NetApp IT’s evolving use of Ansible automation

NetApp IT’s evolving use of Ansible automation

So what is the difference between cloud providers and on-premises infrastructure? Of course, there’s the differences in spend (capex versus opex), but there are also differences in how you consume resources.

Say you have a compute or storage need. For on-premises environments, you have to go to an administrator and make a request. How long it takes for the request to get filled is at the mercy of a manual process. With the cloud, you don’t talk to anyone. You typically go through a portal, make a request, and the need is filled quickly. The cloud is more agile and malleable and better able to adjust on the fly to meet business needs. 

Leveraging Ansible

To make the NetApp® on-premises infrastructure more responsive, NetApp IT is leveraging Ansible to automate processes. Cloudifying on-premises assets enables the organization to leave data where it is, while also getting a cloudlike experience.

This process begins with how we provision storage. We’re automating storage management to remove the need for human involvement. Ansible is constantly scanning for potential issues, such as storage reaching certain thresholds. If there’s an alert that an aggregate in storage is filling up, volumes are automatically moved to a new aggregate, without the need for a manual process.

Of course, change doesn’t happen overnight. This has been a multiyear process for NetApp IT, starting with scripts and now standardizing processes and workflows. We’re already seeing some benefits as we become a much more agile organization. Previously, it could take weeks to fill a request for additional computing or storage resources. Now it takes just minutes to provision storage.

On the operations side, we’re freed from certain tasks. For example, moving volumes is no longer a manual operation. When Ansible is properly configured, volumes are  moved automatically once they pass a certain threshold. But that’s just the start. We’re looking for anything that can be automated to remove tedious responsibilities and free up the storage operations team to do more important work.

Learn more

Our road to full automation isn’t complete and probably won’t be for quite a while. This is an iterative, ever-evolving process. Watch these webinars to learn how we’ve used Ansible throughout NetApp IT to improve services and delivery:

• Webinar: Ansible Automation for Consistent Environment Delivery
• Webinar: Automation Use Case for Trident, OpenShift, and Ansible
• Webinar: NetApp IT’s ONTAP Ansible Module Integration with CyberArk