This is very nice and effective. I just wish you had spent time in using the real world examples related to the server configs, instead of using the examples of hello-world, list of a, b, c, etc.
Show HN: Ansible Crash Course
31–40 of 55 posts
Re: Show HN: Ansible Crash Course
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
This seems to work only with cloud providers, not with dedi boxes / VPSs?
"Cloud?" It can work with anything with an API. If there's a Terraform provider that they or the community hasn't projected into TypeScript (or whatever) you can do that yourself with minimal effort. Not sure what else you'd want.
How about plain old SSH? like all those low-end-boxes, you know ;).
Re: Show HN: Ansible Crash Course
#33I really wish there was a configuration management tool out there with a statically typed API. I've spent countless hours debugging Ansible's YAML which gets really unwieldy with hundreds or thousands of tasks.
IMO Ansible is not a good tool for configuration management compared to tools like Puppet and Chef. There's no node graph which mininises how much you can do in parallel and proper chaining of dependencies, and using YAML to describe largely imperative tasks is downright horrible (looking at you with_items). I think it works fine for orchestration, but anything more and it gets uncomfortable.
Re: Show HN: Ansible Crash Course
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Cloud?" It can work with anything with an API. If there's a Terraform provider that they or the community hasn't projected into TypeScript (or whatever) you can do that yourself with minimal effort. Not sure what else you'd want.
How about plain old SSH? like all those low-end-boxes, you know ;).
I could write a provider to do so in a couple hours if one doesn't already exist.
But frankly, if you're using those boxes you've already decided that your time is worth less than your money and spending time on automation is probably lower ROI than moving to something, anything, with an API.
Anything that isn't IBM, anyway.
Re: Show HN: Ansible Crash Course
#35This won't be really helpful to you since you've already built it, but I'm the kind of person who doesn't like videos. I AM interested in Ansible, but I don't want to sit through videos about it; I want to read and follow the examples as I do. Actually, I wonder what the split is between people who prefer videos vs people who prefer reading?
If I'm starting out from nothing, I prefer video content.
Re: Show HN: Ansible Crash Course
#36This won't be really helpful to you since you've already built it, but I'm the kind of person who doesn't like videos. I AM interested in Ansible, but I don't want to sit through videos about it; I want to read and follow the examples as I do. Actually, I wonder what the split is between people who prefer videos vs people who prefer reading?
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Re: Show HN: Ansible Crash Course
#37I'm more inclined towards watching videos rather than reading books or articles. It's quick and introduces to various best practices. I started ansible with playbooks. I didn't know about the adhoc commands until now. Nice content! Keep going.
I agree, you have done a very good job keeping the videos short and focused. We use Ansible my job, and it's always been a bit of a dark art to me. Very much appreciate these videos.
Re: Show HN: Ansible Crash Course
#38This won't be really helpful to you since you've already built it, but I'm the kind of person who doesn't like videos. I AM interested in Ansible, but I don't want to sit through videos about it; I want to read and follow the examples as I do. Actually, I wonder what the split is between people who prefer videos vs people who prefer reading?
I love videos, as long as the presenter is organised and speaks clearly
Re: Show HN: Ansible Crash Course
#39This won't be really helpful to you since you've already built it, but I'm the kind of person who doesn't like videos. I AM interested in Ansible, but I don't want to sit through videos about it; I want to read and follow the examples as I do. Actually, I wonder what the split is between people who prefer videos vs people who prefer reading?
I detest videos and podcasts and wish HN always included warnings (e.g. “(podcast)”). At least a Vimeo or YouTube link is obvious.
Re: Show HN: Ansible Crash Course
#40This won't be really helpful to you since you've already built it, but I'm the kind of person who doesn't like videos. I AM interested in Ansible, but I don't want to sit through videos about it; I want to read and follow the examples as I do. Actually, I wonder what the split is between people who prefer videos vs people who prefer reading?
If it's a video, I'm very likely to just hit the back button. I skim read far faster than a video is capable of giving me the information and I can't copy and edit example code from a video. I get that some people like videos, but unless there's a transcript, I'm not going to be using it. Now, if it's a general talk on a subject, a video is great as the speaker can entertain as the talk. But if it's tutorials, please…
I think you've hit on a good compromise: videos with a transcript (including code examples).
That way, people who want a video have a video (with the bonus of something to read-along to), and people who want text have text.