Ansible behavior

Ansible works very simply. The user can automatically configure the management target by describing the "ideal state" of the management target in a playbook and executing it.

【procedure】
① User writes playbook
② Run the playbook on the Ansible host (server)
(3) Automatically set the management target according to the contents of the playbook

Figure 2: Ansible schematic diagram

 

I think that various words come out and get confused, so I summarized it briefly as follows.

Playbook content example

Ansible environment settings

Next, I will introduce the environment construction for using Ansible.
First, the environment required for Ansible to work is as follows.

〇 Ansible host (server) side
-Ansible 2.3 or newer
- Python 2.6 or newer
- SSH connection is possible

*Since the required version differs depending on the network OS to be managed, basically we recommend using the latest version.

The above is the required version for Cumulus.

Install Ansible on the server

This time we will install Ansible on Ubuntu. The procedure is below.

　$ sudo apt update
　$ sudo apt install software-properties-common
　$ sudo apt-add-repository --yes --update ppa:ansible/ansible
　$ sudo apt install ansible

Since the installation method is slightly different for each OS, if you are using an OS other than Ubuntu, please refer to the installation procedure from the Ansible homepage. (URL below)

https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/installation_guide/intro_installation.html?extIdCarryOver=true&sc_cid=701f2000001OH7YAAW

Ansible connection confirmation

The above completes the environment settings. Next, we will perform an Ansible connection test.
The /etc/ansible directory is created by default when Ansible is installed.
Then add the address of the target host to the inventory (/etc/ansible/hosts).

Ping

By executing the following command, ping will be performed from the server to all managed devices described in hosts. If the ping passes, the connection confirmation is complete.

$ ansible -i [inventory file name] all –m ping

ping execution image

This time, we prepare new hosts separately from the default inventory (/etc/ansible/hosts), specify it and execute.

Automatic configuration of white Box switches with Ansible

Finally, we will use Ansible to automatically configure the white Box switch and configure the BGP cross network. This time, prepare a config file in advance, copy each file to the target switch, and prepare a playbook to apply the settings.

environment
·server
-Ubuntu 16.04
・White Box switch
‐Edgecore : AS7726-32X x 2 & AS7326-56X x 2
・NOS
- Cumulus Linux 3.7.14

BGP cross network diagram

Ansible directory structure

┣━ hosts # inventory file
┃
┃━ setup.yaml #Playbook file
┃
┗━ bgp-unnumbered #configuration file directory for each host
┃
┣━ Configuration file directory for AS7726-A #AS7726-32X
┃ ┣━daemons
┃ ┣━frr.conf
┃ ┗━interfaces
┃
┣━ Configuration file directory for AS7726-B #AS7726-32
┃ ┣━daemons
┃ ┣━frr.conf
┃ ┗━interfaces
┃
┗━ Configuration file directory for AS7326-A #AS7326-54X
┃ ┣━daemons
┃ ┣━frr.conf
┃ ┗━interfaces
┃
┗━ Configuration file directory for AS7326-B #AS7326-54X
┣━daemons
┣━frr.conf
┗━interfaces

Prepare the configuration file as follows.

hosts

playbook

The following 5 tasks are executed

① Task to submit the interface configuration to the switch
② Task to enable bgp daemon
③ Task to input FRR configuration to switch
④ Issue the reload command of the interface configuration on the switch
⑤ Issue the frr config reload command on the switch

inventory_hostname is a predefined variable that points to the hostname written in hosts

Run playbooks with Ansible

Next, we will run the playbook described above.

playbook execution log

When you check the switch, you can see that the settings have been reflected and the BGP session has been established.

BGP execution result (1)

Routes are also advertised normally.

BGP execution result (2)

You can also confirm that pings fly to the loopback of each switch from the advertised route.

ping result

This is the basic usage of Ansible. Next time, I would like to show you how to create a setting config with Ansible.

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