Top 10 Tools to Automate Linux Admin Tasks

If you are a Linux administrator, or you want to become one, there are certain tasks that can become repetitive and boring. In fact, back in the day, some tasks were so incredibly repetitive that it became very hard to keep track of all the servers; this is why automation tools were created to help with such tasks. These tools help you manage and administer different servers or systems at once, and some of them allow you to do a particular task with only a click or a command line. The tools mentioned below will definitely help you automate some of the tasks of a system administrator so that you can concentrate on other interesting concepts and tasks.

1. Ansible

Ansible is an open-source automation tool that can configure systems, deploy software, and orchestrate more advanced IT tasks such as continuous deployments or zero downtime rolling updates. It uses human-readable YAML templates so you don‘t have to write code in order to automate tasks.

Some key features of Ansible:

• Agentless – It uses SSH to connect to machines, so no agents or daemons are needed
• Idempotent – Tasks will only be executed if the current state diverges from the desired final state
• Secure – Ansible uses SSH natively and supports privilege escalation
• Easy to learn – It uses human-readable YAML templates

To get started with Ansible:

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install ansible

Ansible can then be configured by editing the Ansible configuration file (/etc/ansible/ansible.cfg) and inventory file (/etc/ansible/hosts).

2. Puppet

Puppet is one of the largest open-source system administration tools, which helps you automate several tasks. It is used by major enterprises to configure and administer their servers. It monitors the network continuously for any alterations, and it can automatically configure any changes that may happen. It also helps to create and manage users efficiently. It also allows different system administrators and developers to work together, which makes the tasks of each individual easier.

Puppet automates server set-up, program installation as well as system management. It is not only supported on Linux but also on Windows and macOS. It is not very hard to set up or use. It is a paid software, but since so many companies use it, it is worth the price.

To install Puppet:

$ sudo apt-get install puppet-agent

3. SaltStack

Salt or SaltStack is a Python-based open-source software, which is used for IT automation and remote task execution. It ensures high-speed data collection and system management for massive infrastructure. Salt is primarily used for remote tasks, which can be as simple as asking a web server to show a webpage and as complex as using a shell session to issue commands.

Salt is generally used by massive enterprises because it is efficient at managing all servers at once. With a single command line or a click of a button, you could update the software on all servers. It has high security as it uses data encryption to protect all data that is processed through it. It has a relatively easy installation process, and also it is easy to use. It is not free, but the price is worth it as it is very efficient.

To install Salt:

$ curl -L https://bootstrap.saltstack.com -o install_salt.sh
$ sudo sh install_salt.sh

4. CFEngine

CFEngine is an automation tool, which helps you with managing your infrastructure easily. It can search for system errors efficiently and fix them automatically, without the need for any user interaction. It can also automatically perform package updates across hundreds of servers at once. It can also help you do several tasks such as process management, schedule management, reporting and compliance, service management, password management, application deployment, etc. It is well known due to its ability to self-heal and its quick response times. It is relatively easy to download and set up and also easy to use once installed. It is not free or open-source, but since it is so well known, organizations are willing to buy it for efficiency.

To install CFEngine:

$ sudo apt-get install cfengine

5. Terraform

Terraform is an infrastructure as code software tool created by HashiCorp. It allows users to define a datacenter infrastructure in a high-level configuration language and build a plan to provision it automatically. This helps automate the process of building and managing infrastructure.

Some benefits of using Terraform include:

• Infrastructure as code – Infrastructure can be described in files that can be shared and version controlled
• Execution plans – Terraform has a "planning" step where it generates an execution plan before provisioning real resources
• Resource graph – Visualize dependencies between resources
• Change automation – Complex changes can be applied automatically across many resources
• Multi-provider – Terraform works with many providers like AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, OpenStack etc.

To get started with Terraform:

$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install terraform

6. Rundeck

Rundeck is an open source automation service with a web console, command line tools and a WebAPI. It lets you easily run automation tasks across a set of resources.

Some key features:

• Web console – Centralized control and visibility
• Role-based access control – Fine grained user permissions
• Resource model – Group resources and run tasks on them
• Job scheduling – Schedule one time or recurring executions
• Integrations – Extend functionality via plugins
• Notifications – Get notified of task failures or success

To install Rundeck:

$ sudo apt-get install rundeck

7. Bamboo

Bamboo is a continuous integration and deployment server created by Atlassian. It ties automated builds, tests and releases together in a single workflow.

Some benefits include:

• Customizable build plans – Tailor plans to your needs
• Automatic testing – Runs unit, integration and functional tests
• Deployment control – Manual approval or automated deployment
• Integrations – Works with Git, Docker, AWS etc.
• Detailed reports – Logs for audit trail & diagnostics
• Scalable – Can handle hundreds of projects and tests

To install Bamboo:

$ sudo apt-get install bamboo

8. Jenkins

Jenkins is an open source automation server for build, test and deployment processes. It helps implement continuous integration and continuous delivery pipelines.

Features of Jenkins:

• Easy installation – Java based, installs on many operating systems
• Plugin ecosystem – 1000+ plugins to extend functionality
• Pipeline support – Automate pipelines as code
• Scalable – Distributed builds across multiple machines
• Flexible – Supports many version control tools, test frameworks, deployment platforms etc.
• Community backed – Strong community contributions

To install Jenkins:

$ sudo apt install jenkins

9. Traefik

Traefik is an open source edge router that makes deploying microservices easy. It acts as a reverse proxy and load balancer for cloud native applications.

Some reasons to use Traefik:

• Automatic discovery – Automatically detects containers
• Load balancing – Distributes requests between containers
• Health checks – Removes unhealthy containers
• SSL support – Automatically create and renew certificates
• Dashboard – Helps visualize and monitor services
• Highly scalable – Can handle large scale deployments
• Easy configuration – Configuration over Docker labels

To install Traefik:

$ sudo docker run -d -p 8080:8080 -p 80:80 --name traefik traefik

10. Supervisor

Supervisor is a client/server system that allows users to monitor and control processes on UNIX-like operating systems. It can automatically restart crashed or exited processes like daemons and background workers.

Benefits of using Supervisor:

• Process monitoring – Easily monitor and control processes
• Failure handling – Automatically restarts failed processes
• Logging – Logs stdout and stderr of managed processes
• Zero downtime restarts – Reloads configuration without stopping
• Programmatic control – XML-RPC interface to control and query
• Distributed capability – Monitor remote machine processes

To install Supervisor:

$ sudo apt install supervisor

So in summary, these automation tools help simplify many Linux administration tasks so you can manage your infrastructure more efficiently. They provide things like configuration management, continuous integration pipelines, infrastructure provisioning, monitoring, high availability and more.