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Ansible Content Collections

Jump start your next automation project using trusted Ansible® content.

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Overview

Ansible Content Collections are the essential building blocks of automation. Our modules, playbooks, plugins, roles, and related documentation help content creators (also known as automation developers) quickly inject automation into their systems and solutions. With Ansible Content Collections, automation practitioners can automate their work faster, improve productivity, and accelerate time to value.

Included in your Red Hat® Ansible Automation Platform subscription, Ansible Content Collections contain both Red Hat Ansible Certified Content and Ansible validated content that we continuously publish with our industry-leading partners.

 

An overview of Ansible automation hub and Ansible Content Collections. Video duration: 2:39.

Features and benefits

Automate faster

Accelerate your automation projects with trusted, consistent, prebuilt integration content and expert-led guidance. Content creators can develop and share new collections without waiting for the next Ansible Automation Platform release.

Share and reuse

Improve collaboration and ensure standardization by sharing trusted Ansible Content Collections across your teams. Collections are reusable, which means less manual repetition each time you deploy or update systems.

Tested and trusted

Ansible Content Collections are developed with input from Red Hat and our partners, making them more security-focused, reliable, and enterprise-ready than community content. Content signing reduces the chance of security or compliance risks for the enterprise.

Discover Ansible Content Collections

Red Hat Ansible Certified Content

Red Hat Ansible Certified Content includes collections built, supported, and maintained by Red Hat and our technology partners, including Arista, Aruba, CheckPoint, Cisco, CyberArk, Dynatrace, SAP, ServiceNow, and many more. Certified collections focus on how to integrate with specific Red Hat or partner platforms, and typically consist of modules, roles, plugins, playbooks, and documentation.

Content fully supported and maintained by Red Hat follows a documented release strategy and uses semantic versioning to communicate changes and bug fixes made to a collection. 

Certified Ansible Content Collections from both Red Hat and our partners are available to download directly from Ansible automation hub.

Ansible validated content

Ansible validated content provides expert-led guidance on how to perform operations and tasks in Red Hat or partner platforms, usually in the form of roles or playbooks. To streamline a collection, some Ansible validated content may build on Red Hat Ansible Certified Content.

Validated content is customizable for your organization’s specific use cases, so it is not supported or maintained by Red Hat. All Ansible validated content is digitally signed, so you can be confident that collections come from a trusted source. 

Ansible validated content is available in Ansible automation hub and private automation hub—an on-premise repository that allows organizations to manage, share, and curate content internally, as well as control access to content from Red Hat and our partners.

How do Ansible Content Collections work?

All Ansible Content Collections use the same standardized directory structure for packaging content. The collection directory includes documentation, collection metadata stored in a galaxy.yml file, playbooks, a roles directory, tests for the collection’s content, a meta directory, and a plugins folder containing subdirectories for Ansible modules, lookup, filter, and connection plugins.

Collections are developed, tested to work with specific versions of Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, and released asynchronously from platform releases—so you get access to new content with speed and frequency.

Enhance automation security with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and Ansible Content Collections. Video duration: 4:59.

Frequently asked questions

Where can I find Ansible Content Collections?

You can access the full list of Ansible Content Collections in the Red Hat Ecosystem Catalog or via Ansible automation hub found in the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console.

Are all Ansible Content Collections fully supported by the Red Hat support team?

No, only Red Hat Ansible Certified Content is supported. 

Because Ansible validated content is flexible and customizable, it is not currently supported. However, it is curated and fully tested by Red Hat to work in production environments with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform. Community content that resides in galaxy.ansible.com is only supported by the community and does not offer the same security assurances. 

Who can create and publish collections?

Technology partners can create and upload collections to Ansible automation hub, where they are verified by Red Hat for quality and best practices before they are published for users to download. Partners developing automation content work directly with Red Hat to meet technical requirements, establish joint support for items in the collection, and smooth out any necessary integrations with Ansible Automation Platform. Organizations who want to develop automation content and bring supported content to their own customers can join the Red Hat Ansible Automation certification program.

Internal collections can also be developed and uploaded to private automation hub for distribution within your organization. You can require administrative approval for all internal content collections and reject collections that do not meet organizational certification criteria. Once a collection is published, users can download it for use. Additional documentation for publishing internal collections can be found here.

Keep learning

Video

Certified vs. validated Ansible content

Learn about the difference between certified and validated Ansible content and what they're used for.

Interactive lab

Sign Ansible Content Collections

Take this self-paced, interactive lab to learn about signing Ansible automation content with a private automation hub.

Webinar

Ansible Content Collections for networks

Learn more about using Red Hat Certified Content and Ansible validated content for network security automation.

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