We have already worked through a number of end-to-end examples with Ansible. Although simple, they showcase the fundamental building blocks of automation with Ansible, on which this book is based. A big part of achieving automation in a Linux environment at scale is having both good standards and robust processes. Hence, not only should your operating environment be standardized; so should your deployment and configuration processes.
As discussed in the previous chapter, although a well-defined SOE will be consistent at the point of deployment, this consistency can soon be lost if administrators are allowed to make changes at will, using whatever their preferred method is. Just as it is desirable to deploy an SOE to achieve success in automation, so it is also desirable to make automation your go-to for as many (ideally all) administrative...