Using Ansible and Redfish to Automate Systems Management

Explore the powerful combination of Ansible and Redfish for automating systems management at scale. Learn how these open-source tools can streamline complex tasks such as server monitoring, provisioning, and updates from a central location. Discover the basics of Out-of-Band (OOB) management and how Redfish APIs in Dell EMC PowerEdge servers can be leveraged through the integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC). Dive into practical examples of using Redfish for system health monitoring, hard drive management, thermal control, and event log analysis. Understand Ansible's core concepts, use cases, and its role in scalable OOB management. Gain insights into key lifecycle management tasks, including inventory management and NTP settings configuration. By the end of this talk, grasp how Ansible and Redfish together can significantly reduce management complexity and improve IT administrators' productivity and efficiency.

Intro
Agenda
What is Out-of-Band (OOB) management?
Dashboard
Simple OOB Management
Redfish Overview
What can we do with Redfish?
Example: System Health
Example: Hard Drives
Example: Thermal
Example: System Event Logs
Redfish API tree structure
Redfish Roadmap
Redfish provides scalability to OOB management
Ansible 101
Ansible use cases
Ansible concepts
Scalable and automated OOB management
Ansible module for Redfish
Key Lifecycle Management Tasks
Example: Inventory spreadsheet
Example: Set NTP settings
Resources
Conclusion