Cut VM Provisioning Time on Red Hat Openshift Virtualization Using Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

Developers are used to the cloud, where a virtual machine (VM) can be launched in seconds. But in many businesses, especially in regulated industries, requesting and receiving a VM can take a staggering 60 to 90 days. This kind of delay can stimulate innovation and delay critical projects. But what if you could provide your developers with a more seamless, self-service experience that delivers a fully configured VM in less than an hour, with automated lifecycle management? It’s not a distant dream, it’s a reality you can build with Red Hat’s integrated toolkit.

3 pillars of a modern IT service platform

To transform a slow and manual process into a fast, automated one, you need 3 key building blocks: A user-friendly portal, a powerful hypervisor and an intelligent automation engine.

1. The portal: Red Hat Developer Hub provides a single, streamlined user experience (based on Backstage) to request any resource, starting with VMs. It’s an enterprise-grade, hardened platform with the support complex organizations need.
2. The hypervisor: Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization brings together traditional VMs and modern containers on a single Kubernetes-based platform. Built on KVM, it allows you to manage your entire estate, including legacy Windows and Linux VMs, to cloud-native applications from a unified control plane.
3. The automation engine: Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is the orchestration engine that ties everything together. It automates every complex, behind-the-scenes task, eliminating manual handoffs that cause delays.

From provision to correction

Provisioning a VM is just the beginning. The real power of this solution lies in its ability to manage the entire lifecycle of your applications, helping to ensure they run efficiently, resiliently, and securely.

Phase 1: One-click provisioning

It starts with a simple request. Select a predefined job template from Red Hat Developer Hub, fill in a few parameters such as the VM name and instance type, and click Start. In the background, Ansible Automation Platform executes a workflow that provides the VM in OpenShift Virtualization. Within minutes, your Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) or Windows instance is up and running.

Phase 2: Proactive Self-Healing with Event-Driven Ansible

What happens when a workload comes under stress? In a traditional environment, an alert creates a ticket waiting for a human to intervene manually. With Event-Driven Ansible (EDA), you create a self-healing system. For example, when a monitoring tool like Prometheus detects a VM that is low on resources, it sends an event to Event-Driven Ansible, which automatically triggers a playbook to fix the problem. For critical operations, you can include a “human in the loop” to approve the scaling operation with a single click.

Phase 3: Simplified Day 2 operations with automatic patching

A VM’s life does not end after it is deployed and scaled down. Ongoing maintenance is where operating costs add up. Patching – a critical but often manual and time-consuming task – is a perfect example.

The solution is to automate Day 2 operations just like Day 1 provisioning. From the same self-service portal, an operator can select a VM that needs updates and initiate a patch job. Ansible Automation Platform automatically syncs its inventory with OpenShift Virtualization, identifies the correct VM, and runs a playbook to apply the latest security-related packages. It automates a core system administrator responsibility, freeing teams to focus on higher-value work while ensuring security and compliance.

A better experience for everyone

This integrated solution does not only benefit developers. It transforms operations for the entire organization:

• For developers: A faster, more frictionless experience that gives them the resources they need, when they need them.
• For operators: A centralized, automated way to provision, manage and maintain workloads, reducing manual work and forcing management.
• For business: Increased agility, reduced operating costs and a more resilient, secure and efficient IT environment.

The journey to a modern, automated data center begins with a single step. By integrating Red Hat Developer Hub, OpenShift Virtualization, and Ansible Automation Platform, you can provide a superior experience for your users and unlock new levels of efficiency for your business.