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.builtincollection. 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 evaluateundefined_variableifdefined_variableis true.
- New Collections:
- ibm.spectrum_virtualize (v1.9.0)
- inspur.ispim (v1.0.1)
- purestorage.fusion` (v1.1.1)