I generally find writing a good role takes longer than doing it manually. Especially as you have to keep testing failure conditions as you think of them.

However, the point is, that once you’re finished with the role, you never have to do that process again.

Not if you want to rebuild Not if you want to migrate to a new os Not if you build a second server Not if you move to a newcloud hosting provider

Porting to a new OS or after an update that changes how the software works is about as fast as doing it manually

Maybe it’s only one server today, but how many times would you need to rebuild it over the running lifetime?

The killer feature is that having something like ansible lets you kill your darlings, and keep servers aa cattle, not pets.

Manual setup chops isn’t a different skill here. I view ansible as a combination setup and documentation. If you’re going to figure out how, why not write down how you did it? If you’re going to write it down complete with code lines to run, why not script it?

I was going to add that the avatar was already dead, and it was your screaming the troll was talking over, because this is the 30th time you’d heard the ad

It’s your 30th boss run. As you fuck up your sixth dodge roll in a row, the Troll picks up your character. He roars over the screams of your avatar as he crushes it’s ribs in its massive fist.

Then, as he raises you high over head, and opens wide to chomp down on your head, the actions stops. The Troll turns to the camera and smiles, showing off brilliant pearly whites. “Colgate is recommended by 9/10 dentists.”, the troll effuses over the screaming.

A text box appears.

‘To proceed, type the number of dentists Colgate is recommended by, followed by this random number “N”.’