Ansible Agent Option?
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I think most companies try to only manage a very limited subset of their machines with these tools, and just skip managing the "tough ones" in almost all cases. Which is fine, but totally doesn't meet my needs 95% of the time.
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@scottalanmiller said in Ansible Agent Option?:
I think most companies try to only manage a very limited subset of their machines with these tools, and just skip managing the "tough ones" in almost all cases. Which is fine, but totally doesn't meet my needs 95% of the time.
Yeah, I'm kind of in the same boat. Ansible fits for the 95% that I want to manage (Apple) but I need it to do some backflips to make it work.
And am totally skipping Windows with Ansible because we have so few of them that the setup time just isn't worth it IMO.
Still playing it all out though.
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Why not have an Ansible server on the same network as the devices and reachable by the Ansible server?
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@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:
Why not have an Ansible server on the same network as the devices and reachable by the Ansible server?
From an MSP perspective that can get pretty inefficient and heavy.
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@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:
Why not have an Ansible server on the same network as the devices and reachable by the Ansible server?
So a full server traveling with every laptop? I get that it could be a VM on top of every Windows's instance, but that seems absurdly complex. And how to you make sure it fires up? And how do you manage hundreds or thousands of "one to one" servers to devices? And if you need a server for each device, does any of it make sense?
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@coliver said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:
Why not have an Ansible server on the same network as the devices and reachable by the Ansible server?
From an MSP perspective that can get pretty inefficient and heavy.
Yeah, 1000 users, 1000 servers.
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@scottalanmiller said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@coliver said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:
Why not have an Ansible server on the same network as the devices and reachable by the Ansible server?
From an MSP perspective that can get pretty inefficient and heavy.
Yeah, 1000 users, 1000 servers.
In a case like that, does ansible really make sense then? Would salt be easier to setup and maintain, since that is agent based?
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@scottalanmiller said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:
Why not have an Ansible server on the same network as the devices and reachable by the Ansible server?
So a full server traveling with every laptop? I get that it could be a VM on top of every Windows's instance, but that seems absurdly complex. And how to you make sure it fires up? And how do you manage hundreds or thousands of "one to one" servers to devices? And if you need a server for each device, does any of it make sense?
Oh, lol... so mobile devices. I missed that bit.
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@coliver said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:
Why not have an Ansible server on the same network as the devices and reachable by the Ansible server?
From an MSP perspective that can get pretty inefficient and heavy.
Why is an MSP wanting to manage client user Windows mobile devices with Ansible? That doesn't make much sense and not really what it's for.
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@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@coliver said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:
Why not have an Ansible server on the same network as the devices and reachable by the Ansible server?
From an MSP perspective that can get pretty inefficient and heavy.
Why is an MSP wanting to manage client user Windows devices with Ansible? That doesn't make much sense and not really what it's for.
Because they're being paid to manage them.
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@DustinB3403 said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@coliver said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:
Why not have an Ansible server on the same network as the devices and reachable by the Ansible server?
From an MSP perspective that can get pretty inefficient and heavy.
Why is an MSP wanting to manage client user Windows devices with Ansible? That doesn't make much sense and not really what it's for.
Because they're being paid to manage them.
Then they should manage them with MDM software.
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@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@DustinB3403 said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@coliver said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:
Why not have an Ansible server on the same network as the devices and reachable by the Ansible server?
From an MSP perspective that can get pretty inefficient and heavy.
Why is an MSP wanting to manage client user Windows devices with Ansible? That doesn't make much sense and not really what it's for.
Because they're being paid to manage them.
Then they should manage them with MDM software.
And which MDM would recommend?
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@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@DustinB3403 said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@coliver said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:
Why not have an Ansible server on the same network as the devices and reachable by the Ansible server?
From an MSP perspective that can get pretty inefficient and heavy.
Why is an MSP wanting to manage client user Windows devices with Ansible? That doesn't make much sense and not really what it's for.
Because they're being paid to manage them.
Then they should manage them with MDM software.
But Salt works fine, I'm wondering if Ansible has the same or similar level of power. MDM is definitely the wrong tool here.
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@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@coliver said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:
Why not have an Ansible server on the same network as the devices and reachable by the Ansible server?
From an MSP perspective that can get pretty inefficient and heavy.
Why is an MSP wanting to manage client user Windows mobile devices with Ansible? That doesn't make much sense and not really what it's for.
What is Ansible for if not managing your computers? It's what Salt is for.
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@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@coliver said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:
Why not have an Ansible server on the same network as the devices and reachable by the Ansible server?
From an MSP perspective that can get pretty inefficient and heavy.
Why is an MSP wanting to manage client user Windows mobile devices with Ansible? That doesn't make much sense and not really what it's for.
Even not an MSP, why would anyone want to use anything but state machines for managing their machines?
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@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@scottalanmiller said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:
Why not have an Ansible server on the same network as the devices and reachable by the Ansible server?
So a full server traveling with every laptop? I get that it could be a VM on top of every Windows's instance, but that seems absurdly complex. And how to you make sure it fires up? And how do you manage hundreds or thousands of "one to one" servers to devices? And if you need a server for each device, does any of it make sense?
Oh, lol... so mobile devices. I missed that bit.
Not mobile, desktops, laptops, servers... all computing devices. We want (and have with Salt), a single, uniform, enterprise, state based means of management. These aren't special cases, they are just "normal computing devices". It would be awful to have to use one tool for the "LAN", and one for the modern "LAN-less" components of a company.
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@scottalanmiller said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@coliver said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:
Why not have an Ansible server on the same network as the devices and reachable by the Ansible server?
From an MSP perspective that can get pretty inefficient and heavy.
Why is an MSP wanting to manage client user Windows mobile devices with Ansible? That doesn't make much sense and not really what it's for.
What is Ansible for if not managing your computers? It's what Salt is for.
MDM != configuration management
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@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@scottalanmiller said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@coliver said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:
Why not have an Ansible server on the same network as the devices and reachable by the Ansible server?
From an MSP perspective that can get pretty inefficient and heavy.
Why is an MSP wanting to manage client user Windows mobile devices with Ansible? That doesn't make much sense and not really what it's for.
What is Ansible for if not managing your computers? It's what Salt is for.
MDM != configuration management
I want what Salt does... complete system management via State. There is a reason that state management is considered the future of system management.
Why do I want MDM if it doesn't do what we are looking for?
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A simple test would be this.... if MDM is the right tool for your laptops, then it would also be the right tool for your servers. But I've seen no one think that that would make sense. Treating servers, desktops, and laptops, and their network locations, as difference conceptual animals is a fragility and complexity that shouldn't exist. They are all one thing, system management. Some more complex, some simpler, but the basics are identical.
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@scottalanmiller said in Ansible Agent Option?:
We want (and have with Salt), a single, uniform, enterprise, state based means of management.
Salt works, but it's not MDM.
@scottalanmiller said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@scottalanmiller said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@coliver said in Ansible Agent Option?:
@Obsolesce said in Ansible Agent Option?:
Why not have an Ansible server on the same network as the devices and reachable by the Ansible server?
From an MSP perspective that can get pretty inefficient and heavy.
Why is an MSP wanting to manage client user Windows mobile devices with Ansible? That doesn't make much sense and not really what it's for.
What is Ansible for if not managing your computers? It's what Salt is for.
MDM != configuration management
I want what Salt does... complete system management via State. There is a reason that state management is considered the future of system management.
Why do I want MDM if it doesn't do what we are looking for?
Maybe I don't know what you are looking for.
I think you want to manage devices, that can be mobile, with a configuration management tool, instead of a device management tool.
