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Ansible vs Juju: What are the differences?

Introduction

Ansible and Juju are both popular tools used in software deployment and management. While they serve similar purposes, there are key differences between them that make each tool unique. In this article, we will examine six major differences between Ansible and Juju.

  1. Architecture and Deployment Model: Ansible, which is agentless, follows a push-based deployment model. It uses SSH and requires an Ansible control node to manage the nodes it deploys to. On the other hand, Juju uses a model-driven, declarative approach with a central controller node and agent nodes for deployment.

  2. Orchestration Capabilities: Juju focuses on orchestration and application modeling, allowing for complex deployments and relationships between various services. It offers higher-level abstractions and allows for the creation of reusable Charms (deployment bundles). Ansible, while it provides some level of orchestration, is more focused on configuration management and automation rather than extensive application modeling.

  3. Supported Provisioning and Cloud Integration: Ansible can work with a wide range of cloud providers, virtualization platforms, and bare metal servers, offering more flexibility for infrastructure provisioning. Juju, on the other hand, has tighter integration with Canonical's ecosystem, including support for multi-cloud orchestration with its Juju bundles, making it a preferred choice for deploying applications on Ubuntu and using Canonical's tools.

  4. Language and Learning Curve: Ansible uses a YAML-based syntax, which is considered relatively easy to learn for newcomers and IT administrators. It has a low barrier to entry and doesn't require extensive programming knowledge. Juju, on the other hand, has a more complex syntax and uses the Charm framework, which requires learning a specific set of tools and concepts to create and deploy Charms.

  5. Community and Ecosystem: Ansible has a larger and more diverse community, with a wide range of modules and playbooks available for various tasks. This extensive community support makes it easier to find solutions and troubleshoot issues. Juju, while it has a growing community, has a smaller user base and a more focused ecosystem due to its association with Ubuntu and Canonical.

  6. Integration and Extensibility: Ansible provides a REST API and supports integrating with external tools and existing infrastructure, allowing for seamless integration into existing environments. Juju, on the other hand, is tightly integrated with the Juju controller and agent nodes, and its extensibility is primarily focused on the Charm ecosystem.

In summary, Ansible excels in configuration management, automation, and its support for a wide range of infrastructure, while Juju shines in application orchestration and modeling, particularly for deployments on Ubuntu and with Canonical's tools.

Advice on Ansible and Juju
Needs advice
on
AnsibleAnsibleChefChef
and
Puppet LabsPuppet Labs

I'm just getting started using Vagrant to help automate setting up local VMs to set up a Kubernetes cluster (development and experimentation only). (Yes, I do know about minikube)

I'm looking for a tool to help install software packages, setup users, etc..., on these VMs. I'm also fairly new to Ansible, Chef, and Puppet. What's a good one to start with to learn? I might decide to try all 3 at some point for my own curiosity.

The most important factors for me are simplicity, ease of use, shortest learning curve.

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Replies (2)
Recommends
on
AnsibleAnsible

I have been working with Puppet and Ansible. The reason why I prefer ansible is the distribution of it. Ansible is more lightweight and therefore more popular. This leads to situations, where you can get fully packaged applications for ansible (e.g. confluent) supported by the vendor, but only incomplete packages for Puppet.

The only advantage I would see with Puppet if someone wants to use Foreman. This is still better supported with Puppet.

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Gabriel Pa
Recommends
on
KubernetesKubernetes
at

If you are just starting out, might as well learn Kubernetes There's a lot of tools that come with Kube that make it easier to use and most importantly: you become cloud-agnostic. We use Ansible because it's a lot simpler than Chef or Puppet and if you use Docker Compose for your deployments you can re-use them with Kubernetes later when you migrate

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Pros of Ansible
Pros of Juju
  • 284
    Agentless
  • 210
    Great configuration
  • 199
    Simple
  • 176
    Powerful
  • 155
    Easy to learn
  • 69
    Flexible
  • 55
    Doesn't get in the way of getting s--- done
  • 35
    Makes sense
  • 30
    Super efficient and flexible
  • 27
    Powerful
  • 11
    Dynamic Inventory
  • 9
    Backed by Red Hat
  • 7
    Works with AWS
  • 6
    Cloud Oriented
  • 6
    Easy to maintain
  • 4
    Vagrant provisioner
  • 4
    Simple and powerful
  • 4
    Multi language
  • 4
    Simple
  • 4
    Because SSH
  • 4
    Procedural or declarative, or both
  • 4
    Easy
  • 3
    Consistency
  • 2
    Well-documented
  • 2
    Masterless
  • 2
    Debugging is simple
  • 2
    Merge hash to get final configuration similar to hiera
  • 2
    Fast as hell
  • 1
    Manage any OS
  • 1
    Work on windows, but difficult to manage
  • 1
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    Cons of Ansible
    Cons of Juju
    • 8
      Dangerous
    • 5
      Hard to install
    • 3
      Doesn't Run on Windows
    • 3
      Bloated
    • 3
      Backward compatibility
    • 2
      No immutable infrastructure
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      What is Ansible?

      Ansible is an IT automation tool. It can configure systems, deploy software, and orchestrate more advanced IT tasks such as continuous deployments or zero downtime rolling updates. Ansible’s goals are foremost those of simplicity and maximum ease of use.

      What is Juju?

      It is an open source, application and service modelling tool from Ubuntu that helps you deploy, manage and scale your applications on any cloud.

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