Ansible for Network Automation

Introduction

Ansible Network modules extend the benefits of simple, powerful, agentless automation to network administrators and teams. Ansible Network modules can configure your network stack, test and validate existing network state, and discover and correct network configuration drift.

If you’re new to Ansible, or new to using Ansible for network management, start with the Getting Started Guide.

For documentation on using a particular network module, consult the list of all network modules. Some network modules are maintained by the Ansible community - here’s a list of network modules maintained by the Ansible Network Team.

Getting Started

• An Introduction to Network Automation with Ansible
  • Who should use this guide?
• Basic Concepts
  • Control Node
  • Managed Nodes
  • Inventory
  • Modules
  • Tasks
  • Playbooks
• How Network Automation is Different
  • Execution on the Control Node
  • Multiple Communication Protocols
  • Modules Organized by Network Platform
  • Privilege Escalation: authorize and become
• Run Your First Command and Playbook
  • Prerequisites
  • Install Ansible
  • Establish a Manual Connection to a Managed Node
  • Run Your First Network Ansible Command
  • Create and Run Your First Network Ansible Playbook
• Build Your Inventory
  • Basic Inventory
  • Add Variables to Inventory
  • Group Variables within Inventory
  • Variable Syntax
  • Group Inventory by Platform
  • Protecting Sensitive Variables with ansible-vault
• Beyond the Basics
  • Beyond Playbooks: Moving Tasks and Variables into Roles
  • A Typical Ansible Filetree
  • Tracking Changes to Inventory and Playbooks: Source Control with Git
  • Resources and Next Steps
    • Text
    • Events (on Video and in Person)
    • GitHub Repos
    • IRC

User Guide

• User Guide to to Network Automation with Ansible
  • Who should use this guide?
• Ansible Network FAQ
  • How can I improve performance for network playbooks?
    • Consider strategy: free if you are running on multiple hosts
    • Execute show running only if you absolutely must
    • Use ProxyCommand only if you absolutely must
    • Set --forks to match your needs
  • Why is my output sometimes replaced with ********?
  • Why do the *_config modules always return changed=true with abbreviated commands?
• Network Best Practices for Ansible 2.5
  • Overview
    • Audience
    • Prerequisites
  • Concepts
    • Structure
    • Inventory, Connections, Credentials: Grouping Devices and Variables
    • Playbook
  • Example
    • Running the playbook
  • Implementation Notes
    • Demo variables
    • Get running configuration
  • Troubleshooting
• Network Debug and Troubleshooting Guide
  • Introduction
  • How to troubleshoot
    • Enabling Networking logging and how to read the logfile
    • Isolating an error
  • Category “socket_path issue”
  • Category “Unable to open shell”
    • Error: “[Errno -2] Name or service not known”
    • Error: “Authentication failed”
    • Error: “connecting to host <hostname> returned an error” or “Bad address”
    • Error: “No authentication methods available”
    • Clearing Out Persistent Connections
  • Timeout issues
    • Timeouts
  • Playbook issues
    • Error: “invalid connection specified, expected connection=local, got ssh”
    • Error: “Unable to enter configuration mode”
  • Proxy Issues
    • delegate_to vs ProxyCommand
• Working with Command Output in Network Modules
  • Conditionals in Networking Modules
• Platform Options
  • EOS Platform Options
    • Connections Available
    • Using CLI in Ansible 2.5
    • Using eAPI in Ansible 2.5
  • IOS Platform Options
    • Connections Available
    • Using CLI in Ansible 2.5
  • Junos OS Platform Options
    • Connections Available
    • Using CLI in Ansible 2.5
    • Using NETCONF in Ansible 2.5
  • NXOS Platform Options
    • Connections Available
    • Using CLI in Ansible 2.5
    • Using NX-API in Ansible 2.5
  • Settings by Platform