I remember having to install a new web server next to an existing one. The only requirement my boss had was it had to be "the same" as the existing one. There were two problems:
- no one had ever documented which packages were needed to run our software
- the existing server hadn't been upgraded in ages.
I had to use trial and error to get the new server up and running and still I wasn't confident everything was properly installed. What I needed at that time was a way to manage my server configuration.
In this blog post I will tell you about my experience with server provisioning, why I chose Ansible and I will show you how to install a web server.
