Can Ansible Be Run from Windows, and Can It Manage Windows Machines?
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MellowOrbit42
I'm new to Ansible and currently use a Windows computer. A colleague told me that Ansible either cannot be installed on Windows or has many problems running there. I'm trying to understand two separate things: whether Ansible can run from a Windows machine as the control node, and whether it can manage Windows computers. Is Windows a practical setup for learning and using Ansible?
Answers
Ansible is agentless, so there usually isn’t an Ansible client installed on each target. The control machine connects using standard protocols. For Windows targets, Ansible commonly uses WinRM, while Linux targets typically use SSH.
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Ansible doesn’t normally install a traditional client agent on the machines it manages. It connects remotely using the appropriate connection method. Windows systems can be managed for tasks such as installing software, changing registry settings, and joining a domain, and that generally works well.
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The important distinction is between running Ansible from Windows and managing Windows with Ansible. Managing Windows is supported, but the Ansible control node traditionally runs on Linux or another Unix-like system rather than natively on Windows.
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If your computer is Windows, you can run Ansible through WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) or in a container. WSL provides a Linux environment where Ansible can be installed and used normally, including connecting to Windows hosts, Linux machines, containers, or network devices.
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