Hey everyone,
I’d like to begin automating the following things (very tip of iceberg):
- Patch Management tasks. Specifically via powershell on the server which hosts the patch management tool, execution of scheduled patch scans, generating reports afterwards etc.
- Copying of those reports to various locations once done (sharepoint, network folders, mailbox recipients)
- Acquiring inventory reports from both patch management tool and ServiceNow (or from an email inbox perhaps that ServiceNow has emailed the report to) and formatting both, comparing, and identifying discrepancies between the two, then reporting / sending an email based on that.
So, I guess with that as a starting point, my question right now is simply, should I be looking at something like Audible, or just sticking with the native tools like PowerShell on each system. My thoughts are that I can accomplish everything above via PowerShell, but to really ‘automate it’ regularly, I’d have to setup windows scheduled tasks to run the commands. I’m thinking Ansible could house all of that, and run on a schedule (or can it?) so it’s all in one place?
Then looking forward, if I pursued it like that would I be in better shape to begin including more steps within Ansible as I went? IE: if a server isn’t communicating with Ansible, then I could troubleshoot via Ansible, and execute various tasks (with logic?) to correct the problem, turn on services, open ports etc, thus automatically resolving the issue and opening up communication.
So, with all of that in mind I realize this is more configuration focused rather than deployment focused. Do I understand how Ansible helps or should I be considering something different (or nothing more than remote powershell) at this point? IE: The environment is all windows for now. Other teams taking care of Linux.
This is a proof of concept/test at this point, just fleshing out options and what is appropriate.
Thanks,