configuration - What is the difference between a Docker Container and an Ansible Playbook? -

it seems me both tools used install , automatically configure applications.

however, i've limitedly used docker , haven't used ansible @ all. i'm little confused.

whenever search comparison between these 2 technologies, find details how use these technologies in combination.

there many reasons articles talk using them together.

think of ansible way of installing , configuring machine can go , tweak individual step of install , configuration in future. can scale concept out many machines able manage.

a key difference ansible has advantage can not manage internals of machine, manage other systems such networking, dns, monitoring etc surround machine.

building out many machines via ansible takes pretty time 50 machines make 1, 50 created step step. if running rolling deploy across multiple environments build step step takes time.

now think of docker having built 1 of individual machines - installed , configured , ready deployed wherever docker system available (which pretty everywhere these days). drawback here don't manage other aspects needed around making docker containers work, , tweaking them long term isn't fun sounds if haven't automated configuration (hence ansible helps here).

scaling 1 50 docker machines once have created initial image blindingly fast in comparison step step approach ansible takes, , obvious during rolling deploy of many machines in smaller groups.

each has drawbacks in either ability or speed. combine them both , can pretty awesome. no doubt of articles have read, recommend looking @ using ansible create (and update) base docker container(s) , using ansible manage rollout of whatever scale of containers need satisfy applications usage.