recordsansible/ara
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Update faq about competing software

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David Moreau-Simard
2016-05-27 17:12:16 -04:00
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@@ -41,43 +41,55 @@ integration or continuous delivery.
ARA aims to do one thing and do it well: Record Ansible runs and provide means
to visualize these records to help you be more efficient.
Why don't you use Ansible Tower ?
---------------------------------
Why don't you use Ansible Tower, Rundeck or Semaphore ?
-------------------------------------------------------
`Ansible Tower`_ is currently a product from Ansible and has not been open
sourced (*yet*). We do not know when it will be made freely available and it's
source opened.
Ansible Tower works in a fairly centralized way where you can trigger runs from
the web interface and it will record that run in it's database so you can see
the results in it's web interface.
Ansible Tower, Semaphore_ and Rundeck_ all have something in common.
They are tools that controls (or wants to control) the whole workflow
from end-to-end and they do so in a fairly "centralized" fashion where
everything runs from the place where the software is hosted.
Inventory management, ACLs, playbook execution, editing features and so on.
ARA does not aim to be able to do things like control host inventory, control
the execution of playbooks and other nice features of Tower.
Since they are the ones actually running Ansible, it makes sense that they can
record and display the data in an organized way.
ARA is decentralized and self-contained: ``pip install ara``, configure the
callback in ``ansible.cfg``, run a playbook and it'll be recorded, wherever it
is. ARA doesn't want to do things like inventory management, provide editing
features or control the workflow. It just wants to record data and provide an
intuitive interface for it.
When using ARA, you can store and browse your data locally and this is in fact
the default behavior. You are not required to use a central server or upload
your data elsewhere.
ARA does provide you with the means to aggregate your Ansible run data into a
single database, whether this is by aggregating sqlite databases or by using
a central database server such as MySQL.
While the features provided by Tower and other products are definitely nice,
the scope of ARA is kept narrow on purpose.
By doing so, ARA remains a relatively simple application that is very easy to
install and configure. It does not require any changes to your setup or
workflow, it adds itself in transparently and seemlessly.
.. _Ansible Tower: https://www.ansible.com/tower
What versions of Ansible are supported ?
----------------------------------------
ARA is developed and tested against Ansible >= 2.0.1.0, excluding 2.0.2.0 which
contained multiple regressions.
.. _Semaphore: https://github.com/ansible-semaphore/semaphore
.. _Rundeck: http://rundeck.org/plugins/ansible/2016/03/11/ansible-plugin.html
Can ARA be used outside the context of OpenStack or continuous integration ?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Of course, you can.
ARA has no dependencies or relationships with OpenStack or Jenkins for CI.
ARA has no dependencies or requirements with OpenStack or Jenkins for CI.
You can use ARA with Ansible for any playbook in any context.
ARA is completely generic and was developed out of necessity to make
troubleshooting OpenStack continuous integration jobs faster and easier but you
can use it for what you want.
ARA is completely generic but was developed out of necessity to make
troubleshooting OpenStack continuous integration jobs faster and easier.
What versions of Ansible are supported ?
----------------------------------------
ARA is developed and tested against Ansible >= 2.0.1.0, excluding 2.0.2.0 which
contained multiple regressions.
What's an Ansible callback ?
----------------------------