Development Environment

In the context of automation initiatives for the Dutch government, the development environment is often overlooked. Nevertheless, it plays a pivotal role in the success of any project, particularly those utilizing Ansible Automation Platform.

Within C2 Platform, the development environment can be realized in two main ways. The first is the default open-source approach: a local, self-managed environment on an engineer’s own laptop or infrastructure, equipped with native virtualization capabilities. After the one-command install, this local variant is ready to use immediately for developing and testing Ansible content and for provisioning local nodes based on the included reference implementation. The second is a hosted seat: a development environment provided by C2 Platform on C2 Platform infrastructure.

For the hosted variant, see Hosted Seat . Both variants follow the same underlying engineering approach, and the automation used to provision hosted seats is open source as well.

The adoption of a local development environment offers numerous benefits in contrast to relying on data center-based infrastructure, where VMs are created and managed by external teams.

1. Enhanced Iteration Speed: A local development environment empowers Ansible engineers to iterate and test their solutions rapidly. This autonomy eliminates the need to rely on the infrastructure team for VM provisioning and de-provisioning, significantly boosting development efficiency.
2. Isolation and Security: Leveraging local virtualization technologies such as LXD and VirtualBox ensures a secure and isolated environment for Ansible development. This isolation minimizes conflicts with other software components and maintains control over the testing environment.
3. Cost-Effectiveness: A local development environment proves cost-effective as it negates the necessity for provisioning additional VMs and incurring extra expenses. This approach optimizes resource utilization and budget allocation.
4. Flexibility: Ansible engineers gain the freedom to configure and set up their own VMs based on specific project requirements. This flexibility enables comprehensive testing of various configurations and scenarios, facilitating robust development.
5. Learning Opportunities: Setting up and managing a local development environment and VMs offer Ansible engineers valuable learning experiences. This hands-on practice in virtualization and infrastructure management enhances their expertise, making them more proficient in Ansible automation.

The local open-source variant can be bootstrapped quickly with the C2 Platform one-command install, while the same open-source automation can be used to create hosted seats or similar managed development environments.

Incorporating a local development environment into Dutch government automation projects ensures Ansible engineers can work productively, start promptly, and remain independent of data center access and administrative hurdles. This approach fosters agility, cost savings, and a deeper understanding of infrastructure management, ultimately contributing to the success of Ansible automation initiatives.