Red Hat Consulting Solution: Event-Driven Ansible

Introduction

Event-Driven Ansible® provides a solution for organizations looking to achieve the next level of automation—becoming more agile, resilient, and innovative along the way. Event-Driven Ansible is flexible and can be used both for organizations just starting out with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and those looking to advance automation within their existing platform. The highly scalable solution delivers “always on” automation and is built within Ansible Automation Platform. It is designed to receive events from third-party tools, deciding on the actions to take and acting automatically. Event-Driven Ansible allows automated responses with user-defined, rules-based workflows, keeping the customer's platform security-focused.

Organizations can apply Event-Driven Ansible to any IT domain, including use cases like networking, edge, cloud, infrastructure, security, and applications. Teams integrating Event-Driven Ansible into Ansible Automation Platform have experienced benefits, such as:

  • Increased scale. Increase the effective reliability and resilience of the IT estate and have the flexibility to create end-to-end fully automated scenarios for a broad array of use cases across the IT landscape
  • Increased security. Automatically responding to and effectively remediating known threats or vulnerabilities as they occur across the IT estate allows you to reduce errors with speed and accuracy
  • Cost effectiveness. Eliminate high-volume routine tasks and install automatic responses to changing conditions, which allows for increased innovation, consistency, and productivity

Red Hat Consulting can help teams with Event-Driven Ansible implementation through a dedicated, hands-on approach. This expert guidance will help teams mitigate risk while increasing efficiency and return on investment. Our consultants will assist customers in getting Ansible Automation Platform stood up, streamline Event-Driven Ansible integration, and on-board automation teams to tackle Event-Driven Ansible use cases on Ansible Automation Platform.

Solution overview:

  • Duration varies based on complexity and automation maturity.
  • Red Hat staffing includes a minimum of 1 automation architect, 1 automation platform consultant, and 1 project manager. 
  • Customer resourcing is highly dependent on the event source type; this may include event source platform administrators,  automation administrators and operations team. 
  • Solution deliverable includes high-level design and implementation of event-driven automation running on Ansible Automation Platform, configured for 1 specific event source and 1 rulebook. Additional events and rulebooks available upon discussion.

Get started with Red Hat Consulting

Red Hat Consulting helps customers iteratively and strategically achieve value while building capabilities throughout the enterprise in less time. During a Red Hat Consulting engagement, teams receive coaching and mentorship on the technology while adopting the skills and methods needed to sustain automation success.

Red Hat Consulting will help organizations adopt Event-Driven Ansible and any of the above use cases into their existing or new Ansible Automation Platform. As Red Hat consultants learn more about the customer's specific environment, they will tailor their engagement to fit the customer’s unique business needs. These 3 steps show how Red Hat Consulting approaches Event-Driven Ansible as a solution.

1. Analyze

  • Analyze technical architecture of Event-Driven Ansible components, including Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform setup, and define non-functional requirements (e.g. disaster recovery setup).
  • Analyze event sources and determine whether they are internally or externally managed.
  • Analyze and categorize event types including unique rules and actions to be taken and metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to track.
  • Work with leadership and operations teams to determine a set of valuable operational workloads to integrate into the event-driven automation pattern.

2. Design

  • Design Event-Driven Ansible integration, bringing together the events learned in analysis and putting them into an implementation strategy.
  • Design rulebooks to address the use cases picked in the Analyze phase, consisting of rules and actions to be taken when an event occurs (e.g., closing IT service management ticket).
  • Determine what playbook(s) to run depending on the event type.
  • Design playbook(s) for maximum efficacy and reliable repeat performance with Event-Driven Ansible.

3. Integrate

  • Install and configure Event-Driven Ansible components on the existing deployment of Ansible Automation Platform.
  • Create and test automation content including runbooks, playbooks, and correlated credentials.
  • Operationalize Event-Driven Ansible from deployment to production, including assisting and advising the customer on the best approach for first deployment.
  • Validate and demonstrate Event-Driven Ansible based on the designed use case with Ansible Automation Platform. 

The Red Hat Services difference

Red Hat Services comprises Red Hat Consulting, Red Hat Training and Certification, and Red Hat Technical Account Management and provides customers with comprehensive support and guidance for adopting automation into their enterprise.

Mentor-based approach: Red Hat Consulting brings unparalleled expertise and gives clients the information and skills they need to move to Red Hat solutions safely and efficiently. Red Hat believes knowledge must be open and shared, just like source code.

Real-world training: Red Hat Training and Certification develops role-based, hands-on knowledge in emerging and foundational open source technologies. With a comprehensive automation curriculum, your organization can build the skills for long-term success with your automation investments.

One-on-one specialized support: Red Hat Technical Account Management partners with you to resolve potential problems before they occur, minimizing disruption and freeing you to focus on your key business challenges.

Ready to get started? Try a live lab or request a complimentary automation discovery session with Red Hat Consulting.