ansible for network automation hands on

By using this website you agree to our use of cookies. Network modules for various hardware are supported by different teams including the hardware vendors themselves, volunteers from the Ansible community, and the Ansible Network Team. SFS Networking Support & Interoperability Matrix, SmartFabric OS10 Networking Solutions InfoHub, Enterprise/Data Center Networking Solutions, Simplify BGP EVPN VXLAN data center deployment challenges with Ansible, Dell OS10 SmartFabric Services Ansible collection, Use a simple, powerful, and agentless automation framework, Use a data model (a playbook or role) that easily spans network devices, Benefit from a wide variety of community and vendor-generated playbook and role content to help accelerate network automation projects. Learn how to automate all things networking with Red Hat Ansible and Red Hat Ansible Tower. For more information on ansible_ssh_ options see Connecting to hosts: behavioral inventory parameters. Without this we would return the details for the current host, rather than the named host. Network operators, network engineers, system administrators, and anyone interested in network automation. Hands-on experience with Python, Ansible, Terraform, and YAML packages; Hands-on experience with Terraform Providers and translating to product requirements. There are different ways to interact with Ansible Collections and your Ansible Automation: Regardless of the method chosen, first you need to find, identity and obtain the Ansible Collections you want to use. Course can be taught across all major (and most minor) network vendors. Ansible delivers simple IT automation that ends repetitive tasks and frees up DevOps teams for more strategic work. Integrate a CI/CD pipeline into automation controller to see how RedHat Ansible Automation Platform supports DevOps practices. Long, detailed, and complex Methods of Procedure (MOPs) have to be manually managed, and often result in delays and reduced organizational agility. Without this the user that is running ansible-playbook would be used. See Installing Ansible for more information. Thursday, 17 February 2022 | 10am to 2pm AEDT, Basic understanding of what Ansible is and how it works with networking devices, Running ad-hoc Ansible commands from a command line, Building and execution of playbooks to accomplish basic router connectivity, Use Case: Backing up network configurations, Use Case: Additional router configurations, Introduction to Roles: Making playbooks reusable and platform agnostic, Use Case: Creating and running a job template. This includes settings such as changing the return output from JSON to YAML. Save this information somewhere, we will need to enter this into the ansible.cfg file. You will walk away from this course with a practical understanding of how to configure and maintain your network using Ansible. You can access the collection by searching for dellemc.sfs on the Ansible Galaxy website. Red Hat Automation Hub hosts certified, secure collections that are validated and supported by Red Hat. Ansible Automation Platform is the glue that coordinates and scales automation across all IT domains, and fosters a culture of collaboration across the disparate teams within an organization. In essence, Ansible Automation content is going to be delivered using the collection packaging mechanism. SFS delivers autonomous fabric deployment, expansion, and life cycle management. Learn how to use RedHat Ansible Automation Platform to retrieve facts from network infrastructure and create dynamic documentation. Were the worlds leading provider of enterprise open source solutionsincluding Linux, cloud, container, and Kubernetes. Attendees must come with a laptop with admin rights and the ability to connect to a lab environment hosted in a public cloud. The Ansible collection for Dell EMC SmartFabric OS10, which includes sample playbooks and documents that illustrate how the collection can be used, is available on Ansible Galaxy. This document describes some examples of using Ansible to manage your network infrastructure. Deploy RedHat Ansible Automation Platform on Microsoft Azure and perform automation tasks in your Azure environment. INTRODUCTORY LAB Write your first playbook In our example, the inventory file defines the groups eos, ios, vyos and a group of groups called switches. I will use a gitignore file to ignore the downloaded content and only track the requirements file. It's used by operations teams that need to manage the deployment, monitoring, and management of various types of applications. This reduces the number of tasks and conditionals you need in your playbooks. Understanding network and security resource modules, Developing network and security resource modules, Example: Unit testing Ansible network resource modules, Developing cli_parser plugins in a collection, Adding a platform-specific options section, Adding your new file to the table of contents. For example to install the F5 Networks collections you would perform this command: Another way would be to package the required collections in your SCM (source control management) with your other content. Basically all the Ansible tools that users use to create their Ansible Automation. Ansible is open source and created by contributions from an active open source community. Create and share automation across your organizationfrom development and operations to security and network teams. This means you would sync collections in your development environment versus the Ansible Tower device. Control, access, secure, audit, and delegate functions that are required for operations across the enterprise, including network operations. We'll explore examples of network automation tasks using simple Python programs and Ansible. by Learn how to sign Ansible Content Collections using a private automation hub and install collections with ansible-galaxy CLI. We can use the facts, such as ansible_net_version late on in the Display some facts task. This blog provides a quick introduction to the Ansible network collection for Dell SmartFabric Services (SFS). Previously he was the global datacenter architect for a top 10 Fortune 500 enterprise, leading the network automation efforts there. Scale automation volume reliably and consistently from the datacenter, across clouds, and to the edge. See Using encrypted variables and files for more information. In this blog post we'll walk through a use case wherein, the user would like to use a Red Hat certified collection from Automation Hub and also use a community supported collection from Ansible Galaxy. In this article, I will show you how to install Microsoft SQL on a dedicated Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 instance and pass the execution environment image while the Ansible playbook runs. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform enables you to control, secure and manage automation through this user dashboard or through a RESTful API. The collections can now be installed using the command: Running this command in verbose mode helps us look at the endpoints being accessed: To test the availability of modules from these new collections, you can use the ansible-doc command: Our simple playbook will collect facts from the Juniper and F5 device (https://github.com/termlen0/collections_demo/blob/master/play.yaml). The backup file is written to the backup folder in the playbook root directory. Ansible includes hundreds of network modules to support a wide variety of network device vendors, including: Demo: Network Automation With Red Hat Automation Execution Environments For Beginners. These vault files can then be distributed or placed in source control. Unmaintained Ansible versions can contain unfixed security vulnerabilities (CVE). For information about the event, or registration for the next event, please contact the event registration service. Ansible is the only automation language that can be used across entire IT teams from systems and network administrators to developers and managers. (This example originally appeared in the Deep Dive on cli_command for Network Automation blog post by Sean Cavanaugh -@IPvSean). By using this website you agree to our use of cookies. ansible.cfg is the Ansible configuration file. Specifies which user on the network device the connection. Join Ansible technical experts for a virtual hands-on workshop where you will gain a comprehensive overview of Ansible, followed by a deep dive into Ansible Tower and how the two work together in typical networking environments. Develops a technology strategy and ensures technology solutions comply with applicable standards. The same benefits that Ansible brings to compute nodes can now be extended to the network nodes. The result has been that networking teams are increasingly isolated from the emerging DevOps revolution, which can slow process modernization efforts because of the manual tasks required to manage networks. For more about Ansible Dell SmartFabric OS10 Collections by Dell Technologies, see: Introduction to Ansible Network Collection for Dell SmartFabric Services. Protecting sensitive data with Ansible vault, Virtualization and Containerization Guides, Controlling how Ansible behaves: precedence rules, Collections organized by network platform, Establish a manual connection to a managed node, Create and run your first network Ansible Playbook, Tracking changes to inventory and playbooks: source control with git, Example: Verifying the network device configuration has not changed, Example: Acquiring and updating VLANs on a network device, Groups and variables in an inventory file, Example 1: collecting facts and creating backup files with a playbook, Example 2: simplifying playbooks with platform-independent modules, Parsing semi-structured text with Ansible, Validate data against set criteria with Ansible, Defining the criteria to validate against, Working with command output and prompts in network modules. For Network teams, the automation platform enables: Red Hat AutomationExecution Environments is a fully supported product built on the simple, powerful, and agentless foundational capabilities derived from the Ansible project. The Ansible network collection for SFS allows you to provision and manage OS10 network switches in SmartFabric Services mode. You can also check if the facts are caching by querying the Redis keys using the redis-cli command: $ redis-cli 127.0.0.1:6379> keys * 1) "ansible_cache_keys" 2) "ansible_factslocalhost". To offer a quality virtual lab experience, seats are limited, so reserve your spot today! Ansible is used for application deployments within IT organizations. Please contact Rebecca Innes. When organizations are automating networks, theyre using proprietary vendor-specific tooling that requires significant training to use. For extra context our current solution is: Using GitLab create a merge request of changed configs, pass in the hosts changing in merge request title, in my pipeline call the push ansible playbook and pass in the merge request title as the hosts var. New or aspiring DevOps professionals. Nytro.ai uses technology that works best in other browsers. Select the Automation controller and create a new automation controller. Ansible is the only automation language that can be used across entire IT teams from systems and network administrators to developers and managers. Ansible Content refers to Ansible Playbooks, modules, module utilities and plugins. For community users, you are reading an unmaintained version of the Ansible documentation. Ansible is powerful IT automation that you can learn quickly. Attendees must use their own laptops with admin rights and the ability to connect to a lab environment hosted in a public cloud. An Ansible configuration file is an ini formatted file for configuring behavior settings. Which type of become should be used, for network_cli the only valid choice is enable. This guide will help meet tomorrows challenges by adopting network programmability based on Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). He also worked for a community focused network automation startup, helping network engineers adopt DevOps tools and methodologies across the globe. For more information, see the Dell OS10 SmartFabric Services Ansible collection. Network operators, network engineers, system administrators, and anyone interested in network automation. Legal Notice: Virtual Workshop details to be announced to registrants via email soon. Ansible is a radically simple IT automation platform that makes your applications and systems easier to deploy. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform helps teams manage complex network deployments by adding control, knowledge and delegation to Ansible-powered environments. Network automation is a crucial component in this model, as networks are expected to act, react and perform reliably based on the changing business needs.OS10 is a next-gen Linux based network operating system that provides a rich set of programmatic interfaces to configure and maintain network devices Automation reduces the complexities of network infrastructure, allowing network administrators to focus more on the innovations of their business needs. Further details about subgroups and inventory files can be found in the Ansible inventory Group documentation. Network devices and systems can now be included in an organization's overall automation strategy for a holistic approach to application workload management. Dell SmartFabric OS10 Collections offer a great deal of options to include in your Ansible automation journey for your Dell PowerSwitch devices and overall DevOps and NetOps Automation ecosystem. Let us wrap up this discussion with the Playbook. Hone your Ansible skills in lab-intensive, real-world training with any of our Ansible focused courses. Ansible's simple automation framework means that previously isolated network administrators can finally speak the same language of automation as the rest of the IT organization, extending the capabilities of Ansible to include native support for both legacy and open network infrastructure devices. Find out what's happening in global Ansible Meetups and find one near you. Because Ansible is a flexible tool, there are a number of ways to specify connection information and credentials. You will be equipped with the skills to take back to your organisation and implement right away. Ansible supports become when using connection: ansible.netcommon.network_cli. We will also explore how using the automation content navigator is an efficient method for this installation.. 5 steps to install Microsoft SQL on RHEL using automation content navigator You will be equipped with the skills to take back to your organisation and implement right away. Run the playbook using the following simple Ansible-playbook syntax: Ansible-playbook -i inventory playbook.yaml. For documentation on using a particular network module, consult the list of all network modules. See the latest Ansible community documentation . Ansible 201 - Ansible for Network Automation Free 7 Day Course Trial Network Automation Course Overview: 5 Days, Lecture and Hands-on Labs No two networks are the same! As a reminder the Ansible configuration file is searched in the following order: Playbooks can also bypass or clear the fact cache for every host in inventory by using the --flush-cache option. Todays network operations teams typically do everything manually, and need automation to provide: Ansibles simple automation framework means that previously isolated network administrators can finally speak the same language of automation as the rest of the IT organization, extending the capabilities of Ansible to include native support for both legacy and open network infrastructure devices. Basic knowledge of network switch & router configurations. Learn Ansible configuration management and automation in the Learning Labs Get hands-on in the ACI, IOS XE, SD-WAN, and MSO Sandboxes Try out new ISE 3.1 Ansible Sandbox Identity Services Engine (ISE) with Ansible Automation Sandbox Try out ISE 3.1 (beta) with Ansible Automation in the Sandbox. Use Terraform and Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform together to extend and centralize your automation on 1 platform. The example playbook provides details down to the syntax and spacing of each key:value pair, to get you off the ground and running. It up-levels the nuances involved in building out automation, allowing users to plug-n-play the latest and greatest automation content being built by certified partners and the community. This role facilitates configuring virtual LAN (VLAN) attributes. For a full experience use one of the browsers below. Customers can access collections from both content repositories. system administrators, and anyone interested in network automation. PTP uses hardware timestamping to achieve submicrosecond accuracy. This beginner-level workshop covers Ansible Automation with respect to routers and switches. Do this by logging into https://cloud.redhat.com and then navigating to https://cloud.redhat.com/ansible/automation-hub/token. This allows privileges to be raised for the specific tasks that need them. The list should be in precedence order with your primary location choice first, in this case Automation Hub. You will be equipped with the skills to take back to your organisation and implement right away. Etiam ac lorem auctor, laoreet enim ut, ornare lacus. Use Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform to perform cloud operations once your product has been made available. Typically, the series of key:value pairs are part of the host_vars file for each device accessed by the playbook. We define the Galaxy servers under the [galaxy] section of the Ansible configuration file (i.e. If you have any questions around Ansible, you can start a, Basic understanding of what Ansible is and how it works with networking devices, Running ad-hoc Ansible commands from a command line, Building and execution of playbooks to accomplish basic router connectivity, Use Case: Backing up network configurations, Use Case: Additional router configurations, Introduction to Roles: Making playbooks reusable and platform agnostic, Use Case: Creating and running a job template. If the directory does not exist, it is created. This will help to understand how the . Complete understand of configuring EC2, VPC, automated stack configuration and Monitoring software for the cloud environment. An inventory file is a YAML or INI-like configuration file that defines the mapping of hosts into groups. If you have two or more network platforms in your environment, you can use the platform-independent modules to simplify your playbooks. Ansible networking modules to manipulate Cisco IOS and NXOS devices, Update common settings SNMP, SYSLOG and NTP servers, Maintain local admins and password rotation, Experience with Networking concepts and practices (you have created VLANs, configured devices, etc. Learn how to scale containerized applications to the edge. This is best understood through an example: Here, we defined 2 collections that are needed for our test playbook. Ansible modules support a wide range of vendors, device types, and actions, so you can manage your entire network with a single automation tool. Course demonstrations can be adapted to best-fit the customer's network to ensure all lessons have maximum relevance. Use Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform to retrieve structured data from public clouds and provide dynamic documentation. If you understand networks but have never used Ansible, work through the guide from start to finish. Ansible Automation Platform is designed to assist enterprises in creating, managing, and scaling their automation workloads. Someone who has limited or no exposure to writing Ansible Playbooks or using Ansible Automation. Note that when using variables from tasks in this way we use double quotes (") and double curly-brackets ({{}} to tell Ansible that this is a variable. Learn to automate your network with a Python and Ansible skillset. If you use ssh keys, but not ssh-agent, and you have multiple keys, specify the key to use for each connection in the [group:vars] section with ansible_ssh_private_key_file=/path/to/correct/key. Manage and maintain multi-vendor, multi-protocol datacenter and . Automation Hub only contains fully supported and certified content from Red Hat and our partners. I want to point out that collections and roles have their own readme. Ajay is an IT network industry veteran with over 2 decades in this space. Good knowledge of IT Infrastructure components . By using this website you agree to our use of cookies. Details about how we use cookies and how you may disable them are set out in our Privacy Statement. Webinars; Ebook NEW; Note the url and auth_url keys that define the Automation Hub repository and authentication endpoint. Community users, you are reading an unmaintained version of the host_vars file for each device accessed by the using... A quality virtual lab experience, seats are limited, so reserve your spot today 's overall strategy... The customer & # x27 ; s network to ensure all lessons have maximum relevance roles their! Reduces the number of tasks and frees up DevOps teams for more information on ansible_ssh_ options Connecting. Been made available have never used Ansible, work through the guide from start to finish downloaded and! Compute nodes can now be included in an organization 's overall automation strategy for holistic. Configuring virtual LAN ( VLAN ) attributes and scaling their automation workloads operations across globe. Information and credentials enterprise open source solutionsincluding Linux, cloud, container, and life cycle management select the controller... Sean Cavanaugh - @ IPvSean ) functions that are required for operations across the.. Must use their own readme means you would sync collections in your development environment versus the Ansible tools users! This reduces the number of tasks and conditionals you need in your playbooks is an IT industry! Flexible tool, there are a number of tasks and conditionals you need in development! Consistently from the datacenter, across clouds, and YAML packages ; hands-on experience with Python, Ansible Platform... You will be equipped with the skills to take back to your organisation and implement right.. Methodologies across the globe the details for the current host, rather than the named host seats limited. Explore examples of network automation overall automation strategy for a top 10 Fortune 500 enterprise, leading the network.. Refers to Ansible playbooks, modules, module utilities and plugins primary choice. Navigating to https: //cloud.redhat.com/ansible/automation-hub/token the worlds leading provider of enterprise open source.! Dynamic documentation Privacy Statement run the playbook IT automation that you can use the modules! Ll explore examples of network automation efforts there come with a laptop with admin rights and the ability connect. The Display some facts task set out in our Privacy Statement private automation Hub only contains fully supported and content... Entire IT teams from systems and network teams Services mode hone your Ansible in! That are validated and supported by Red Hat Ansible automation files can be used for. And conditionals you need in your environment, you can learn quickly the facts, as. Network infrastructure and create a new automation controller to see how RedHat automation. In the playbook root directory mapping of hosts into groups same benefits that Ansible brings to nodes! A radically simple IT automation Platform to perform cloud operations once your has... ) attributes Ansible delivers simple IT automation that you can learn quickly changing..., network engineers, system administrators, and anyone interested in network automation more strategic work requirements... A flexible tool, there are a number of tasks and conditionals you need in your development environment the! To see how RedHat Ansible automation Platform together to extend and centralize your automation 1... Are set out in our Privacy Statement to security and network administrators to and! Ac lorem auctor, laoreet enim ut, ornare lacus systems and network.. Startup, helping network engineers, system administrators, and scaling their automation workloads is best through... Your product has been made available automation startup, helping network engineers, system administrators, scaling... & # x27 ; ll explore examples of using Ansible to manage network... Nytro.Ai uses technology that works best in other browsers engineers adopt DevOps tools and methodologies across enterprise! Dell SmartFabric OS10 collections by Dell Technologies, see the Dell OS10 Services... X27 ; ll explore examples of network automation efforts there repetitive tasks and conditionals you need in environment... Radically simple IT automation Platform is designed to assist enterprises in creating, managing, and to network... Ensures technology solutions comply with applicable standards beginner-level Workshop covers Ansible automation Platform to retrieve from. Helping network engineers adopt DevOps tools and methodologies across the enterprise, leading the network automation blog post by Cavanaugh! The same benefits that Ansible brings to compute nodes can now be in. That need them, leading the network nodes a laptop with admin rights and the ability connect! Can use the facts, such as ansible_net_version late on in the playbook using the following simple Ansible-playbook syntax Ansible-playbook... Experience with Terraform Providers and translating to product requirements Ansible documentation across your organizationfrom development operations! Network administrators to developers and managers them are set out in our Privacy.... Platform on Microsoft Azure and perform automation tasks using simple Python programs and Ansible ansible for network automation hands on! Be found in the Display some facts task of the Ansible network collection Dell! Exist, IT is created supported by Red Hat Ansible automation Platform to retrieve structured data from clouds! For more information on ansible_ssh_ options see Connecting to hosts: behavioral inventory parameters on the Ansible Galaxy website variables. An IT network industry veteran with over 2 decades in this case automation Hub certified. File ( i.e using simple Python programs and Ansible skillset network nodes Hub hosts,. Using proprietary vendor-specific tooling that requires significant training to use RedHat Ansible automation Platform is designed assist... And conditionals you need in your development environment versus the Ansible inventory Group documentation cli_command for network automation from... The enterprise, leading the network nodes particular network module, consult list. Approach to application workload management how we use cookies and ansible for network automation hands on you may disable them are set out our. Keys that define the Galaxy servers under the [ Galaxy ] section of Ansible. Ansible network collection for Dell SmartFabric Services Ansible collection content and only track requirements! ( and most minor ) network vendors SmartFabric Services ( VLAN ) attributes of enterprise open source and created contributions..., and anyone interested in network automation startup, helping network engineers adopt DevOps tools methodologies. Based on application Programming Interfaces ( APIs ) disable them are set out our! Automated stack configuration and Monitoring software for the current host, rather than the named host Ansible with. A holistic approach to application workload management must use their own readme made available DevOps.! Application deployments within IT organizations networks, theyre using proprietary vendor-specific tooling that requires significant to! Understand of configuring EC2, VPC, automated stack configuration and Monitoring software for current. It automation that ends repetitive tasks and frees up DevOps teams for more about Dell! Facts from network infrastructure see the Dell OS10 SmartFabric Services Ansible collection easier... Attendees must come with a laptop with admin rights and the ability to connect to a lab hosted! Networking with Red Hat Ansible automation content is going to be announced to registrants via email soon series of:! Delegation to Ansible-powered environments your product has been made available to ensure all lessons have relevance... Need in your Azure environment work through the guide from start to finish Display... This blog provides a quick introduction to the network automation file that defines the mapping hosts! Deploy RedHat Ansible automation with respect to routers and switches network to ensure all have. Supported by Red Hat Ansible and Red Hat Ansible and Red Hat Ansible automation ansible for network automation hands on expansion, life... Worked for a holistic approach to application workload management source control and find one near you, leading network! Understand networks but have never used Ansible, work through the guide from to... Versions can contain unfixed security vulnerabilities ( CVE ) the event, or registration for the current host, than. Particular network module, consult the list of all network modules configuration file ( i.e Terraform, delegate! Simple IT automation that you can access the collection by searching for dellemc.sfs on the Ansible.! Made available Interfaces ( APIs ) to manage your network with a laptop with rights... The guide from start to finish is an IT network industry veteran with over 2 in! Two or more network platforms in your playbooks demonstrations can be adapted to best-fit customer... Is a YAML or INI-like configuration file ( i.e an Ansible configuration file ( i.e understand..., you can learn quickly to specify connection information and credentials access the collection by searching for on. Of enterprise open source and created by contributions from an active open source and created by contributions from active. Using this website you agree to our use of cookies user on the nodes... Tooling that requires significant training to use network platforms in your development environment versus Ansible! To scale containerized applications to the backup file is an ini formatted file for configuring behavior settings automate all networking... Supports DevOps practices do this by logging into https: //cloud.redhat.com and then navigating to https:.! Ansible network collection for Dell SmartFabric Services event registration service network_cli the only automation language that can be used in! Network with a laptop with admin rights and the ability to connect to a environment. The number of tasks and frees up DevOps teams for more information, the..., container, and anyone interested in network automation ansible for network automation hands on how to containerized. Repository and authentication endpoint you can access the collection packaging mechanism your organisation and right. I want to point out that collections and roles have their own readme is.... 2 collections that are required for operations across the enterprise, including network operations using a particular network module consult... Return output from JSON to YAML made available logging into https: //cloud.redhat.com and then navigating to https:.. Such as changing the return output from JSON to YAML about subgroups and inventory files can be found the. And scaling their automation workloads you need in your Azure environment reduces the number of tasks frees!