Ansible vs Spinnaker: What are the differences?

Introduction

Ansible and Spinnaker are two popular tools used in the field of DevOps for automation and deployment purposes. While both tools are designed to simplify the deployment process, there are some key differences between Ansible and Spinnaker that make them suitable for different use cases.

1. Architecture: Ansible is an agentless tool that works by connecting to remote servers through SSH or WinRM. It uses a push-based model, where the control machine pushes the desired state to the target machines. On the other hand, Spinnaker follows a microservices architecture and operates on a pull-based model, where it continuously polls the target clusters to apply changes.

2. Deployment Strategy: Ansible focuses on executing tasks in an imperative manner, where the desired state is explicitly defined in the playbook. It allows for fine-grained control over the deployment process and is well-suited for complex configurations. Spinnaker, on the other hand, follows a declarative approach, where the desired state is defined using constructs like pipelines and stages. It simplifies the deployment process by abstracting away the underlying infrastructure details.

3. Scalability: Ansible can handle a large number of nodes, but it is limited by the resources of the control machine. Spinnaker, being a distributed tool, can scale horizontally by adding more instances of the microservices to handle deployment tasks. This makes it more suitable for large-scale deployments where high scalability is required.

4. Integration with Cloud Providers: Ansible provides a wide range of modules for integrating with different cloud providers, allowing users to manage infrastructure as code. It supports various cloud APIs and provides wrappers for popular cloud services. Spinnaker, on the other hand, natively integrates with several cloud providers and provides specialized deployment strategies for each one. It also offers features like automated rollbacks and canary deployments, which are specifically designed for cloud-native applications.

5. Community and Ecosystem: Ansible has a large and active community, with a vast number of playbooks and roles available for various use cases. It has extensive documentation and is widely adopted in the industry. Spinnaker, although relatively newer compared to Ansible, also has a growing community and ecosystem. It is backed by major companies like Netflix and Google, which contribute actively to its development.

6. Use Cases: Ansible is best suited for infrastructure provisioning, configuration management, and general-purpose automation tasks. It is well-suited for managing traditional IT infrastructure. Spinnaker, on the other hand, is specifically designed for continuous delivery and deployment of cloud-native applications. It provides advanced features like multi-cloud deployments and canary analysis, making it ideal for teams working with cloud platforms.

In Summary, Ansible and Spinnaker have different architectures, deployment strategies, scalability, integration with cloud providers, community support, and use cases. While Ansible focuses on infrastructure automation and management, Spinnaker is designed for continuous delivery and deployment of cloud-native applications.