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diff --git a/content/post/2012-11-27-ansible-and-chef.md b/content/post/2012-11-27-ansible-and-chef.md deleted file mode 100644 index de71b9c..0000000 --- a/content/post/2012-11-27-ansible-and-chef.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,90 +0,0 @@ ---- -date: 2012-11-27T00:00:00Z -title: Where we talk about ansible and chef ---- - -I've been using [Chef](http://www.opscode.com/chef/) for some time now, but it was always via [Vagrant](http://vagrantup.com), -so a few weeks ago I decided to get more familiar with it. A friend -of mine had set up a Chef server for his own use and was OK to let me use -it for my personal server. There was a four days weekend for Thanksgiving -coming, so it was the perfect occasion to take a better look at it, -and to re-install my Linode server with Chef. And since it was a -really long weekend, I also decided to take a look at [ansible](http://ansible.cc), another -tool to push stuff to your server. - -I'm not going to talk about installation, configuration, set up and -all that kind of stuff, there's enough material available around (blog -posts, articles, books, etc). Instead, I will talk about my -experience and share my (very valuable) opinion (because, clearly, the -world deserve to know what I think). - -## Writing cookbooks for Chef - -For the few of you who don't know, cookbooks, in Chef's world, are a -group of files (templates, static files) and code that are used to -automate your infrastructure. Usually, you'll create a cookbook for -each of your application (one for nginx, one for MySQL, etc). - -I've a few services on my server (git, gitolite, Jenkins, graphite, -collectd, phabricator, ...), and I wanted a coobook for each of them. -I've started by looking for the one already existing (there's a lot of -them on GitHub, on the -[opscode's account](https://github.com/opscode-cookbooks/)), and I tried to use -them without any modification. Usually, a cookbook will let you set -some configuration details in your role or node to override the -defaults it provides (like -the password for MySQL, or the path where to put logs). So what I did -was to set the interesting cookbook as a git submodule in my cookbook -repository. Unfortunately, for almost all of them, I had to give up -and import them in the repo, so I could edit and modify them. - -That's probably my biggest complaint with cookbooks: I doubt code -re-usability is possible. You can use a cookbook as a base for your -own version, but either they are too generic; or sometimes you need a -workaround; or they do way too many things. And as a result, you need to edit the -code to make them behave the way you want. - -In my opinion, developers/ops should just publish [LWRP](http://docs.opscode.com/essentials_cookbook_lwrp.html) (Lightweight -Resources and Providers) and templates, that's the only thing that I -can see as really re-usable (take a look at -[perl-chef](https://github.com/dagolden/perl-chef), I think that this one is a good -example). - -## Using ansible - -ansible was a new tool for me. A few friends mentionned it to me last -October when I was at the [OSDC.fr](http://osdc.fr) and it was also suggested to me by a -colleague at work. - -This tool is definitely less known that Chef, so I'll give a quick -introduction. In ansible world, you write "playbooks", which are the -orchestration language for the tool. That sounds very similar with -Chef, but the main difference is they are not actual code, but a -scenario with actions. - -On the web site of the project, there's a quote saying: - -> You can get started in minutes. - -and for once, that's true. I only had to read the first page of the -documentation, and I was able to write a very simple playbook that I -was able to evolve very quickly to do something actually useful. - -Another difference with Chef is that they don't incite you to share -your playbooks, but instead to share your modules. Modules could be -compared to Chef's LWRP. They are Python code to do something -specific (like the [`pip`](http://ansible.cc/docs/modules.html#pip) module, to install Python package, or the -[`template`](http://ansible.cc/docs/modules.html#template)'s one). - -## Chef vs Ansible - -For now, I've decided to stick to this: use Chef for my supporting -application (nginx, MySQL, etc) and ansible for my own applications. - -So far, I prefer ansible to Chef. There's definitely less available -material about ansible on the net, but the quality is better, and the -main documentation is very (I insist on the *very*) well organized. I've never spend more than -10 minutes looking for something and to implement it. I can't say -the same with Chef: the wiki is confusing; there's way too many -cookbooks available; their quality is very disparate. - |