To be fair, I don't think Ansible has any of those, either.
But yes, you don't need these, Ansible can exchange variables between hosts in memory without needing a database, etc.
Chef [1] and Puppet [2] both chose the Apache license. Salt did as well.
If you were worried about competitors offering hosted versions of Ansible, I could understand going AGPL, but not GPL3.
Thanks!
[1]: http://www.opscode.com/blog/2009/08/11/why-we-chose-the-apac... [2]: https://puppetlabs.com/apache/
Ansible being GPLv3 doesn't affect folks much. Your library modules can be licensed in any way you like, and it's fine to shell out and call ansible-playbook. AWX also exists as a nice API layer if you need a web services interface that abstracts you from the license question, so folks looking to do commercial integrations can tap into the REST layer.
AGPL is more restrictive than GPL, in some ways, as you can't use things in a hosted service. We didn't want to be that restrictive.
As long as there is a REST bridge/layer, any service shouldn't be considered a derived work -- only changes to "core" Ansible would be "covered" by the AGPL.
I'm sure you know this, but it is an important point (just like the GPL never dictates that you have to contribute changes upstream, just to "your" users (which of course might include upstream, and most people feel it is more constructive to give back in the more general sense...)).
I've seen some strange (imnho incorrect) interpretations of the AGPL, hence this comment.
I made a similar clarifying request on the Ansible user group forum a few weeks ago but my message was not approved. I believe that these are fair requests and deserve clarification.
Ansible is GPL, and we're totally going to keep it just the way it is, and continuing to make it more awesome. (The application is just invoking ansible-playbook).
Why is it commercial? A lot of the stuff we are building is mainly interesting to enterprises -- RBAC, reporting, things like that.
The core things everybody needs to use Ansible today, all the modules, are free software and we will continue to add loads more there. Ansible received over 50 new modules in the last 2 releases.