Ansible IOS_Command Example

In this Ansible IOS_Command Example post I will share a simple Ansible Playbook that will write an ACL to a Cisco Switch.

This playbook will work equally well on any Cisco device and once you grasp the concepts of using the IOS_Command Module and also the IOS_Config module you can configure whatever you want.

You will soon see that Ansible Network Automation skills are very good to know to make your life as a network engineer a lot easier in the new world of network automation.

The IOS Command module is documented here – http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/ios_command_module.html

There are the two parameters that I will highlight and I am using in my example playbook

• authorize – yes / no – This parameter enters privileged mode on the Cisco device if code says yes
• waitfor – List of conditions to wait for before progressing with the Playbook

Ansible IOS_Config Module

The IOS Config module is documented here – http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/ios_config_module.html

Ansible Playbook

So let’s get into the playbook

--
- hosts: 3560-SW1

  gather_facts: false
  connection: local

  tasks:
   - name: Configure ACL on Cisco Switch
     ios_config:
       authorize: yes
       lines:
         - access-list 99 permit 172.16.1.100

   - name: Verify ACL is present
     ios_command:
       commands:
         - sh access-l
       waitfor:
         - result[0] contains 'permit 172.16.1.100'

   - name: SAVE CONFIG
     ios_config:
       authorize: yes
       save: yes

This is a very simple play that is very self explanatory just by reading the Jinja2 code

It will configure a line in an access list using the IOS_Config module  it then verifies if that line is there using the ios_command module and finally saves the config using the IOS_Config module again.

Note: This playbook was written in Ansible 2.3 – the latest version 2.4 has another parameter in the IOS_Config module called save_when

This can be set to always / never / modified.

So the config can be saved only when it was modified.

The playbook is available on my GitHub – https://github.com/rogerperkin/playbooks

If you are serious about learning Network Automation check out my course below.

Read my other Ansible posts:

• Ansible Hosts File
• Ansible vs Python – Which one is best?
• Ansible Vault Tutorial
• Using Ansible to upgrade Cisco IOS
• AnsibleFest London – Review
• How to install Ansible Tower on Ubuntu
• Advantages of using Ansible Roles
• What is Ansible
• Using Ansible to backup Cisco Configuration files