How can Ansible assist folks constructing simulations with Cisco Modeling Labs (CML)?
Much like Terraform, Ansible is a standard, open-source automation instrument usually utilized in Steady Integration/Steady Deployment (CI/CD) DevOps methodologies. They’re each a kind of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) or Infrastructure as Knowledge that mean you can render your infrastructure as textual content recordsdata and management it utilizing instruments reminiscent of Git. The benefit is reproducibility, consistency, velocity, and the information that, once you change the code, folks approve, and it will get examined earlier than it’s pushed out to your manufacturing community. This paradigm permits enterprises to run their community infrastructure in the identical approach they run their software program and cloud practices. Afterall, the infrastructure is there to assist the apps, so why handle them otherwise?
Though overlaps exist within the capabilities of Terraform and Ansible, they’re very complementary. Whereas Terraform is healthier on the preliminary deployment and making certain ongoing consistency of the underlying infrastructure, Ansible is healthier on the preliminary configuration and ongoing administration of the issues that dwell in that infrastructure, reminiscent of methods, community gadgets, and so forth.
In a standard workflow during which an operator desires to make a change to the community, let’s say including a brand new community to be marketed by way of BGP, a community engineer would specify that change within the code or extra probably as configuration knowledge in YAML or JSON. In a typical CI workflow, that change would should be accredited by others for correctness or adherence to company and safety issues, as an illustration. Along with the eyeball assessments, a sequence of automated testing validates the info after which deploys the proposed change in a take a look at community. These assessments might be run in a bodily take a look at community, a digital take a look at community, or a mix of the 2. That stream would possibly appear to be the next:
The benefit of leveraging digital take a look at networks is profound. The associated fee is dramatically decrease, and the flexibility to automate testing is elevated considerably. For instance, a community engineer can spin up and configure a brand new, complicated topology a number of instances with out the probability of previous assessments messing up the accuracy of the present testing. Cisco Modeling Labs is a superb instrument for any such take a look at.
Right here’s the place the Ansible CML Assortment is available in. Much like the CML Terraform integration coated in a earlier weblog, the Ansible CML Assortment can automate the deployment of topologies in CML for testing. The Ansible CML Assortment has modules to create, begin, and cease a topology and the hosts inside it, however extra importantly, it has a dynamic stock plugin for getting details about the topology. That is vital for automation as a result of topologies can change. Or a number of topologies might exist, relying on the assessments being carried out. In case your topology makes use of dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) and/or CML’s PATty performance, the data for the way Ansible communicates with the nodes must be communicated to the playbook.
Let’s go over a few of the options of the Ansible CML Assortment’s dynamic stock plugin.
First, we have to set up the gathering:
ansible-galaxy assortment set up cisco.cml
Subsequent, we create a cml.yml within the stock with the next contents to inform Ansible to make use of the Ansible CML Assortment’s dynamic stock plugin:
plugin: cisco.cml.cml_inventory group_tags: community, ios, nxos, router
As well as to specifying the plugin identify, we are able to additionally outline tags that, when discovered on the gadgets within the topology, add that gadget to an Ansible group for use later within the playbook:
As well as to specifying the plugin identify, we are able to additionally outline tags that, when discovered on the gadgets within the topology, add that gadget to an Ansible group for use later within the playbook:
- CML_USERNAME: Username for the CML consumer
- CML_PASSWORD: Password for the CML consumer
- CML_HOST: The CML host
- CML_LAB: The identify of the lab
As soon as the plugin is aware of how you can talk with the CML server and which lab to make use of, it will possibly return details about the nodes within the lab:
okay: [hq-rtr1] => { "cml_facts": { "config": "hostname hq-rtr1nvrf definition Mgmt-intfn!naddress-family ipv4nexit-address-familyn!naddress-family ipv6nexit-address-familyn!nusername admin privilege 15 secret 0 adminncdp runnno aaa new-modelnip domain-name mdd.cisco.comn!ninterface GigabitEthernet1nvrf forwarding Mgmt-intfnip handle dhcpnnegotiation autonno cdp enablenno shutdownn!ninterface GigabitEthernet2ncdp enablen!ninterface GigabitEthernet3ncdp enablen!ninterface GigabitEthernet4ncdp enablen!nip http servernip http secure-servernip http max-connections 2n!nip ssh time-out 60nip ssh model 2nip ssh server algorithm encryption aes128-ctr aes192-ctr aes256-ctrnip ssh shopper algorithm encryption aes128-ctr aes192-ctr aes256-ctrn!nline vty 0 4nexec-timeout 30 0nabsolute-timeout 60nsession-limit 16nlogin localntransport enter sshn!nend", "cpus": 1, "data_volume": null, "image_definition": null, "interfaces": [ { "ipv4_addresses": null, "ipv6_addresses": null, "mac_address": null, "name": "Loopback0", "state": "STARTED" }, { "ipv4_addresses": [ "192.168.255.199" ], "ipv6_addresses": [], "mac_address": "52:54:00:13:51:66", "identify": "GigabitEthernet1", "state": "STARTED" } ], "node_definition": "csr1000v", "ram": 3072, "state": "BOOTED" } }
The primary IPv4 handle discovered (so as of the interfaces) is used as `ansible_host` to allow the playbook to connect with the gadget. We are able to use the cisco.cml.stock playbook included within the assortment to indicate the stock. On this case, we solely specify that we wish gadgets which might be within the “router” group created by the stock plugin as knowledgeable by the tags on the gadgets:
mdd % ansible-playbook cisco.cml.stock --limit=router okay: [hq-rtr1] => { "msg": "Node: hq-rtr1(csr1000v), State: BOOTED, Deal with: 192.168.255.199:22" } okay: [hq-rtr2] => { "msg": "Node: hq-rtr2(csr1000v), State: BOOTED, Deal with: 192.168.255.53:22" } okay: [site1-rtr1] => { "msg": "Node: site1-rtr1(csr1000v), State: BOOTED, Deal with: 192.168.255.63:22" } okay: [site2-rtr1] => { "msg": "Node: site2-rtr1(csr1000v), State: BOOTED, Deal with: 192.168.255.7:22" }
Along with group tags, the CML dynamic stock plugin may also parse tags to move data from PATty and to create generic stock info:
If a CML tag is specified that matches `^pat:(?:tcp|udp)?:?(d+):(d+)`, the CML server handle (versus the primary IPv4 handle discovered) might be used for `ansible_host`. To alter `ansible_port` to level to the translated SSH port, the tag `ansible:ansible_port=2020` might be set. These two tags inform the Ansible playbook to connect with port 2020 of the CML server to automate the desired host within the topology. The `ansible:` tag can be used to specify different host info. For instance, the tag `ansible:nso_api_port=2021` can be utilized to inform the playbook the port to make use of to succeed in the Cisco NSO API. Any arbitrary truth might be set on this approach.
Getting began
Making an attempt out the CML Ansible Assortment is straightforward. You should use the playbooks supplied within the assortment to load and begin a topology in your CML server. To begin, outline the atmosphere variable that tells the gathering how you can entry your CML server:
% export CML_HOST=my-cml-server.my-domain.com % export CML_USERNAME=my-cml-username % export CML_PASSWORD=my-cml-password
The following step is to outline your topology file. That is a normal topology file you can export from CML. There are two methods to outline the topology file. First, you’ll be able to use an atmosphere variable:
% export CML_LAB=my-cml-labfile
Alternatively, you’ll be able to specify the topology file once you run the playbook as an additional–var. For instance, to spin up a topology utilizing the inbuilt cisco.cml.construct playbook:
% ansible-playbook cisco.cml.construct -e wait="sure" -e
This command masses and begins the topology; then it waits till all nodes are working to finish. If -e startup=’host’ is specified, the playbook will begin every host individually versus beginning them unexpectedly. This permits for the config to be generated and fed into the host on startup. When cml_config_file is outlined within the host’s stock, it’s parsed as a Jinja file and fed into that host as config at startup. This permits for just-in-time configuration to happen.
As soon as the playbook completes, you need to use one other built-in playbook, cisco.cml.stock, to get the stock for the topology. So as to use it, first create a cml.yml within the stock listing as proven above, then run the playbook as follows:
% ansible-playbook cisco.cml.stock PLAY [cml_hosts] ********************************************************************** TASK [debug] ********************************************************************** okay: [WAN-rtr1] => { "msg": "Node: WAN-rtr1(csr1000v), State: BOOTED, Deal with: 192.168.255.53:22" } okay: [nso1] => { "msg": "Node: nso1(ubuntu), State: BOOTED, Deal with: my-cml-server.my-domain.com:2010" } okay: [site1-host1] => { "msg": "Node: site1-host1(ubuntu), State: BOOTED, Deal with: site1-host1:22" }
On this truncated output, three totally different eventualities are proven. First, WAN-rtr1 is assigned the DHCP handle it acquired for its ansible_host worth, and ansible port is 22. If the host working the playbook has IP connectivity (both within the topology or a community related to the topology with an exterior connector), it is going to be in a position to attain that host.
The second situation exhibits an instance of the PATty performance with the host nso1 during which the dynamic stock plugin reads these tags to find out that the host is accessible by way of the CML server’s interface (i.e. ansible_host is ready to my-cml-server.my-domain.com). Additionally, it is aware of that ansible_port ought to be set to the port specified within the tags (i.e. 2010). After these values are set, the ansible playbook can attain the host within the topology utilizing the PATty performance in CML.
The final instance, site1-host1, exhibits the situation during which the CML dynamic stock script can both discover a DHCP allotted handle or tags to specify to what ansible_host ought to be set, so it makes use of the node identify. For the playbook to succeed in these hosts, it must have IP connectivity and be capable to resolve the node identify to an IP handle.
These built-in playbooks present examples of how you can use the performance within the CML Ansible Assortment to construct your personal playbooks, however you may as well use them instantly as a part of your pipeline. In actual fact, we regularly use them instantly within the pipelines we construct for patrons.
If you wish to study extra in regards to the CML Ansible Assortment, yow will discover it in Ansible Galaxy in addition to on Github.
You can even discover a full, IaC CI/CD pipeline utilizing these modules right here.
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