In Chapter 7, Configuration Management with Ansible, we have explored the ways that Ansible can be used both to deploy configuration at an enterprise scale and to enforce it. Let us now build on this, with something else—monitoring for configuration drift.
As we discussed in Chapter 1, Building a Standard Operating Environment on Linux, manual changes are the enemy of automation. Beyond this, they are also a security risk. Let us work with a specific example here, to demonstrate. As was suggested previously in this book, it would be advisable to manage the Secure Shell (SSH) server configuration with Ansible. SSH is the standard protocol for managing Linux servers and can be used not only for management but also for file transfer. In short, it is one of the key mechanisms through which people will access your servers, and hence it is vital...