Welcome to a new episode of the Ansible Pilot from Luca Berton. The big news of the last week of January 2023 is the release of two important versions of Ansible: Ansible Core 2.14.2 and Ansible Community 7.2.0. These updates are primarily bug-fix releases aimed at improving stability and performance.

Key Differences

Ansible Core vs. Ansible Community

  • Ansible Core: This package contains the Ansible framework and the ansible.builtin collection. It’s the smallest and most basic package, focused solely on core functionalities.

  • Ansible Community: This package includes everything in Ansible Core plus a variety of additional collections, such as those for interacting with cloud providers (e.g., AWS, Google Cloud, Azure) and other community-generated and Red Hat vendor collections.

The decision to release two packages allows for more flexibility. You can choose a minimal package for specific workloads or use the broader community package for a more comprehensive solution. This separation also allows for asynchronous releases of Ansible Core and its collections.

New Releases

#### Ansible Core 2.14.2

Released on January 30, 2023, Ansible Core 2.14.2 is a maintenance update for the Ansible codename "C'mon, Everybody." This version primarily focuses on bug fixes. Ansible Core 2.14 was first introduced in November 2022, setting the foundation for future updates. A notable change is the requirement for Python 3.9, which breaks compatibility with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. There’s also been significant work on the ansible-test command line tool, which is part of Red Hat's strategy to enhance the developer experience. This tool is essential for testing Ansible Collections.

Installation Command:

``bash

$ pip install ansible-core

`

Use pip3 instead if necessary, depending on your system configuration.

#### Ansible Community 7.2.0

Released the day after Ansible Core 2.14.2, Ansible Community 7.2.0 includes Ansible Core and additional selected collections. Major changes include:

  • Python 3.9 Requirement: Like Ansible Core 2.14.2, Ansible 7.2.0 requires Python 3.9.
  • Lazy Evaluation of Variables: Variables are now evaluated only when needed, improving efficiency. For example, {{ defined_variable or undefined_variable }} will not evaluate undefined_variable if defined_variable is true.
  • New Collections:

- ibm.spectrum_virtualize (v1.9.0)

- inspur.ispim (v1.0.1)

- purestorage.fusion (v1.1.1)

- vultr.cloud (v1.1.0)

Installation Command:

`bash

$ pip install ansible

`

Again, use pip3` if required by your system.

Conclusion

The releases of Ansible Core 2.14.2 and Ansible Community 7.2.0 on January 30 and 31, 2023, respectively, are maintenance updates focusing on bug fixes and improvements. The major change is the adoption of Python 3.9, which enhances performance but breaks compatibility with older systems like RHEL 7. The next anticipated releases are Ansible Core