.. _ansible_documentation:
..
   This is the index file for Ansible the package. It gets symlinked to index.rst by the Makefile

Ansible Documentation
=====================

About Ansible
`````````````

Ansible is an IT automation tool.  It can configure systems, deploy software, and orchestrate more advanced IT tasks such as continuous deployments or zero downtime rolling updates.

Ansible's main goals are simplicity and ease-of-use. It also has a strong focus on security and reliability, featuring a minimum of moving parts, usage of OpenSSH for transport (with other transports and pull modes as alternatives), and a language that is designed around auditability by humans--even those not familiar with the program.

We believe simplicity is relevant to all sizes of environments, so we design for busy users of all types: developers, sysadmins, release engineers, IT managers, and everyone in between. Ansible is appropriate for managing all environments, from small setups with a handful of instances to enterprise environments with many thousands of instances.

You can learn more at `AnsibleFest <https://www.ansible.com/ansiblefest>`_, the annual event for all Ansible contributors, users, and customers hosted by Red Hat. AnsibleFest is the place to connect with others, learn new skills, and find a new friend to automate with.

Ansible manages machines in an agent-less manner. There is never a question of how to upgrade remote daemons or the problem of not being able to manage systems because daemons are uninstalled. Also, security exposure is greatly reduced because Ansible uses OpenSSH — the open source connectivity tool for remote login with the SSH (Secure Shell) protocol.

Ansible is decentralized--it relies on your existing OS credentials to control access to remote machines. And if needed, Ansible can easily connect with Kerberos, LDAP, and other centralized authentication management systems.

This documentation covers the version of Ansible noted in the upper left corner of this page. We maintain multiple versions of Ansible and the Ansible documentation, so please be sure you are using the documentation version that covers the version of Ansible you are using. For recent features, we note the version of Ansible where the feature was added.

Ansible releases a new major release approximately twice a year. The core application evolves somewhat conservatively, valuing simplicity in language design and setup. Contributors develop and change modules and plugins hosted in collections since version 2.10 much more quickly.

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2
   :caption: Ansible getting started

   getting_started/index

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2
   :caption: Installation, Upgrade & Configuration

   installation_guide/index
   porting_guides/porting_guides

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2
   :caption: Using Ansible

   inventory_guide/index
   command_guide/index
   playbook_guide/index
   vault_guide/index
   module_plugin_guide/index
   collections_guide/index
   os_guide/index
   tips_tricks/index

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2
   :caption: Contributing to Ansible

   community/index
   community/contributions_collections
   community/contributions
   community/advanced_index
   dev_guide/style_guide/index

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2
   :caption: Extending Ansible

   dev_guide/index

.. toctree::
   :glob:
   :maxdepth: 1
   :caption: Common Ansible Scenarios

   scenario_guides/cloud_guides
   scenario_guides/network_guides
   scenario_guides/virt_guides

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2
   :caption: Network Automation

   network/getting_started/index
   network/user_guide/index
   network/dev_guide/index

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2
   :caption: Ansible Galaxy

   galaxy/user_guide.rst
   galaxy/dev_guide.rst


.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 1
   :caption: Reference & Appendices

   collections/index
   collections/all_plugins
   reference_appendices/playbooks_keywords
   reference_appendices/common_return_values
   reference_appendices/config
   reference_appendices/general_precedence
   reference_appendices/YAMLSyntax
   reference_appendices/python_3_support
   reference_appendices/interpreter_discovery
   reference_appendices/release_and_maintenance
   reference_appendices/test_strategies
   dev_guide/testing/sanity/index
   reference_appendices/faq
   reference_appendices/glossary
   reference_appendices/module_utils
   reference_appendices/special_variables
   reference_appendices/tower
   reference_appendices/automationhub
   reference_appendices/logging


.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2
   :caption: Roadmaps

   roadmap/ansible_roadmap_index.rst
   roadmap/ansible_core_roadmap_index.rst