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With Ansible Validated Content, Automate like an Expert

Posted by Marbenz Antonio on December 20, 2022

At AnsibleFest 2022, we announced the introduction of Ansible-validated content, a new program designed to provide expert guidance for automating various platform portfolios, including infrastructure, networking, cloud, security, and edge applications.

Ansible validated content is a collection of pre-made YAML, such as playbooks or roles, that can be used to address common automation needs. These collections can be used as-is or as a way to learn and improve your skills. They provide a reliable starting point for automating tasks and can be customized or used as a learning opportunity.

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To be successful with automation, whether you’re an experienced automation architect or just starting out, there are two key elements you need:

• A strong and reliable ecosystem of integrations that works with the platforms in your IT portfolio.
• Expert knowledge to create dependable automation for the mentioned platforms.

For more than three years, Red Hat Ansible Certified Content has been meeting the need for a strong ecosystem of integrations, and the program has seen significant growth in that time. The supporting ecosystem includes a growing number of top partners with whom we are creating and maintaining integrations with hundreds of platforms through the use of ansible modules.

However, knowing what needs to be automated is only part of the solution. With the release of Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.3, you now have access to content. This is Red Hat’s way of turning expert knowledge into practical operations and providing more best practices for creating dependable automation on top of integrated solutions. Ansible-validated content aims to provide guidance on how to automate tasks based on the experience and insights of experts who have worked with thousands of customers in production environments.

Why should I care about Ansible-validated content?

Automation practices within large organizations are continually evolving:

1. You may be entering a new area that you have never automated before (e.g., automating physical networking infrastructure);
2. You may be familiar with a particular domain but need to continually add new platforms (e.g., expanding hybrid cloud automation to include Microsoft Azure);
3. You may be building cross-functional workflows for the first time (e.g., automating changes to security devices through ServiceNow ITSM tickets).

Regardless of where you are in your journey, the following will be beneficial to you:

• Ansible validated content provides a recommended sequence of foundational use cases to prioritize.
• Expert guidance on how to tackle specific platforms more.
• The use of Ansible-validated content as modular components that can be combined to facilitate interoperability across different elements of your IT infrastructure.

Additionally, these benefits are delivered through the clear and easily understood Ansible language, making ansible validated content an excellent learning resource that helps your organization build expertise from a reliable source.

What does “validated” mean?

Validated content is derived from and supplements Red Hat’s Validated Patterns initiative.

A group of ansible content is carefully chosen by experts such as the Red Hat Automation Community of Practice to guarantee:

• The use cases are based on successful deployments by customers.
• The content creators are verified and reputable subject matter experts.
• The content follows the most current best practices and guidelines established by Red Hat’s engineering team.
• It has been tested with supported versions of the Ansible Automation Platform and is ready for production use.

Upon completion of the curation process, the ansible Automation Platform serves as a trusted distribution system for accessing and using ansible validated content within your organization.

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What is Ansible validated content for?

Currently, ansible validated content is created by Red Hat, with plans to include contributions from partners in the future, covering foundational automation for a range of use cases, including edge computing, hybrid cloud, infrastructure, networking, and security.

For each of these domains, the use cases cover all stages of operation from Day 0 (e.g. determining the necessary architecture for getting an app up and running) to Day 2 (e.g. performing routine maintenance or operations on the systems).

They may also address specific platform operations (e.g. configuring SSH on RHEL workloads) or be platform-agnostic (e.g. maintaining firewall rules across an organization with multiple firewall vendors).

Although it would be impractical to cover the specific needs of every organization’s operations, we believe that IT teams will be able to find relevant ansible validated content that aligns with their goals.

What does Ansible validated content look like?

In 2019, we introduced Ansible Content Collections as a new way to package, distribute, and use ansible content (such as playbooks, roles, modules, plugins, tests, and documentation). Ansible validated content is distributed as collections of YAML-based content (e.g. roles and playbooks). It complements and expands upon Red Hat Ansible Certified Content Collections.

Where can I find?

Ansible Automation Platform 2.3 places a strong focus on enhancing supply chain security, and to support this, ansible validated content will initially be available as a pre-loaded option within the private automation hub. In the future, it will also be available in the Ansible automation hub on console.redhat.com. We will continue to develop more ansible validated content, including contributions from Red Hat and our partners.

Red Hat and the ansible content ecosystem team are enthusiastic about this new tool and the possibilities it will offer. As always, your feedback as customers, automation practitioners, and users is critical in shaping its future. We encourage you to try Ansible Automation Platform 2.3 for yourself by installing the private automation hub and exploring ansible validated content.

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