Ansible Automation Platform 2.6: Complete Guide to New Features and Improvements

Red Hat has released Ansible Automation Platform 2.6, bringing significant new features designed to streamline content creation and provide deeper insights into automation impact. This release introduces AI-powered enhancements, improved development environments, and expanded cloud integrations that transform how organizations approach IT automation.

What is New in AAP 2.6

Self-Service Automation Portal (GA)

The self-service automation portal is now generally available. This feature allows:

• End users to request and execute approved automation workflows
• IT teams to publish automation as a service
• Role-based access control for automation requests
• Audit trails for all automation executions
• Custom forms for gathering input parameters

Ansible Lightspeed AI Assistant

Red Hat Ansible Lightspeed, powered by IBM Watsonx, is now fully integrated. This AI-powered assistant provides:

• Intelligent playbook generation – Describe tasks in natural language
• Syntax completion – Real-time suggestions as you type
• Best module recommendations – AI suggests optimal modules for tasks
• Error reduction – Catches common mistakes before execution
• Task ordering – Suggests logical task sequences

Additionally, Red Hat previewed support for Model Context Protocol (MCP) developed by Anthropic, enabling even more sophisticated AI interactions.

Automation Dashboard

The new on-premise automation dashboard provides:

• Key metrics tracking for automation runs
• Success and failure rate visualization
• Resource utilization insights
• Trend analysis over time
• Custom reporting capabilities

Development Workspaces (Tech Preview)

A technology preview of Ansible development workspaces built on Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces offers:

• Browser-based VS Code instance
• Pre-loaded Ansible development tools
• Content Collections ready to use
• Ansible Lightspeed integration
• Standardized development environment

Enhanced Cloud Integrations

AWS Integration (amazon.aws 10.0)

Significantly enhanced AWS support including:

• EC2 instance management improvements
• VPC configuration modules
• Autoscaling group management
• S3 bucket lifecycle policies
• IAM role and policy automation

AI Workflow Automation (amazon.ai Collection)

The new amazon.ai Certified Content Collection enables:

• Amazon Bedrock integration for AI model deployment
• DevOps Guru configuration for operational monitoring
• Foundation model invocation via playbooks
• Compliance-ready AI deployment reports

- name: Deploy AI model with Amazon Bedrock
  amazon.ai.bedrock_model:
    model_id: anthropic.claude-v2
    inference_profile:
      max_tokens: 4096
      temperature: 0.7
    state: present

Azure Enhancements

• Azure Arc device management
• Azure Key Vault integration
• Improved Azure Resource Manager modules

Terraform Integration

Deeper out-of-the-box integration between AAP and Terraform allows:

• Terraform state management from Ansible
• Combined infrastructure provisioning workflows
• Terraform plan execution via playbooks
• State file synchronization

Windows Server Improvements

Windows management capabilities expanded by over 95%:

• OpenSSH support – Native SSH connections to Windows
• Enhanced Windows Update modules
• Active Directory management improvements
• IIS configuration automation
• Windows Firewall rule management

System Requirements

AAP 2.6 requires:

• Operating System: RHEL 8.8+ or 9.2+ (64-bit)
• Python: 3.9+
• ansible-core: 2.16 (included in execution environments)
• Minimum Hardware: 4 vCPU, 16 GB RAM per node

For production deployments, a minimum of three nodes is required:

• Automation Controller node
• Automation Hub node
• Platform Gateway node

Upgrading to AAP 2.6

Before upgrading, ensure you:

1. Back up your current AAP database
2. Review the release notes for breaking changes
3. Test the upgrade in a staging environment
4. Plan for execution environment updates

# Download the latest installer
curl -O https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/480/ver=2.6/rhel---9/2.6/x86_64/product-software

# Extract and run setup
tar xvf ansible-automation-platform-setup-bundle-2.6-1.tar.gz
cd ansible-automation-platform-setup-bundle-2.6-1

# Edit inventory file
vim inventory

# Run the installer
./setup.sh

Conclusion

Ansible Automation Platform 2.6 represents a significant step forward in enterprise automation. The AI-powered features through Ansible Lightspeed reduce the learning curve and accelerate playbook development. Enhanced cloud integrations make hybrid and multi-cloud automation easier than ever.

For organizations already using AAP, the upgrade path is straightforward and the new features justify the effort. For those considering enterprise automation, AAP 2.6 offers compelling capabilities that go far beyond what open-source Ansible alone provides.