In relation to software program, sure key attributes function a litmus check for enterprise-readiness—high quality and breadth of help, reporting and coverage administration capabilities, and scalability are frequent, amongst others. Three traits specifically are additionally more and more essential to enterprise automation options: the graphical person interface (GUI), integration capabilities, and safety.
On this comparability we are going to take a look at in style CM/automation options Foreman and Ansible Tower and measure every respective software’s strengths and weaknesses within the context of those three attributes.
Foreman
Open supply software Foreman payments itself as a whole server lifecycle administration resolution, dealing with provisioning from naked steel to the OS and software stack. First making its look on the CM/automation scene 6 years in the past, the software is actively maintained by a core staff and supported by a legion of group volunteers and contributors. Foreman—like main automation platforms Puppet and Chef—is constructed with Ruby (Rails). The truth is, the software has lengthy served as competent graphical administration console for automation options missing a GUI—together with the 2 aforementioned. In fact, Puppet and Chef have since created their very own visible administration consoles, however many proceed to leverage Foreman’s integration with the 2 main automation platforms, in addition to different in style options—together with Ansible.
The GUI
Although automation instruments like Puppet or Chef are controllable by way of the command line, the flexibility to visually choose servers or server teams and applicable actions streamlines in any other case unwieldy instructions and processes. GUI-based administration dashboards are intuitive and easy-to-use, thereby opening up automation duties to a broader viewers.
The Foreman UI. Picture courtesy of theforeman.org.
Foreman’s interface is competent however altogether lackluster; then once more, one should not anticipate excessive aesthetic worth from a community-developed and supported software. As a substitute, the GUI’s most important power is its capability to drag collectively a number of totally different instruments beneath the identical visible interface for centralized administration.
Integration Capabilities
Foreman’s deep integrations with all kinds of CM and automation instruments is made attainable by way of its Good Proxy Structure. On the most elementary stage, a REST API allows the hooking into and increasing of varied subsystems like Puppet, Chef, or SaltStack. Good Proxy elements reside on or close to machines that carry out particular capabilities and facilitate Foreman’s orchestration efforts. Good Proxies help DHCP, DNS, TFTP, in addition to connectivity to instruments like Puppet and Chef out-of-the-box.
Foreman’s Good Proxy Structure. Picture courtesy of theforeman.org
Once more, Foreman is often used along with automation instruments like Puppet or Chef. After establishing foundational elements from naked steel, it palms the set up/configuration of software program, customers, and community interfaces to the automation software of selection for additional configuration.
Safety Posture
As of this writing, 25 Foreman vulnerabilities have been documented per the CVE database—12 of that are of medium-to-high severity. For extra info relating to these vulnerabilities, please see Foreman’s personal safety advisory web page.
Ansible Tower
Ansible was initially developed as a light-weight different to automation instruments like Puppet and Chef; as such, it takes a couple of notable departures: it is written in Python (versus Ruby), and employs an agentless SSH-based structure. The GUI that ships with Ansible’s enterprise providing began out as AnsibleWorks AWX, a graphical different to the software’s command line interface. It has since expanded to incorporate a simplified dashboard, role-based entry management, and a built-in REST API, amongst others.
Learn our submit on role-based entry management by clicking right here.
Although Ansible Tower encapsulates the above options right into a complete enterprise providing, the barebones open supply Ansible undertaking remains to be obtainable on GitHub as a free, public obtain.
The GUI
Ansible Tower’s UI is streamlined and intuitive; suffice to say, its street to enterprise-readiness has been fraught with shortcomings. Early variations had been so dangerous that the CLI and GUI had been typically out of sync, presenting conflicting info relating to the state of a sure nodes. Today, nonetheless, the GUI is likely one of the finest in its class.
The Ansible Tower interface. Supply: Ansible.
The dashboard is particularly nifty for getting a high-level abstract of your infrastructure’s state. Actual-time node monitoring, shows of latest job actions, and a listing of problematic nodes permit for fast well being assessments at-a-glance.
Integration Capabilities
Ansible Tower includes a highly effective REST API and CLI that makes for straightforward integration with instruments like Jenkins or any others in your steady integration/supply pipeline.
Ansible Tower’s browsable REST API. Supply: Ansible.
Moreover, it really works with AWS, Rackspace, OpenStack, Google Compute Engine, Azure & VMware clouds out-of-the-box.
Safety Posture
As of this writing, 3 low-to-medium vulnerabilities have been documented per the CVE database. Ansible actively maintains a bit on its web site for safety disclosures relating to its merchandise, and apparently sufficient—lists 10 documented vulnerabilities: 7 for Ansible, and three for Ansible Tower.
Abstract
Although Foreman has reliably served as an all-purpose go-to-GUI for automation options through the years, business enterprise platforms reminiscent of Ansible Tower function visible administration consoles which are worthy contenders in their very own proper. And although Foreman is actually an answer constructed for integration with instruments like Puppet and Chef, Ansible Tower’s REST API makes coupling the platform with different instruments a trivial affair. Nonetheless, if value is a priority, Foreman remains to be your finest wager—as Ansible Tower can value you a fairly penny. In both case, Cybersecurity integrates with the automation resolution of your option to validate that duties have certainly been carried out as anticipated throughout disparate environments. Give our platform a free test-drive at present.
