Ansible vs Salt | Cybersecurity

Right this moment’s enterprise IT infrastructures are comprised of a fancy mixture of disparate methods: cloud servers, digital machines, in-house IT property, legacy platforms, and extra. Managing this complexity through handbook efforts is just about not possible, particularly given the excessive charge of configuration change within the common enterprise surroundings. That is the place IT automation and configuration administration (CM) options like SaltStack and Ansible come into play. 

On the most simple stage, IT automation/CM instruments alleviate builders and admins from having to write down and handle customized scripts for duties like standing up servers and pushing out software program updates. Unsurprisingly, a lot of this tooling originated from builders/admins addressing their very own day-to-day ache factors. The main DevOps instruments have adopted an analogous trajectory over years, often beginning out as standard open supply instruments and steadily making their method into the enterprise with visible administration consoles (versus CLI-only administration), superior reporting options, third occasion integrations, and extra. That is true of the “big four” IT automation platforms, together with SaltStack and Ansible.   

SaltStack

Created by Thomas Hatch in 2011, Salt—now often known as SaltStack—is a modular, Python-based CM instrument designed for high-speed information assortment/execution. The instrument has gained appreciable traction within the enterprise for its efficiency advantages over competing options, together with Ansible.

The SaltStack Enterprise UI. Supply: saltstack.com.

SaltStack’s velocity and efficiency advantages are made doable by its light-weight ZeroMQ messaging library: a concurrency framework for establishing persistent TCP connections between the server and brokers (i.e., Salt grasp and minions). The platform is offered as an open supply undertaking or enterprise business providing often known as SaltStack Enterprise. 

Ansible

Ansible was developed in 2012 by Michael DeHaan in response to main IT automation/CM instruments’ shortcomings, together with a dependence on brokers and overwhelming give attention to the Ruby language; the open supply Ansible resolution is each agentless and, like SaltStack, primarily based on Python.  

The Ansible Tower UI. Supply: ansible.com.

Ansible Tower is the enterprise model that features a streamlined visible administration dashboard, REST API, role-based entry management, job scheduling, graphical stock administration, and extra. The corporate was acquired by Crimson Hat again in October 2015 and is now often known as Ansible by Crimson Hat.  

Learn our full publish on role-based entry management.

Aspect-by-Aspect Scoring: SaltStack vs. Ansible1. Functionality Set

As open supply tasks freely obtainable to most of the people, SaltStack and Ansible—regardless of being extremely succesful IT automation/CM choices—lack options and refinements that make them enterprise-ready. For these functions, SaltStack Enterprise and Ansible Tower can be found, at a value.

SaltStack
Ansible

4/5
4/5

2. Usability / Studying Curve

Ansible’s simplicity and easy-to-follow documentation give it a leg-up over SaltStack on this class; in actual fact, it is broadly thought to be the best to make use of IT automation/CM platform available on the market. SaltStack additionally gives ample documentation for getting in control, and it ought to: the platform poses a major studying curve to new customers, even seasoned DevOps professionals.

SaltStack
Ansible

3/5
5/5

3. Group Help

Each of those IT automation/CM platforms are darlings of the open supply group, every boasting a legion of supporters. SaltStack’s open supply undertaking is at the moment one of many largest and most energetic on GitHub, whereas Ansible has maintained its reputation amongst the group, even after being acquired by Crimson Hat. In October 2016, Crimson Hat additionally open sourced its Ansible Galaxy code repository, furthering its dedication to the Ansible-focused open supply group. 

SaltStack
Ansible

5/5
5/5

4. Launch Fee

Each platforms have seen common releases through the years—open supply SaltStack follows a date-based system for model numbers (i.e., YYYY.MM.R, R being the bugfix launch quantity increments inside that function launch) and is at the moment on model 2016.11.2, whereas its Enterprise providing is on model 5. Open supply Ansible is at the moment at model 2.2.1; its enterprise Tower providing is on model 3.

SaltStack
Ansible

5/5
5/5

5. Pricing and Help

A monitoring system will not troubleshoot a configuration error. A configuration take a look at script will.

Each SaltStack and Ansible can be found at no cost as open supply downloads, however extra superior enterprise options will value you. Ansible Tower begins at $5,000/yr with out help; subsequent tiers run as much as $14,000/yr and embody 8×5 or 24/7 help. 

Anticipate an analogous enterprise pricing construction with SaltStack Enterprise, although specifics usually are not obtainable through the corporate’s web site. It does be aware, nonetheless, that the Enterprise providing is subscription license priced by managed node and stage of help.

SaltStack
Ansible

4/5
4/5

6. API and Extensibility

One in all Ansible Tower’s key options is its well-documented REST API; open supply customers are relegated to the extra fundamental Python API. Equally, SaltStack presents a Python consumer API in addition to a restricted “no-frills” REST API.

SaltStack
Ansible

4/5
4/5

7. third Celebration Integrations

Each choices function a formidable library of integrations. For instance, SaltStack presents streamlined interoperability with main cloud suppliers akin to AWS, Microsoft Azure, Linode, and Digital Ocean, in addition to software program instruments/applied sciences like Nagios, Docker, and Jenkins, to call a couple of. To not be outdone, Ansible additionally integrates with a myriad of third occasion choices, from virtualization instruments like VMware and Vagrant to DevOps options akin to GitHub and TeamCity.

SaltStack
Ansible

5/5
5/5

8. Firms that Use It

Each SaltStack and Ansible have a strong footing within the CM/IT automation house: a few of SaltStack’s prospects embody LinkedIn, Comcast, Rackspace, and NASA, to call a couple of, whereas Ansible claims Atlassian, Cisco, EA Sports activities, Allegiant, NASA, and Verizon as a few of its marquee prospects.

SaltStack
Ansible

5/5
5/5

9. Management Capabilities

Each SaltStack and Ansible are battle-tested, highly effective IT automation/CM platforms, trusted by the world’s largest enterprises for rolling out system adjustments en masse. As talked about beforehand, SaltStack Enterprise’s ZeroMQ messaging information bus offers it vital velocity benefits, whereas Ansible’s light-weight, agentless structure make it extra light-weight and simpler to handle.

SaltStack
Ansible

4/5
4/5

10. Safety ranking

SaltStack’s 646 CSTAR rating, whereas okay, falls wanting ultimate resulting from a handful of safety flaws, specifically lack of HTTP strict transport safety and lacking DMARC/DNSSEC. Equally, Ansible’s 751 CSTAR rating is nice, however nonetheless flawed on account of flaws like an insecure SSL/TLS model and lack of DMARC/DNSSEC.

Scoreboard and Abstract

 
SaltStack
Ansible

Functionality set
4/5
4/5

Usability / studying curve
3/5
5/5

Group help
5/5
5/5

Launch charge
5/5
5/5

Pricing and help
4/5
4/5

API and extensibility
4/5
4/5

third occasion integrations
5/5
5/5

Firms that use it
5/5
5/5

Management capabilities
4/5
4/5

Safety ranking
646
751

Whole
4.3/5
4.5/5

SaltStack and Ansible have come a protracted methods since their humble beginnings as open supply DevOps instruments—even right now, the 2 choices cannot be beat for his or her highly effective low/no-cost IT automation and CM capabilities. And enterprises cannot go flawed with both Ansible Tower or SaltStack Enterprise, although for velocity and efficiency, customers might need to go for the latter. In distinction, Ansible Tower is best suited to organizations searching for a light-weight, agentless automation resolution that is simple to rise up to hurry with and handle.