Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.4 is generally available (GA). It is a simple, agentless automation platform that improves your current processes, integrates event-driven automation, and provides a sneak peek at how artificial intelligence (AI) will improve automation in the future. This article describes the new features you'll find in Ansible Automation Platform 2.4.
Event-Driven Ansible
Announced as developer preview during AnsibleFest 2022, Event-Driven Ansible is now available with Ansible Automation Platform 2.4. Event-Driven Ansible is a scalable, responsive automation capability that processes events containing discrete, actionable intelligence. It empowers teams to determine the appropriate response to an event and execute automated actions to address or remediate it.
Event-Driven Ansible frees teams from mundane tasks to focus on innovation while enabling more responsive and resilient IT services through the faster resolution of requests. It can work with multiple data sources and trigger required actions automatically. You can incorporate Event-Driven Ansible to any use case, such as networking, infrastructure, security, edge, cloud, application automation, and beyond.
Refer to our checklist on how event-driven automation can help you achieve more.
Validated content integration
Ansible validated content is now available through Ansible automation hub and validated content collections are also pre-loaded into private automation hub. Validated content is curated by Red Hat and can be customized for customers' unique environments. Validated content is available for use cases such as infrastructure, infrastructure at the edge, security, networking, network at the edge, and hybrid cloud.
Platform install support for ARM
If your infrastructure has ARM requirements, you can now install the full Ansible Automation Platform on Red Hat Enterprise Linux just as you would with x86 systems. This allows you to use Ansible seamlessly on edge devices and keep them in compliance with all other sites in your full infrastructure.
Technology preview features
There are several features that are part of Ansible Automation Platform 2.4 as technology preview. These changes are not yet fully supported by Red Hat but allow us to test and provide feedback for future capabilities.
Ansible Lightspeed with IBM Watson Code Assistant
Ansible Lightspeed with IBM Watson Code Assistant is a generative AI service accessed via the Ansible Visual Studio Code extension. This service lets you accept and run recommended code directly into your code editing environment while creating Ansible playbooks. Simply type a task in plain English into the VS Code editor, and it will make a code recommendation for you to consider.
You can accept, reject, and modify the code and provide feedback on the recommendations in this technology preview. Register here to receive Ansible Lightspeed technology preview notifications and experience the generative AI experience.
Centralized user interface
As Ansible Automation Platform continues to evolve the user experience, several new UI features are in technology preview in Ansible 2.4. There are new views in the automation controller, including night mode and system default setting matching. On-premise analytics reports are also available directly in the automation controller with new UI.
To find out more, check out this quick demo on how to enable new UI features for Ansible Automation Platform 2.4.
Automation controller installation support for Linux on Power and Z
Organizations that utilize power-based systems or have mainframes that require strict management separation from the infrastructure can install the automation controller and have the ability to automate their environments completely separately from the rest of their infrastructure.
Make the move to Ansible Automation Platform 2.4
You can download the latest version of the Ansible Automation Platform at no cost. Get started with the Ansible Automation Platform by exploring interactive labs.
Last updated: August 14, 2023