Ansible Contributor Summit, Durham 2023

Ansible Contributor Summit, Durham 2023

The Ansible Contributor Summit is a full day working session for community contributors to interact with one another and meet with the Ansible development teams behind the projects like AWX, Galaxy NG, Molecule, Ansible Lint and Event-Driven Ansible. We will discuss important issues affecting the Ansible Community and help shape the future of collaboration.

We are happy to have the opportunity to do a second Contributor Summit this year, and this time it will be part of DjangoCon US 2023 in Durham, NC. Our previous experience co-locating the Contributor Summit with another related event was in February in Ghent, Belgium as part of CfgMgmtCamp 2023. It was so successful, we wanted to do it again with another great match.

Hello, Durham!

We will be meeting in the "Bull City", the home of Ansible itself and the inspiration for our beloved mascot, Ansibull. In case you didn't know, the Ansible office overlooks the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, and this mixed with Ansible word play is why you might see mentions of bulls and Ansibulls in Ansible land.

If you can't attend the event in person in Durham, worry not! Ansible Contributor Summit is a hybrid event, Continue reading

Ansible Contributor Summit, Durham 2023

The Ansible Contributor Summit is a full day working session for community contributors to interact with one another and meet with the Ansible development teams behind the projects like AWX, Galaxy NG, Molecule, Ansible Lint and Event-Driven Ansible. We will discuss important issues affecting the Ansible Community and help shape the future of collaboration.

We are happy to have the opportunity to do a second Contributor Summit this year, and this time it will be part of DjangoCon US 2023 in Durham, NC. Our previous experience co-locating the Contributor Summit with another related event was in February in Ghent, Belgium as part of CfgMgmtCamp 2023. It was so successful, we wanted to do it again with another great match.

Hello, Durham!

We will be meeting in the "Bull City", the home of Ansible itself and the inspiration for our beloved mascot, Ansibull. In case you didn't know, the Ansible office overlooks the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, and this mixed with Ansible word play is why you might see mentions of bulls and Ansibulls in Ansible land.

If you can't attend the event in person in Durham, worry not! Ansible Contributor Summit is a hybrid event, so you will Continue reading

Welcome to the new Ansible Community Forum

Today, we're delighted to announce the launch of the new Ansible Community Forum - a single starting point for questions and help, development discussions, events, and much more. Everyone is invited, whether you are an Ansible user, contributor or developer, we are all community! Register here to join us!

Hello Discourse!

Screenshot of the forum's main page

For those who are familiar with forums, we hope you'll feel right at home. For those who may be new, please don't worry! We have a list of tips & tricks here, and you're always welcome to check the guides and post in the feedback section to help us shape our online community.

Forums are only successful if they are used. To make that happen, the Ansible Community Team is looking to make this the real home of the Ansible Community - a place for users to get help, to find an event or local meetup, and a jumping-off point for development and contribution discussions. That means we need you to come and participate! Tell us what you're up to, post your thoughts or your questions, sign up for an event or two. 

The Ansible Community is global, Continue reading

Welcome to the new Ansible Community Forum

Welcome to the new Ansible Community Forum

Today, we're delighted to announce the launch of the new Ansible Community Forum - a single starting point for questions and help, development discussions, events, and much more. Everyone is invited, whether you are an Ansible user, contributor or developer, we are all community! Register here to join us!

Hello Discourse!

Here is a screenshot of the forum's main page:

For those who are familiar with forums, we hope you'll feel right at home. For those who may be new, please don't worry! We have a list of tips & tricks here, and you're always welcome to check the guides and post in the feedback section to help us shape our online community.

Forums are only successful if they are used. To make that happen, the Ansible Community Team is looking to make this the real home of the Ansible Community - a place for users to get help, to find an event or local meetup, and a jumping-off point for development and contribution discussions. That means we need you to come and participate! Tell us what you're up to, post your thoughts or your questions, sign up for an Continue reading

Ansible Community Day, Berlin 2023

The Ansible Community Day is a new initiative by the Ansible Community Team at Red Hat to connect with the people using, contributing to, and developing the Ansible project worldwide. This new event complements the Ansible Contributor Summit, to put the users of Ansible in all their shapes and forms front and center.

In the last Ansible Community Day in Boston, the day right before AnsibleFest 2023, the community had the opportunity to meet in-person and get to know each other, learn a few things and share their knowledge using Ansible. It was such a great experience that we couldn't wait to have another. And here it is!

Guten Tag Berlin!

After two very successful Ansible Community Day events this year, the first in Pune, India in February and the next in Boston in May, our third event for 2023 will be held in Berlin, Germany!

Registration for Ansible Community Day Berlin 2023 is now open! If you’d like to attend, please check out the following Eventbrite page for specific details and registration. 

The event is set for Wednesday, September 20, 2023.
We will meet in c-base (Rungestraße 20, Berlin, Germany)

What can you expect from (or Continue reading

Ansible Community Day, Berlin 2023

Ansible Community Day, Berlin 2023

The Ansible Community Day is a new initiative by the Ansible Community Team at Red Hat to connect with the people using, contributing to, and developing the Ansible project worldwide. This new event complements the Ansible Contributor Summit, to put the users of Ansible in all their shapes and forms front and center.

In the last Ansible Community Day in Boston, the day right before AnsibleFest 2023, the community had the opportunity to meet in-person and get to know each other, learn a few things and share their knowledge using Ansible. It was such a great experience that we couldn't wait to have another. And here it is!

Guten Tag Berlin!

After two very successful Ansible Community Day events this year, the first in Pune, India in February and the next in Boston in May, our third event for 2023 will be held in Berlin, Germany!

Registration for Ansible Community Day Berlin 2023 is now open! If you'd like to attend, please check out the following Eventbrite page for specific details and registration. 

The event is set for Wednesday, September 20, 2023. We will meet in c-base (Rungestraße 20, Berlin, Germany)

What can Continue reading

Ansible Community Steering Committee

As we all know, Ansible is a well-adapted tool for the end-to-end automation of IT infrastructures. At the same time, due to the addition of new features and developments within the project, the Ansible community is growing at an accelerated rate. To help structure the project and also to facilitate the change in direction, we are launching a Steering Committee for the Ansible Community Project.

The Steering Committee’s role is to provide guidance, suggestions, and ensure delivery of the Ansible Community package. The committee shall be broadly representative of the planning and approval areas.

The initial Steering Committee members, selected based on their wide knowledge of and active contributions to the Ansible project, are:

• Toshio Kuratomi (abadger1999)
• Felix Fontein (felixfontein)
• Tadej Borovšak (tadeboro)
• James Cassell (cyberpear)
• John Barker (gundalow)
• Andrew Klychkov (andersson007_)
• Alicia Cozine (acozine)
• Sorin Sbarnea (zbr)
• Jill Rouleau (jillr)
• Brad Thornton (cidrblock)
• Dylan Silva (thaumos)

Members of the committee will work with community users plus Ansible teams within Red Hat to assist in the composition of idea proposals/new collection inclusion requests. Rather than advocating on behalf of particular interests or perspectives, the job of the Steering Committee members is to listen carefully to their fellow community members, discuss, Continue reading

Ansible 3.0.0 Q&A

The Ansible community team has announced the release of Ansible 3.0.0 and here are the questions about the release that we’ve heard from community members so far. If you have a question that is not answered below, let us know on the mailing lists or IRC.

• How can I stay up to date with changes in the Ansible community?

• Subscribe to the ansible-announce mailing list for release announcements and to the Bullhorn newsletter for community news. The Bullhorn is distributed every two weeks with key dates and updates. You may also consider registering for the Ansible contributor summit on March 9, 2021.

About the Ansible community package and ansible-base/ansible-core

• Are there any changes to the Ansible language in 3.0.0?

• There are no significant changes since the Ansible 3.0.0 package depends on the same version of ansible-base as Ansible 2.10.x.

• Why are the versions of ansible-base/ansible-core packages diverging from the Ansible package?
  • When the Ansible Community Team set out to restructure the Ansible project, Ansible was split into the following components: 
    • The core engine, modules and plugins
    • Community and partner supported Ansible Collections of modules and plugins

The former became known as Continue reading

Announcing the Community Ansible 3.0.0 Package

Version 3.0.0 of the Ansible community package marks the end of the restructuring of the Ansible ecosystem. This work culminates what began in 2019 to restructure the Ansible project and shape how Ansible content was delivered. Starting with Ansible 3.0.0, the versioning and naming reflects the new structure of the project in the following ways: 

1. The versioning methodology for the Ansible community package now adopts semantic versioning, and begins to diverge from the versions of the Ansible Core package (which contains the Ansible language and runtime)
2. The forthcoming Ansible Core package will be renamed from ansible-base in version 2.10 to ansible-core in version 2.11 for consistency

First, a little history. In Ansible 2.9 and prior, every plugin and module was in the Ansible project (https://github.com/ansible/ansible) itself. When you installed the "ansible" package, you got the language, runtime, and all content (modules and other plugins). Over time, the overwhelming popularity of Ansible created scalability concerns. Users had to wait many months for updated content. Developers had to rely on Ansible maintainers to review and merge their content. These obvious bottlenecks needed to be addressed. 

During the Ansible 2.10 development Continue reading

Ansible 3.0.0 Q&A

The Ansible community team has announced the release of Ansible 3.0.0 and here are the questions about the release that we’ve heard from community members so far. If you have a question that is not answered below, let us know on the mailing lists or IRC.

• How can I stay up to date with changes in the Ansible community?

• Subscribe to the ansible-announce mailing list for release announcements and to the Bullhorn newsletter for community news. The Bullhorn is distributed every two weeks with key dates and updates. You may also consider registering for the Ansible contributor summit on March 9, 2021.

About the Ansible community package and ansible-base/ansible-core

• Are there any changes to the Ansible language in 3.0.0?

• There are no significant changes since the Ansible 3.0.0 package depends on the same version of ansible-base as Ansible 2.10.x.

• Why are the versions of ansible-base/ansible-core packages diverging from the Ansible package?
  • When the Ansible Community Team set out to restructure the Ansible project, Ansible was split into the following components: 
    • The core engine, modules and plugins
    • Community and partner supported Ansible Collections of modules and plugins

The former became known as Continue reading

Announcing the Community Ansible 3.0.0 Package

Version 3.0.0 of the Ansible community package marks the end of the restructuring of the Ansible ecosystem. This work culminates what began in 2019 to restructure the Ansible project and shape how Ansible content was delivered. Starting with Ansible 3.0.0, the versioning and naming reflects the new structure of the project in the following ways: 

1. The versioning methodology for the Ansible community package now adopts semantic versioning, and begins to diverge from the versions of the Ansible Core package (which contains the Ansible language and runtime)
2. The forthcoming Ansible Core package will be renamed from ansible-base in version 2.10 to ansible-core in version 2.11 for consistency

First, a little history. In Ansible 2.9 and prior, every plugin and module was in the Ansible project (https://github.com/ansible/ansible) itself. When you installed the "ansible" package, you got the language, runtime, and all content (modules and other plugins). Over time, the overwhelming popularity of Ansible created scalability concerns. Users had to wait many months for updated content. Developers had to rely on Ansible maintainers to review and merge their content. These obvious bottlenecks needed to be addressed. 

During the Ansible 2.10 development Continue reading

Announcement: Ansible Contributor Summit Europe

For the past few years we’ve held a conference specifically for contributors at the same time as AnsibleFest. The additional days brought together existing contributors to the open source Ansible code base and those wanting to get involved.

It is with great pleasure that we announce a European Contributor Summit will be held in Gothenburg, Sweden, ahead of the usual summit at AnsibleFest! On March 29 we’ll be welcoming new and old contributors alike. So if you already contribute to Ansible, or would like to, but don’t know how or where to start, this event is for you.

Contributor Summit US will again be held the day before this year’s AnsibleFest event in San Diego. You can sign up for AnsibleFest updates here.

Ansible Contributor Summit is a day-long working session with the core developer team and key contributors. We’ll discuss important issues affecting the Ansible community, and you can take part in person or online. Information for remote participation will be announced about a week beforehand. There is an additional hackathon the following day, on March 30, where you can sit down with fellow contributors to work through anything specific.

The event is free to attend, although registration is Continue reading

Thoughts on Restructuring the Ansible Project

Ansible became popular largely because we adopted some key principles early, and stuck to them.

The second key principle was modularity: Ansible functionality could be easily extended by writing modules, and anyone could write a module and contribute it back to Ansible.

The third key principle was “batteries included”: all of the modules for Ansible would be built-in, so you wouldn’t have to figure out where to get them. They’d just be there.

We’ve come a long way by following these principles, and we intend to stick to them.

Recently though, we’ve been reevaluating how we might better structure Ansible to support these principles. We now find ourselves dealing with problems of scale that are becoming more challenging to solve. Jan-Piet Mens, who has continued to be a close friend to Ansible since our very earliest days, recently described those problems quite succinctly from his perspective as a long-time contributor -- and I think his analysis of the problems we face is quite accurate. Simply, we’ve become victims of our own success.

Success Continue reading

The Song Remains The Same

Now that Red Hat is a part of IBM, some people may wonder about the future of the Ansible project. Here is the good news: the Ansible community strategy has not changed.

As always, we want to make it as easy as possible to work with any projects and communities who want to work with Ansible. With the resources of IBM behind us, we plan to accelerate these efforts. We want to do more integrations with more open source communities and more technologies.

One of the reasons we are excited for the merger is that IBM understands the importance of a broad and diverse community. Search for “Ansible plus <open source project>” and you can find Ansible information, such as playbooks and modules and blog posts and videos and slide decks, intended to make working with that project easier. We have thousands of people attending Ansible meetups and events all over the world. We have millions of downloads. We have had this momentum because we provide users flexibility and freedom. IBM is committed to our independence as a community so that we can continue this work.

We’ve worked hard to be good open source citizens. We value the trust Continue reading