Chef and Ansible
Learn how Chef is different from and complementary to Red Hat Ansible
Request More InformationHow Chef and Ansible Work Together
Traditionally, Chef has been compared to Red Hat Ansible in the context of configuration management automation. In addition to helping clients define and deliver infrastructure as code Chef offers a comprehensive set-of automated compliance and security solutions that can be used in conjunction with Ansible. Using Chef Compliance Audit clients can validate Ansible server and application configurations and reduce system vulnerabilities.
Learn more by downloading the Chef and Ansible User Guide that gives practical examples on how Chef can be used in conjunction with Ansible to achieve continuous compliance.
Chef as Ansible Alternative
While Ansible is quite a comprehensive configuration management tool, you can choose Chef as an Ansible alternative for these reasons:
Flexibility
Chef has the unique capabilities of the Domain-Specific Language (DSL) used to create recipes and cookbooks, as well as the embedded Ruby (ERB) templates that allow for advanced customization of various configuration files. For those managing complex cloud deployments across platforms like Amazon EC2, Google Cloud, Azure, and OpenStack, with regular server update schedules, Chef is an excellent choice as an Ansible alternative.
Scalability and Resilience
Chef thrives in large-scale deployments. Customers use Chef to manage large-scale environments with more than 100,000 instances. Even when you are not connected to the internet or your server is down, Chef can perform compliance actions. As an Ansible alternative, Chef is also designed to keep security and compliance at the core, with distinct tools for auditing and remediation.
Security
Chef emphasizes security, particularly in highly regulated environments. It achieves this by separating compliance and remediation components, ensuring a clear firewall between the two processes. This separation helps meet government regulations and other compliance standards. Ansible’s approach, focusing on bundled content, may lack clear ownership and maintenance details, leading to potential security risks.
Ease of Use
While Ansible may be perceived as easier to use initially due to its YAML-based setup, Chef is designed for easier scalability and advanced features. Chef’s architecture allows users to quickly scale from basic operations to advanced configurations, with a more natural progression to custom resources and advanced automation. Although Chef’s learning curve is steeper initially, it is because Chef introduces advanced features early, which helps avoid technical debt and eases long-term scaling. Ansible’s initial ease of use can lead to more tech debt and maintenance issues as operations become more complex.
Total Cost of Ownership
In the longer term, Chef’s total cost of ownership is significantly less than Ansible's. Talk to us to understand how Chef lowers its TCO over time and becomes a good Ansible alternative.
Chef Adds Security and Compliance Automation to Ansible Deployments
Chef Compliance ensures your Ansible configuration code does not expose your organization to vulnerabilities. Chef Compliance validates your deployed configuration across applications and infrastructure. Many organizations use a combination of both Red Hat Ansible and Chef Compliance to shift left with both configuration automation and compliance. With Chef users can test and validate Ansible Playbooks as part of the development process. In addition by leveraging Chef policies Ansible users get more centralized control over their environments.
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Request More InformationWhy Chef
We believe that applications drive immense business value for companies.
Continuous Compliance
Chef Compliance closed-loop detect-and-correct capabilities and unparallel library of out-of-the-box certified audit and remediation content, CIS Benchmarks and DISA STIGs. Competitors have no equivalent to Chef Compliance.
Multi-cloud, Multi-platform
We provide solutions for all hybrid, on-premises, and cloud environments, ensuring consistent standards regardless of your infrastructure or OS. Our compliance content is certified across all three clouds- AWS, Azure, GCP.
Time to Value
You can ramp fast to get going with Chef Infra Language with build-in resources and helpers, 3000+ cookbooks used and supported by Chef Community.
Proven at Scale
Chef’s automation solution is flexible enough to manage tens of thousands of servers, configurations, and administrative policies in our dynamic compute environment. Learn how Facebook uses Chef to automate at massive scale.
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