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Since you’re reading this blog, no doubt you’re aware that automation is essential to delivering modern digital experiences. It enables agility at a pace that isn’t possible with human hands, reduces downtime and errors, and lets developers focus on the things that give them joy. 73% of organizations are automating network operations to boost efficiency, and perhaps nowhere is automation more prevalent than in public clouds.
At NGINX, not only do we love automation, but we also know that it’s considered a must‑have by our customers and community. Our solutions can be incorporated seamlessly into DevOps workflows using APIs and we’ve made extensive development investments in official Ansible roles and collections. In this blog we explore four ways you can automate NGINX technologies in the public cloud. We use AWS as the sample cloud, but NGINX is cloud‑agnostic, so you can apply these methods to the cloud of your choice.
Automate Provisioning of NGINX Plus and NGINX App Protect Using Ansible
When to Use This Method
- You use NGINX Plus but not NGINX Controller
- You use NGINX Controller but want full control over your NGINX Plus configuration
How to Use This Method
- Use Terraform to set up Amazon Machine Images (AMIs)
- Run a series of Ansible playbooks to install NGINX Plus
- Configure NGINX Plus as a reverse proxy and load balancer in front of a couple of NGINX Plus web servers
- Install NGINX App Protect and configure it to secure the NGINX Plus reverse proxy
Resources for This Method
- NGINX Plus product page
- Announcing the NGINX Core Collection for Ansible on our blog
- NGINX roles and collections on Ansible Galaxy
- Playbooks, scripts, and instructions on GitHub for Alessandro Fael Garcia’s “NGINX: Better with Ansible” demo
Not using NGINX App Protect yet? Start your free 30-day trial.
See This Method in Action
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Automate Deployment of NGINX Controller
When to Use This Method
You use NGINX Controller and want to automate its deployment.
How to Use This Method
- Use Packer’s Ansible provisioner to pre‑bake NGINX Controller’s AMIs
- Use Terraform to deploy NGINX Controller’s infrastructure on AWS
- Use Ansible to install and configure NGINX Controller as well as the NGINX Controller agent on NGINX Plus instances
Resources for This Method
- NGINX Controller product page
- Getting Started with the Ansible Collection for NGINX Controller on our blog
- Playbooks, scripts, and instructions on GitHub for Alessandro Fael Garcia’s “Automate your NGINX Controller AWS deployment” demo
Not yet using NGINX Controller? Start your free 30-day trial.
See This Method in Action
Automate Your NGINX Plus Data Plane Using NGINX Controller
When to Use This Method
You use NGINX Controller and want to:
- Segment control over your data‑plane resources while avoiding error‑prone manual processes
- Enable self‑service deployment of data‑plane instances, eliminating the bottleneck of IT request tickets
- Align with corporate standards for approved AMIs and guardrail‑style controls that prevent security vulnerabilities
How to Use This Method
Use NGINX Controller to set up self‑service deployment of NGINX Plus instances for developers.
Resource for This Method
NGINX Controller product page
Not yet using NGINX Controller? Start your free 30-day trial.
See This Method in Action
Steer Traffic Intelligently Using Automation with F5 DNS Cloud Services
When to Use This Method
You want to optimize the end‑user digital experience by preventing downtime and poor application performance.
How to Use This Method
Use F5 DNS Cloud Services to set up DNS load balancing, also known as global server load balancing (GSLB), for these benefits:
- Automatically route traffic away from unhealthy instances of your apps so users don’t experience slowdowns or outages
- Automate deployment and configuration with APIs to eliminate manual errors and achieve consistency and repeatability
- Scale and improve resilience by deploying apps across AWS regions and availability zones
- Steer user traffic to the closest available app instance for faster performance
Resources for This Method
- F5 DNS Cloud Services product page
- Why DNS is Critical for Modern App Deployments on our blog
- Sign up for early access
- F5 Cloud Services product details
Not yet using F5 DNS Cloud Services? Start your free 30-day trial.
See This Method in Action
Getting Started with NGINX in the Public Cloud
Today you can bring your own NGINX licenses (BYOL) to the cloud of your choice, or purchase NGINX Plus (with or without NGINX App Protect) directly from the AWS, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure marketplaces. Contact us to learn how we can help with your cloud strategy and see if a private offer is right for your organization.