Ansible has emerged as a user-friendly alternative to Puppet for deploying Elasticsearch clusters, leveraging its push architecture and Python-based automation to streamline the process across heterogeneous hardware. With the release of Elasticsearch 2.0.0, a new Ansible role simplifies the installation and configuration of Elasticsearch nodes, supporting tasks from prerequisite installation to service management. This role is particularly beneficial for organizations without a history of using Puppet, as it requires only SSH access and Python 2 on the target host, eliminating the need for an agent or external dependencies. The Ansible role's structure facilitates the assignment of Elasticsearch instances to hosts, and the configuration process is adaptable through a map serialized to YAML, ensuring ease of updates. An example using an Ubuntu-based Docker image demonstrates the role's capabilities, outlining steps for setting up a playbook and deploying Elasticsearch nodes. This role is part of a broader effort to provide Ansible roles for other Elastic products like Beats and Logstash, aiming to deploy the entire Elastic stack with ease and encouraging community contributions and feedback.