Can you explain how server configuration and management automation is carried out using Ansible?

Ansible is a tool for automating configuration and server management, which operates on a "push" principle — the control server sends instructions to target machines.

Main mechanisms:

• Inventory — a list of servers to manage.
• Playbooks — YAML files describing tasks to be performed on servers.
• Modules — ready-made scripts for executing specific actions (installing packages, copying files, starting services).

Automation process:

1. You describe the desired state of servers in a playbook.
2. Ansible connects to servers via SSH (without installing agents).
3. Executes tasks sequentially, ensuring idempotency (if the state already matches, no changes will be made).

Example of a simple playbook to install nginx:

- hosts: webservers
  become: yes
  tasks:
    - name: Install nginx
      apt:
        name: nginx
        state: present

Thus, Ansible allows centralized and repeatable management of server configurations without manual actions.