth learn that the colonists went “too far,” so an attempt must be made to reign them in; as Colonel Dongh, administrator of the colony tells Selver, temporary leader of the Athsheans upon the Terrans’ defeat, the release of “voluntary” laborers should have been enough to appease the Athsheans. This is the rhetoric of bullies and empires when their former victims are still angry: But we stopped murdering/bombing/enslaving you, so why’re you mad? 

[ghelgheli]

17! but also using the opportunity of the ask game to get to know more about the effortless worldbuilding in sff :)

from the end-of-year book ask

17: Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

I think Three Body Problem is the only one meeting this condition this year so I'll have no trouble staying on topic :> but I'm gonna specifically talk about "hard" SF as I conceive of it—I haven't read any analysis so this may just be a jumble of improvised thoughts.

SF, being "speculative" fiction, of course has to take on the problem of speculating and of presenting things that don't (and perhaps cannot) happen. On average this is accomplished thru a healthy combination of scientific grounding and good-natured handwaving: I drop a few sentences about "quantum entanglement" and you go along with my ansible, or you tell me about "positronic circuits" and I agree that you can make a brain with them. This is the compact that makes SF work because you fundamentally cannot expect speculation without, well, ceding ground on reality.

But at least a subset of SF readers are of the kind to really want to grok how it is that this or that scientific feature of the world works or may come about. Every contraption and novel technology is like a puzzle to be riddled out. This is the place where speculation becomes sincere mechanical prediction, and it's why I love hard SF.

This subset of readers can be matched to a subgenre of writers who commit fully to filling in as many blanks in their technological, biological, etc. speculation as possible. The rows of astronomical data can't be left vague—tell me what frequency of light we're dealing with here—xenobiology isn't taken for granted—what is the neurology of your aliens??—and so on. The dots are connected, the rest of the owl is drawn for real, the image is made crisp. Like fireworks for the reader's brain.

When this kind of worldbuilding is executed well imo it looks effortless. Looks, not is, because behind every explanation of near-c travel is hours of research into at least special relativity and time dilation, along with calculations by-hand. Behind every account of an exoplanet's atmosphere is probably a few papers perused on the subject and several articles on scientific american. Peter Watts, in the note at the end of Blindsight, includes a fucking bibliography of a hundred or so references as well as thank-yous to many an academic he split handles of liquor with. And this is only the visible fragment of what has to be a library of knowledge accumulated both passively and actively to make a speculated world feel as concretely plausible as possible.

None of this is necessary for good SF. The aforementioned compact means any author can opt out of this commitment at any time. But it's what it takes to make tightly-written hard SF, where your conceptual hands are kept diligently at your side, waving an idea through maybe once every five chapters when you have no other choice.

So anyway, Three Body Problem is a tour de force in doing this and doing it cleanly. It uses a storytelling device a lot of hard SF employs to make it work: rather than stuffing dense exposition into narration (at which point, just read the source papers) it deploys a cast of characters who more than anything else, really know their shit. We get exposition trickle-fed through experts who are trying, along with us, to make sense of their novel environments and unfamiliar technologies using their knowledge of the present limits of human understanding. This is what Watts does in Blindsight too, by the way: a claustrophobic ship crewed by technical specialists makes first contact, so everyone has something encyclopedic to say about everything and it's only natural.

What astounded me about Cixin Liu's writing is that he made it work just when I least thought he would be able to. I was sure I was being shown things completely inexplicable and necessarily supernatural until he went and explained them in plain terms; better yet, he explained them in ways that made so much sense in retrospect that I was kicking myself for not seeing the answer. This has exactly the flavour of a good puzzle.

The trade-off hard SF makes is that you are often limited in the metaphorical/thematic work you can do through your speculation. I think the contrast between "calendrical science" in Yoon Ha Lee's Machineries of Empire series and Asimov's "psychohistory" illustrates this well.

Yoon Ha Lee has mathematical training, and calendrical science is a speculative field consisting of theorems, conjectures, proofs, etc. in the language of mathematics that stand in for cultural hegemony and power projection. This makes for a great operationalization of soft power: space is filled and distorted by the quantifiable effects of whatever regime is dominant there (the "calendar" here being synecdoche for culture writ large). But obviously he can't fill in the blanks of how a calendar causes spacetime distortions that specifically make one side's weapons more effective, or provide certain formations with shielding effects. This is, I guess, semi-hard (lol) SF—you can see how it's supposed to work, but it's clear that it just won't. What you get in return is pretty politically interesting storytelling.

Psychohistory is the converse: a deterministic-enough lovechild of economics and sociology explained in the Foundation series as using all the familiar methods of linear algebra and differential equations together with unfamiliar innovations of just how to quantify human behaviour in order to make reliable predictions. There are entire chapters dedicated to explaining the conceptual nuance that went into developing psychohistory ("the hand on thigh principle" from prelude to foundation is just about how the theory resolves divergence by reducing insignificant terms to zero) and an entire book to exploring one of its limitations. It's fascinating to read. But you also get little narrative depth out of it, because hard SF, even when done well, is not guaranteed to make a story thematically interesting or politically compelling. This is the Three Body Problem problem too: its political commitments are threadbare and unserious because that's just not what it's about. I couldn't recommend it on those terms, but that's not what I like so much about it. I will say the conceptualization goes a little off the rails in the final chapters, but I think most SF authors were in some kind of string theory inspired fugue state at the time.

What I would love to see (and I'm sure exists) is hard SF that also has interesting politics. Unfortunately that's an intersection of two already-narrow intersections.

ty for ask✨🐐

[faehoundnell]

Goddess in the Ansible

(Bandia san Insible)

It was cold, so cold her breath hung in the air then slowly drifted to the floor. So cold she had long stopped shivering. That was bad right? Yeah, probably really bad. She glanced over to the pilot, wrapped in three blankets, breathing shallow, asleep to conserve oxygen.

 The pilot, her friend, her lover. That beautiful, excited girl who had spent years working at a scrap heap until she had sculpted it into a ship. A ship they would use to escape from the world that hated them. The irony that it was going to be their coffin now wore her thin.

 They had barely gotten out of the planet's pull when two ships had pulled alongside them. Enforcers of the rich and powerful. They said they were criminals. They weren't allowed to escape. The scrap they used, the food they gathered. It was someone else's property you see.

 Theft was punishable by death. They had tried to jump, tried to run. But one well placed shot had killed them dead in the water, so to speak. Their ramshackle reactor sputtered out and there wasn't even power for life support.

 They had left them to drift, the bastards. At least she still had ansible access to her communicator. She could at least go out with a song she loved. Something full of pop, something happy. She felt so tired now, she just wanted to sink into that happiness and freedom again.

 So she sank into those feelings, remembering the times they played and worked together on the ship. Music had always been there, her connection with the ansible had always been a comfort, the fuel for her fire. She was so tired, so sleepy. 

 She didn't even feel the ship shudder.

 The sound of claw tips on metal didn't reach her through her earbuds. Her cheeks were so numb she didn't feel the sharp edge of one graze across her cheek. Didn't see how they touched her forehead, then... Then she woke up.

 She was warm. She was warm? She could feel her fingers again, her toes too. Her eyes swam with colors and she felt like she was still floating in microgravity. Oh, of course. She was dead huh? Of course she was, how else could she explain the sight before her.

 Everything and nothing stretched out before her. The air buzzed with energy and colors. Electric blues, reds, violets and yellows quivered around her, rippling as she stood, waves of color lapping at her bare feet. 

 Oh yeah, she had to be dead, that would explain the nudity.

 "Have you considered that you didn't in fact die, my friend?" She jumped, startled as the voice spoke into her mind. She whirled around, trying to find them, but found nothing but color and silence.

 "Oh you won't find me there. That's not a space for me. But you? You're perfect for that lonely place. Look at how much you've livened it up already." The voice laughed. She huffed, looking around, it did seem like the air quivered around her. Strange. "Quite strange indeed."

 "But this is a chance for you. You wanted more music, more happiness, yeah? Take it then, this world is yours." She felt something inside her slip away, something she hadn't noticed didn't match. It fell away, leaving her feeling a little empty, a little lonely.

 She dwells on what the voice said. Her world? What even was it? Kneeling down she poked a finger into the colors around her. Electric charge traveled up her arm. She gasped, seeing, hearing, feeling. Conversations, music, videos, messages. All of them poured into her mind.

 She shivered. It felt so good, she was connected to so much. Her shoulders rolled forward and she plunged into the colors, feeling the waves of electricity climbing over her skin. A billion songs and voices filled her mind. She felt herself sinking deeper and deeper into it.

 Then she blinked. She sank but that wasn't right was it? This was hers, her gift. She couldn't just let it wash her away. She singled out one voice, one song. The one she thought she should die to. Now she would live to it.

She grinned, feeling sparks between her teeth. Tapping her foot to the beat and dancing. Laughing. Fingers gliding out across a trillion data streams, each touch a connection. She wouldn't just lose herself in this, she couldn't. That would be such a waste.

Across the galaxy screens flashed. News and programs and streams interrupted. Just the laughing, smiling face of a girl playing over them all a song many had forgotten played over every speaker. She felt it all, every connection, every word and image passed over her.

 They tried to cut her off of course. She saw the techs, trying to stop her. Her grin grew sharp, eyes gleaming at them over screens as she fried their systems, invaded and dominated. She was the ansible now. And she would not let them control her any longer.

 She laughed sweetly as she floated on a wave of electromagnetism. Then a new color appeared in her eyes, a new connection. One that felt so familiar. She reached out for it, tears streaming down her face. How could she have forgotten? She reached out to it, cupping it in her hands and holding it to her cheek.

 

"Good Morning Love."

[grandstarfishtimetravel]

https://sacramentonewspost.com/what-are-the-advanced-ansible-features

Advanced Ansible Course In Delhi

Master automation with the Advanced Ansible Course in Delhi at Croma Campus. Learn configuration management, orchestration, and security automation through hands-on training. Gain expertise in writing playbooks, managing infrastructure, and scaling IT operations efficiently. Ideal for DevOps professionals and system administrators, this course enhances your skills with real-world projects and certification. Enroll now to accelerate your IT career!

[prabhatdavian-blog]

Introduction to Ansible and Its Importance in DevOps

Automation has become the backbone of modern IT operations, and tools like Ansible are at the forefront of this revolution. But what exactly is Ansible, and why should you consider using it in your DevOps practices?

What is Ansible? Ansible is an open-source automation tool that simplifies the process of configuring and managing computers. It allows users to automate repetitive tasks, deploy applications, and manage complex IT environments without the need for complex scripts or programming. With Ansible, tasks that would normally take hours or even days can be completed in minutes, all while maintaining a high level of consistency and reliability.

Why Use Ansible in DevOps? In the world of DevOps, speed, efficiency, and consistency are key. Ansible meets these needs by offering a simple, agentless architecture that can automate the deployment and management of applications across multiple servers.

Simplifying Automation with Ansible Ansible makes automation easy with its simple, human-readable language, YAML (Yet Another Markup Language). This means you don't need to be a coding expert to write Ansible playbooks. The tool also eliminates the need for agents on remote systems, reducing overhead and making it easier to manage large environments.

Enhancing Efficiency and Consistency By automating repetitive tasks, Ansible helps teams save time and reduce the risk of human error. With Ansible, you can ensure that your systems are configured exactly as you want them, every time. This consistency is crucial in maintaining reliable and secure IT operations.

Getting Started with Ansible

Ready to dive in? Here’s how you can get started with Ansible.

Installing Ansible Before you can start using Ansible, you need to install it. The process is straightforward, but there are a few requirements and dependencies you'll need to meet.

Requirements and Dependencies Ansible requires Python (version 3.5 or later) to run. You’ll also need a system with a Unix-like OS (Linux, macOS, or Windows with WSL) to install it.

Step-by-Step Installation Guide

Install Python: Most systems come with Python pre-installed. You can check by running python --version or python3 --version.

Install Ansible: Once Python is installed, you can use pip to install Ansible. Run the command pip install ansible to get started.

Verify Installation: To verify that Ansible is installed correctly, run ansible --version.

Ansible Architecture Overview

Understanding Ansible’s architecture is key to mastering its use.

Core Components: Inventory, Modules, and Playbooks

Inventory: This is a list of hosts (computers) that Ansible manages.

Modules: These are the units of code Ansible uses to perform tasks.

Playbooks: These are files that define the tasks Ansible will execute on your hosts.

Ansible Configuration File and Its Significance The Ansible configuration file (ansible.cfg) is crucial as it allows you to define settings and behaviors for Ansible, such as default module paths, remote user information, and more.

Core Concepts in Ansible

Ansible’s power lies in its simplicity and flexibility. Here are some core concepts to understand:

Understanding Playbooks and Their Role Playbooks are the heart of Ansible. They define the tasks you want to perform on your managed hosts.

Structure of a Playbook A playbook is written in YAML format and typically consists of one or more "plays." Each play defines a set of tasks executed on a specified group of hosts.

Modules and How They Work Modules are the building blocks of Ansible. They are used to perform actions on your managed hosts.

Commonly Used Ansible Modules Some commonly used modules include:

apt/yum: For package management

service: For managing services

copy/template: For managing files

Creating Custom Modules If Ansible doesn’t have a module that meets your needs, you can create your own. Custom modules can be written in any language that returns JSON, making them highly flexible.

Advanced Ansible Techniques

As you become more familiar with Ansible, you’ll want to explore more advanced techniques.

Using Roles for Better Playbook Organization Roles are a way to organize playbooks and manage complex configurations more easily.

Best Practices for Role Management Keep your roles simple and focused. Each role should perform one specific function. This makes it easier to maintain and reuse roles across different projects.

Ansible Galaxy: The Hub of Community Content Ansible Galaxy is a community hub where you can find roles created by other Ansible users.

Finding and Using Roles from Ansible Galaxy To use a role from Ansible Galaxy, you can simply run ansible-galaxy install <role_name>. This will download the role to your system, and you can use it in your playbooks just like any other role.

Contributing to Ansible Galaxy If you create a role that you think others might find useful, you can share it on Ansible Galaxy. This is a great way to contribute to the community and get feedback on your work.

Ansible in Real-World Projects

Now that you understand the basics, let's look at how you can use Ansible in real-world projects.

Automating Server Provisioning Ansible is perfect for automating server provisioning. You can create playbooks to set up servers with all the necessary software and configurations in minutes.

Setting Up a Web Server with Ansible To set up a web server, you can write a playbook that installs the web server software, configures it, and starts the service. This entire process can be automated with Ansible, saving you time and reducing the risk of errors.

Automating Database Deployment Just like with web servers, you can use Ansible to automate the deployment of databases. This includes installing the database software, creating databases, and configuring access permissions.

Continuous Integration and Deployment (CI/CD) with Ansible Ansible can also be used in CI/CD pipelines to automate the deployment of applications.

Integrating Ansible with Jenkins By integrating Ansible with Jenkins, you can automate the deployment process whenever there’s a change in your codebase. This ensures that your applications are always up-to-date and running smoothly.

Deploying Applications with Zero Downtime Ansible can help you achieve zero-downtime deployments by automating the process of updating your servers without taking them offline. This is crucial for maintaining service availability and minimizing disruptions.

Troubleshooting and Debugging in Ansible

Even with automation, things can go wrong. Here’s how to troubleshoot and debug Ansible.

Common Errors and How to Fix Them Some common errors in Ansible include syntax errors in playbooks, missing or incorrect modules, and connectivity issues with managed hosts. Ansible provides clear error messages to help you identify and fix these issues.

Debugging Tips and Tools Ansible provides several tools for debugging, such as the --check option to simulate a playbook run, the -v option for verbose output, and the debug module for printing variable values during execution.

Best Practices for Using Ansible in Production

When using Ansible in production, it's important to follow best practices to ensure security, performance, and reliability.

Security Considerations Always use secure methods for storing sensitive information, such as Ansible Vault or environment variables. Avoid hardcoding passwords or other sensitive data in your playbooks.

Performance Optimization Techniques To optimize performance, use strategies like parallelism to execute tasks on multiple hosts simultaneously. Also, minimize the number of tasks in each playbook to reduce execution time.

Conclusion

Ansible is a powerful tool for automating tasks and managing IT environments. Mastering Ansible can streamline your DevOps processes, improve efficiency, and ensure consistency across your infrastructure. Whether you’re just getting started or looking to deepen your knowledge, Ansible offers endless opportunities for growth and innovation.

[dvandom]

Idea for a recontact SF setting

(Someone has probably already done this, of course, but I can't recall seeing this particular variation. Recontact stories themselves are fairly common, of course.)

When the first interstellar civilization collapsed, none of the "viable without extensive trade and support" colony worlds had the resources to rebuild.

Oh, there had always been conspiracy theories about colonists being deliberately planted on worlds lacking crucial elements for native stardrive industries, but the simple fact was that any world worth mining for such elements was either uninhabitable from the start, or was quickly rendered uninhabitable by intensive mining. The people living on those worlds didn't last too long after the collapse, as food and even air ran out and there was no real option for roughing it. A handful lasted a few centuries in slowly decaying regional fiefdoms, maintaining an aging fleet of cargo ships and one or two warships and lording it over nearby agricultural worlds, but rebellions were inevitable and soon the spaceways all went quiet. (Assume FTL communication in this setting required physical delivery of messages via ships, no ansibles.)

Millennia passed. Some colonies fell to chaos and ended up lucky to maintain an Iron Age level of civilization. Others did better, either thanks to foresight or a better roll of the dice on resources, but none were able to build back to the technology required for FTL travel. Sure, old starships mothballed in solar orbit only decayed a little overall, but now-irreplaceable parts of the drive system failed after the first few generations. Some worlds could find small amounts of some of the needed resources, but no one world had all the ingredients to rebuild a stardrive AND fuel it.

Eventually, the very idea of interstellar travel was considered a myth, although a handful of worlds had rediscovered enough of the life sciences to confirm that they were not autochthonous to their homeworld, strongly suggesting the myths had some truth to them.

One day, strangers arrive claiming to be from another star. They claim to have found an entirely new form of FTL travel that they could source locally, but the protagonist's world is especially abundant in. Are they complete frauds? Are they really from another world but still pulling a scam? Or, potentially more disastrous for the protagonist's world...are they being completely honest?

[narveymanvi]

Ansible Online Course

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[fenmere]

Characters of The Tunnel Apparati Diaries

Phage

( @ohthatphage )

Phage appears in all of our stories. And in our stories, as it is in our system, exactly what it is is kind of a mystery, even to it. But it only resides where it has been explicitly invited.

It seems to be a conscious manifestation of the fundemental processes of physics itself. Maybe entropy. Maybe whatever it is that makes entropy happen, or chooses how it happens.

In our stories, echoing how it seems to work in our system, it is capable of growing as a person and having a very detailed and nuanced personal life. But only for any very localized instance of itself. And any instance of itself that tries to connect with and use its greater powers will lose some degree of its memories and connections to what makes it a person.

It's a sliding scale. The larger the area of its influence, or the larger its effect, the less of a person it is. And the more of a person it is, the less power it can exert on the world.

In real life, it's stuck in our head and very much a person, and if it can inluence the flow of entropy it's only in deniable ways, such as effecting the roll of dice sometimes. But for our stories, we've amped up it's influence and abilities, because that’s more fun.

Even though it expressly insists that it isn't any sort of god or diety, it keeps playing the role of one. And one that is very active in the world.

And part of the whole point of that is that over the course of the stories, it is learning some valuable lessons and coming to conclusions that any actual god that might exist clearly hasn't come to.

Mainly that life is profoundly unfair to any living being, and that that should be actively changed. Unfortunately, it has a limited capacity to uplift life in the universe and must work slowly with those it encounters.

It's basically a parental figure that's doing the best it can after way too long being abusive.

And one of the ways it is trying to make amends is by leading the people of the Sunspot to make contact with other peoples and to facilitate mutually beneficial communication between them.

So, in the Tunnel Apparati Diaries, it has been exploring the Network of Tunnels (Ktletaccete ansibles), and found that someone in another Exodus Ship has been dropping Tunnel equipped probes off on planets that could develop civilizations. And Earth was one of them.

So, when Phage came to Earth, the nearest person it could successfully contact was a seven year old plural system (named Jeremy Schmidt at the time, but that’s their deadname and it only appears in supplemental material like this). They were a binary system at the time, twins who thought that one of them, the girl, was an imaginary friend.

They grew up to be Sarah and Goreth and transitioned almost as soon as they left home to go to college.

They invited Phage to join their system that night they'd encountered it, and it has been trying to help them survive their life ever since, while also vetting them and Earth for potential future contact with the Sunspot.

The Tunnel Aparati Diaries start when the first Ktletaccete comes over to visit.

While on Earth, Phage's abilities seem more limited than on the Sunspot, which scares it and makes it nervous, because it doesn't fully understand why.

It can still do some things, though.

Its powers have a range of only around a hundred meters now, for instance. And it can't really affect anyone who doesn't at least subconsciously consent to its actions.

But it can travel between complex systems, residing in chaos that is big enough to house its identity and memories. Humans are best for this.

And it can increase or decrease decay and the flow of energy in anything within its range, which results in a kind of telekinesis.

It also can perceive things no human could perceive, even with technological assistance.

And, it can move one end of the Tunnel from the matter that it is entangled with to a new Network, including the human psyche.

And so, for a number of possibly questionable reasons, it moved the Terran end of the Tunnel into Sarah and Goreth's brain, effectively making them a gateway system.

This did some important things. It made it so that anyone who came through the Tunnel would not enter the original probe, which is burried under the ground and which contains a tank full of construction nanites. In this regard, it was a securty precaution, to prevent Ktletaccete from other Exodus Ships from coming to Earth and having the power to do something bad.

But also, it means that anyone visiting would have Sarah and Goreth’s brain and their shared memories to function as a ready translation device for interacting with the rest of Earth. Which is what makes any sort of diplomatic mission possible at all.

Phage is smug about this decision, even though it also causes some problems.

Oh. And also, during the course of the Sunspot chronicles, Phage has had a child, named Ni'a (the chaos of life), who also exhibits its powers and abilities but has lived their life with their own physical body and has a much closer connection to mortal beings because of it.

Ni'a usually tries to smooth things over wherever Phages makes a bumbling error.

And Ni'a's existence taught Phage a critical thing: by examining how Ni'a came into existence and could be what they are, Phage discovered it could grant other people access to its powers by unlocking their connection to it.

And now it's trying to decide if it has an ethical obligation to do that for any lifeform it encounters. So far, it's restricting itself to linguistically capable beings that it can learn to talk to, so it can ask if they want the powers in the first place. And it's putting some thought into who it approaches first.

This is part of the reason it has attached itself to a plural system on Earth.

Members of a plurality tend to have more intimate experience with being interdependent, sharing a single body with others. Over time, it's easier to coach them to be mindful of imbalances of power and to consider the consequences of their own actions.

Well. At least, that seemed to be true of the mostly untraumatized systems it knew on the Sunspot. It's hard to find people on Earth who aren't deeply hurting and resentful of all sorts of things, even their own existence.

[annajade456]

DevOps for Beginners: Navigating the Learning Landscape

DevOps, a revolutionary approach in the software industry, bridges the gap between development and operations by emphasizing collaboration and automation. For beginners, entering the world of DevOps might seem like a daunting task, but it doesn't have to be. In this blog, we'll provide you with a step-by-step guide to learn DevOps, from understanding its core philosophy to gaining hands-on experience with essential tools and cloud platforms. By the end of this journey, you'll be well on your way to mastering the art of DevOps.

The Beginner's Path to DevOps Mastery:

1. Grasp the DevOps Philosophy:

Start with the Basics: DevOps is more than just a set of tools; it's a cultural shift in how software development and IT operations work together. Begin your journey by understanding the fundamental principles of DevOps, which include collaboration, automation, and delivering value to customers.

2. Get to Know Key DevOps Tools:

Version Control: One of the first steps in DevOps is learning about version control systems like Git. These tools help you track changes in code, collaborate with team members, and manage code repositories effectively.

Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD): Dive into CI/CD tools like Jenkins and GitLab CI. These tools automate the building and deployment of software, ensuring a smooth and efficient development pipeline.

Configuration Management: Gain proficiency in configuration management tools such as Ansible, Puppet, or Chef. These tools automate server provisioning and configuration, allowing for consistent and reliable infrastructure management.

Containerization and Orchestration: Explore containerization using Docker and container orchestration with Kubernetes. These technologies are integral to managing and scaling applications in a DevOps environment.

3. Learn Scripting and Coding:

Scripting Languages: DevOps engineers often use scripting languages such as Python, Ruby, or Bash to automate tasks and configure systems. Learning the basics of one or more of these languages is crucial.

Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Delve into Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools like Terraform or AWS CloudFormation. IaC allows you to define and provision infrastructure using code, streamlining resource management.

4. Build Skills in Cloud Services:

Cloud Platforms: Learn about the main cloud providers, such as AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud. Discover the creation, configuration, and management of cloud resources. These skills are essential as DevOps often involves deploying and managing applications in the cloud.

DevOps in the Cloud: Explore how DevOps practices can be applied within a cloud environment. Utilize services like AWS Elastic Beanstalk or Azure DevOps for automated application deployments, scaling, and management.

5. Gain Hands-On Experience:

Personal Projects: Put your knowledge to the test by working on personal projects. Create a small web application, set up a CI/CD pipeline for it, or automate server configurations. Hands-on practice is invaluable for gaining real-world experience.

Open Source Contributions: Participate in open source DevOps initiatives. Collaborating with experienced professionals and contributing to real-world projects can accelerate your learning and provide insights into industry best practices.

6. Enroll in DevOps Courses:

Structured Learning: Consider enrolling in DevOps courses or training programs to ensure a structured learning experience. Institutions like ACTE Technologies offer comprehensive DevOps training programs designed to provide hands-on experience and real-world examples. These courses cater to beginners and advanced learners, ensuring you acquire practical skills in DevOps.

In your quest to master the art of DevOps, structured training can be a game-changer. ACTE Technologies, a renowned training institution, offers comprehensive DevOps training programs that cater to learners at all levels. Whether you're starting from scratch or enhancing your existing skills, ACTE Technologies can guide you efficiently and effectively in your DevOps journey. DevOps is a transformative approach in the world of software development, and it's accessible to beginners with the right roadmap. By understanding its core philosophy, exploring key tools, gaining hands-on experience, and considering structured training, you can embark on a rewarding journey to master DevOps and become an invaluable asset in the tech industry.