Terraform vs Ansible | Comparision between Terraform and Ansible

Terraform vs AnsibleBoth Terraform and Ansible are DevOps tools, but how do these DevOps tools differ? In short, Terraform is an open-source, Infrastructure as Code platform, while Ansible is an open-source configuration management tool focused on the configuration of that infrastructure.

It is often a topic of discussion about whether one should use Terraform or Ansible for infrastructure management. Fortunately, there is an answer that lies in the Grey area. This answer seems the same when asked to people who have working experience on both the tools.

This post highlights similarities between Terraform and Ansible, explores the differences and concludes with the best way to manage infrastructure.

What is Terraform?

HashiCorp Terraform is an infrastructure as code tool that lets you define both cloud and on-prem resources in human-readable configuration files that you can version, reuse, and share. You can then use a consistent workflow to provision and manage all of your infrastructure throughout its lifecycle. Terraform can manage low-level components like compute, storage, and networking resources, as well as high-level components like DNS entries and SaaS features.How does Terraform work?

Terraform creates and manages resources on cloud platforms and other services through their application programming interfaces (APIs). Providers enable Terraform to work with virtually any platform or service with an accessible API.

What is Ansible

Ansible loop is used to repeat any task or a part of code multiple times in an Ansible-playbook. It includes the creation of multiple users using the user module, installing multiple packages using apt or yum module or changing permissions on several files or folders using the file module.

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Similarities

At a very high level, given the capabilities of both the products, Terraform and Ansible come across as similar tools. Both of them are capable of provisioning the new cloud infrastructure and configuring the same with required application components.

Both Terraform and Ansible are capable of executing remote commands on the virtual machine that is newly created. This means, both the tools are agentless. There is no need to deploy agents on the machines for operational purposes.

Terraform uses cloud provider APIs to create infrastructure and basic configuration tasks are achieved using SSH. The same goes with Ansible – it uses SSH to perform all the required configuration tasks. The "state" information for both does not require a separate set of infrastructure to manage, thus both the tools are masterless.

Differences

The previous section gives an overview of the two tools in their broadest similarities. At a high level, it sounds like both Terraform and Ansible are capable of provisioning and configuration management. However, a deeper dive into them makes us realize the benefits of one over the other in certain areas.

In general, both the tools are great in their own ways. They have an overlap of functions when it comes to infrastructure management. Infrastructure management broadly encompasses 2 aspects – orchestration and configuration management.

Terraform and Ansible have their own ways of managing both – with strong and weak points when it comes to overlaps. Thus, it is important to delve into some details of both the tools to make a "perfect" choice or a combination with boundaries.

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