Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform Reviews & Product Details

I've been using AAP for quite a while. In Tower, the concept of creating a "secure bubble wrap" by utilizing virtualenvs was a great idea. However, from my world of Secrets Management, it made it near impossible to get attributes of the workload executing within to identify it without a "secret zero".

Today, in AAP... the containerized execution environments are a game changer! Now, we can determine the attributes of the environment to provide it secrets and when the execution completes -- POOF! -- the container and all secrets within are gone!

This simple change in architecture to improve modernization was an amazing advancement! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I said I was in secrets management, so you should see this one coming:

"The Single Credential Problem"

Today, Job Templates only support 1 Machine Credential. If I want to scale a job template across many hosts to patch them efficiently, there is no native way to accomplish this today. I have to utilize a workaround that employs the use of lookup plugins in the playbook and dynamically fetching secrets just-in-time based on inventory_hostname. It was actually my Lightning Talk for AnsibleFest here at Summit this week. The feature request was added to AWX in 2017.

Also, AAP has no underlying OIDC configuration. This makes it hard to utilize an identity-aware process that allows secrets management to utilize attributes of workloads (the "payload" of the JWT from OIDC) to identify them instead of a "secret zero" needing to be utilized. Cloud services and even OpenShift has this support today... a modern AAP should also support the same similar to most CI platforms out there. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

AAP makes my life easier because I am a lazy engineer! If there is ever a configuration task that I have to do more than once, I use AAP to get it done. Even if I may only do something once, chances are there is a playbook for it, just incase I ever have to do it again. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The disconnect between Hashi TF and AAP. These two products are awesome when used together and a tighter integration between them is not only a need, but it is mandatory! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It runs inside containers, so the separation between control plane and execution plane gives a lot of flexibility.

The Ansible Automation Platform user experience in general is so good. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

No playbook viewer or editor with visual syntax validator.

More automation if you have a complete Ansible project that contains inventory, ansible.cfg, vault, roles to automate the creation of all required resources like Machine Credentials, Vault Credentials and inventory and tie them together automatically. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The ability to run commands on infrastructure. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Nothing much, since it’s a platform that eases tasks Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What I like best about Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is its ability to simplify complex IT tasks through consistent, agentless automation across hybrid environments. It provides a user-friendly yet powerful framework that allows teams to automate provisioning, configuration management, application deployment, and more with minimal overhead. The platform’s integration with Red Hat’s enterprise ecosystem, coupled with features like role-based access control, visual dashboards, and certified content collections, makes it an ideal solution for scaling automation securely and efficiently across large organizations. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It’s hard to hire employees with existing AAP knowledge Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The automation that ansible allows our organization to perform is outstanding! It provides us piece of mind that certain configurations are getting pushed to our Linux nodes without interaction. It gives us more time to focus on the things that require our attention. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

If I had to select one thing I don't like about ansible, it's the time it takes to configure an automation script to properly run without issue. It would be nice if AI could be integrated into (nano, vi, and vim) , so while you're developing the script AI is checking for syntax errors that can be corrected right then and there. Otherwise it's great! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I love Ansible for all things configuration management. Ansible Automation platform provides an awesome way for others to join in on utilizing the benefits of Ansible in a more friendly way. The user interface is clean and easy to learn. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Cost is definitely a thing that can be off putting with moving towards the GUI offering (as well as other associated features that come with it). Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Ansible allows our IT team to create standardized procedures for consistent software deployment and configuration. Implementation has reduced workstation deployment, standardized our server configurations, and has simplified repetitive management tasks. Our team frequently uses Ansible in day-to-day tasks Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Ansible can be complicated for new users to start using and developing, but there is comprehensive documentation and plenty of resources online. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Ansible is widely appreciated for its simplicity and efficiency, making it one of the most helpful tools in automation and configuration management. One of its key features is its agentless architecture, which eliminates the need to install software on the managed nodes, reducing complexity and overhead. It uses straightforward YAML syntax in its playbooks, which makes it accessible even to those with limited programming experience. Ansible also supports idempotency, ensuring that tasks can be run repeatedly without causing unintended changes if the system is already in the desired state. With its strong community support and a wide range of modules, Ansible integrates well with various platforms and applications, allowing for seamless automation of repetitive tasks like provisioning, configuration management, and application deployment Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

One common issue is the slow execution of playbooks, especially when managing large-scale environments or executing tasks over many nodes. Since Ansible is agentless, it relies on SSH connections for communication, which can introduce delays, particularly if multiple servers are involved or if there are network latency issues. Another challenge is that playbooks written inefficiently, with redundant tasks or complex loops, can further contribute to performance bottlenecks. Additionally, Ansible's default execution model is single-threaded, meaning it processes tasks sequentially, which can slow down operations when dealing with a high volume of servers. Debugging and troubleshooting can also be tricky at times, as verbose logs are sometimes needed to pinpoint issues, leading to an increase in execution time. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The thing that I love most about AAP is its seamless integration capabilities. We were about to set up a full integration with our ServiceNow platform for automation request intake, as well as CyberArk for secure secret management. Both of which were done with OOB functionality provided by the platform and only took a few days to get operational. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Cannot relaunch jobs with DIFFERENT survey parameters. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.