========================
Configuration Management
========================

:category: page
:slug: configuration-management
:sort-order: 18

Configuration management involves modifying servers from an existing state to 
a desired state. Numerous tools exist to modify the state in a controlled 
way, including `Puppet <http://puppetlabs.com/puppet/what-is-puppet>`_, 
`Chef <http://www.getchef.com/chef/>`_, 
`SaltStack <http://www.saltstack.com/>`_, and Ansible. Puppet and Chef are
written in Ruby, while SaltStack and Ansible are written in Python.


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Ansible
-------
`Ansible <http://www.ansibleworks.com/>`_ is an open source configuration
management and application deployment tool built in Python.


Ansible Resources
=================
`Official Ansible documentation <http://docs.ansible.com/index.html>`_

`Python for Configuration Management with Ansible slides <http://www.insom.me.uk/post/pycon-talk.html>`_ 
from PyCon UK 2013

`Ansible Weekly Newsletter <http://devopsu.com/newsletters/ansible-weekly-newsletter.html>`_

`First Steps with Ansible <http://labs.qandidate.com/blog/2013/11/15/first-steps-with-ansible/>`_

`Red Badger on Ansible <http://red-badger.com/blog/2013/06/29/ansible/>`_

`Getting Started with Ansible <http://lowendbox.com/blog/getting-started-with-ansible/>`_

`Ansible and Linode <http://softwareas.com/ansible-and-linode-what-i-learned-about-controlling-linodes-from-ansible>`_

`Multi-factor SSH authentication with Ansible and Duo Security <http://jlafon.io/ansible-duo-security.html>`_

`Ansible vs. Shell Scripts <http://devopsu.com/blog/ansible-vs-shell-scripts/>`_

`Ansible and Salt: A Detailed Comparison <http://missingm.co/2013/06/ansible-and-salt-a-detailed-comparison/>`_

`Automating your development environment with Ansible <http://www.nickhammond.com/automating-development-environment-ansible/>`_

`Post-install steps with Ansible <http://devopsu.com/guides/ansible-post-install.html>`_ 

`First Five (and a half) Minutes on a Server with Ansible <http://lattejed.com/first-five-and-a-half-minutes-on-a-server-with-ansible>`_ 

`(Detailed) Introduction to Ansible <http://davidwinter.me/articles/2013/11/23/introduction-to-ansible/>`_
 
`Create a Couchbase Cluster with Ansible <http://blog.couchbase.com/create-couchbase-cluster-with-ansible>`_

`Idempotence, convergence, and other silly fancy words we often use <https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/Ansible-project/WpRblldA2PQ/lYDpFjBXDlsJ">`_


