Ansible vs Jenkins: Key Differences for Automation and DevOps

In today’s modern DevOps landscape, automation is not an option, instead it is an essential part of day to day tasks. Teams are supposed to deliver software faster, make them more reliable, and at a large scale. However, to achieve this, developers often rely on automation tools like Amsible and Jenkins. While both of them are highly used in the DevOps ecosystem, they both serve their own purposes as well. 

While Ansible excels in configuration management and infrastructure automation, Jenkins is a cornerstone of CI/CD, automating the build, test, and deployment pipelines. This sparks the debate of Ansible Vs Jenkins. 

Sometimes, their roles might seem to intervene to the users, but understanding their core differences and complementary strengths is the key to finding the right tool for your team. 

In this article, we will explore the capabilities and the key differences between the two. But first, let’s talk about the two separately. 

What Is Ansible?

Ansible is an open source automation tool by Red Hat that is used for configuration management, infrastructure provisioning, application deployment, and orchestration. The platform enables system administration and DevOps teams to define and manage their infrastructure as Code (IaC) using human-readable YAML syntax called playbooks. 

One of Ansible’s main advantages is the fact that it is an agentless architecture, it communicates using SSH for Linux and WinRM for Windows, which eliminates the need to install any software on target machines. This makes up for easy maintenance. 

For tasks like installing packages or services on multiple servers, updating system configurations, managing cloud infrastructure on AWS/ Azure, and automating repetitive administrative tasks. 

Pros and Cons of Ansible

Pros:

• Due to Amsible being agentless, you do not need to install software on remote machines. 
• It uses YAML script, which is human-readable.
• It ensures consistent system states. 
• Supports integrations with cloud platforms, containers, and other network devices. 
• It works across cloud, on-premises, and containerized systems. 
• It is backed by Red Hat and is supported by a huge open-source community. 

Cons:  

• Not an ideal solution for CI/CD pipelines and lacks the support for complex applications. 
• Core CLI lacks visualization and dashboard unless extended with Ansible tower or AWX. Error messages are not clear at times. 
• Executes tasks in sequential manner unless specified otherwise. 

What Is Jenkins?

Jenkins is one of the most popular open-source automation servers that is used for implementing the CI/CD pipelines. It allows the developers to build, test, and deploy applications automatically repeatedly. 

Jenkins is written in Java and it supports many different plugins to extend functionality, test frameworks, and many other tasks. Jenkins is typically used for running test suites, building application binaries, deploying software to staging and production, and to orchestrate complex CI/CD workflows. 

Pros and Cons of Jenkins

Pros:

• Thousands of plugins to choose from for every tool in the DevOps toolchain. 
• Easily configurable to fit all the unique requirements. 
• Jenkinsfiles are written in Groovy to enable version-controlled pipelines. 
• Extensive documentation and community support. 
• Works well with GitHub, Docker, Kubernetes, and many other platforms. 

Cons:

• Complex pipelines make it hard to understand. 
• Requires regular monitoring and updates. 
• Compared to the new CI/CD tools, Jenkins interface is clunky. 
• Can be slow or unstable if not optimised in the right manner. 

Key Differences Between Ansible Vs Jenkins

Feature	Ansible	Jenkins
Primary Purpose	Configuration management & infrastructure automation	CI/CD pipeline automation
Type	Declarative (desired system state)	Imperative (task-based pipeline execution)
Installation	Agentless; uses SSH or WinRM	Requires server setup and web interface
Language/Syntax	YAML (Playbooks)	Groovy (Jenkinsfile)
Use Case Focus	Infrastructure as Code (IaC), provisioning	Building, testing, and deploying code
UI/UX	CLI (GUI via Tower or AWX)	Web-based UI with extensive plugin integration
Plugins/Extensions	Limited (modules and roles)	Thousands of plugins for tools like Git, Docker, Kubernetes
Parallel Execution	Sequential by default (parallelism is possible)	Highly parallel task execution
Community & Ecosystem	Strong open-source community (Red Hat supported)	Mature ecosystem with vast plugin support
Ideal Users	System admins, SREs, DevOps engineers	Developers, DevOps, QA/test automation engineers

How To Configure Ansible Vs Jenkins

To configure Ansible you can follow these steps: 

1. Install Ansible on the Control Node

Ansible runs via a control node, which is typically your local machine and connects using remote hosts via SSH. 

On Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install ansible -y

On macOS:

brew install ansible

Now confirm the installation:

ansible –version

2. Set Up the Inventory File

Ansible needs to know which hosts to manage. These are listed in an inventory file (default: /etc/ansible/hosts).

Example inventory:

[webservers]

web1.example.com

web2.example.com

[dbservers]

db1.example.com ansible_user=admin

You can use IP addresses or hostnames.

3. Test Connectivity with Ping Module

Check if Ansible can connect to your managed nodes:

ansible all -m ping

If you have SSH keys set up, this should return pong from each host.

If using passwords, you can use –ask-pass to enter SSH password:

ansible all -m ping –ask-pass

4. Write Your First Ansible Playbook

A playbook is a YAML file that defines automation tasks.

Example: install-nginx.yml

—

– name: Install NGINX on webservers

  hosts: webservers

  become: true

  tasks:

    – name: Install nginx

      apt:

        name: nginx

        state: present

Run the playbook:

ansible-playbook install-nginx.yml

5. Customize the Configuration File (Optional)

Ansible’s main config file is /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg. You can tweak settings like:

• Inventory location
• SSH connection timeout
• Privilege escalation settings

Example snippet:

[defaults]

inventory = ./inventory

remote_user = ubuntu

host_key_checking = False

To configure Jenkins use these steps: 

1. Install Jenkins

On Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install openjdk-11-jdk -y

wget -q -O – https://pkg.jenkins.io/debian/jenkins.io.key | sudo apt-key add –

sudo sh -c ‘echo deb https://pkg.jenkins.io/debian-stable binary/ > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/jenkins.list’

sudo apt update

sudo apt install jenkins -y

On macOS (Homebrew):

brew install jenkins-lts

brew services start jenkins-lts

2. Access Jenkins Web Interface

Open your browser and go to:
http://localhost:8080 or http://<server-ip>:8080

3. Unlock Jenkins (Initial Setup)

Jenkins will ask for an initial admin password.
Find it by running: 

sudo cat /var/lib/jenkins/secrets/initialAdminPassword

Paste the password into the browser.

4. Install Suggested Plugins

Jenkins will prompt you to Install suggested plugins for a quick setup. Alternatively, you can select your own preferred plugins to install. 

5. Create Admin User

Fill in the required fields, like username, password, name, and email. Once done click on save and continue. 

6. Configure Jenkins URL

Jenkins will automatically detect the URL, you can either use the default one or change it to your preference. Click on save and finish. You will not be redirected to the Jenkins dashboard. 

Use Cases: When to Use Ansible vs Jenkins

You should ideally use Ansible when: 

1. You need to configure the servers, install packages, or manage the infrastructure. 
2. You are working with multi-cloud systems. 
3. You require an agentless automation setup. 
4. You are working on administrative tasks that are drawn on multiple machines. 

You can use Jenkins when you need to: 

1. Automate builds, tests, and deployments. 
2. Implement a CI/CD pipeline 
3. Execute detailed pipeline history and reporting tasks.

Can Ansible Vs Jenkins Be Used Together?

Yes, in some scenarios it is best to implement the two together. A common pattern may seem like this: 

• Use Jenkins to orchestrate the CI/CD pipeline for tasks like compiling code, running tests, and triggering the deployments. 
• Use Ansible with Jenkins pipelines for application deployment and to set environment configurations. 

Conclusion – Ansible Vs Jenkins; Which Tool Should You Choose?

Choosing the right tool from Ansible Vs Jenkins depends on your team. Choose Ansible if you need to focus on automating the infrastructure and managing servers across environments. Go with Jenkins if you need a system in place for building, testing, and deploying software continuously.