Ansible is a configuration management tool that does not require an agent and allows for idempotent and declarative configuration rather than procedural scripts. It can be used for provisioning, configuration management, application deployment, continuous delivery, security and compliance, and orchestration. Playbooks are YAML files that describe the desired state of systems using plays containing tasks that call modules. Ansible is installed using dnf on Linux systems and example playbooks demonstrate how to install and start the Apache web server. Many large companies use Ansible for IT automation and management.