Ansible - automation against Cisco Router

This Article will contain Ansible playbook setup example against Cisco Routers.

Ansible notes will be posted here and continuesly updated on the fly when required.

Ansible environment as always devided for 2 servers: PRODuction and DEVelopment.
Tested scrypts will be moved from DEV into PROD server once fully tested and ready.

Host file content:

Ansible configuration files location: etc/ansible

[CiscoASR]
ASR01 ansible_host=10.x.x.x1
ASR02 ansible_host=10.x.x.x2
ASR03 ansible_host=10.x.x.x3
ASR04 ansible_host=10.x.x.x4

[CiscoASR:vars]
ansible_user=admin
ansible_ssh_pass=****

Manual execution (for test):

Output files location:

Scheduling done over crontub:

Playbook:

---
## Playbook to get system time and append it to backup files
## Made by DM
## Last change 09/06/2021

- hosts: localhost

  tasks:
   - name: Get ansible date/time facts
     setup:
       filter: "ansible_date_time"
       gather_subset: "!all"

   - name: Store DTG as fact
     set_fact:
       DTG: "{{ ansible_date_time.date }}"

   - name: Create Directory {{hostvars.localhost.DTG}}
     file:
      path: ~/network-programmability/backups/ASR/{{hostvars.localhost.DTG}}
      state: directory
  run_once: true


- hosts: CiscoASR
  gather_facts: false
  connection: local

  tasks:
   - name: Show IP int brief 
     ios_command:
       commands: show ip int brief  
     register: config

   - name: Save output to /home/administrator/network-programmability/backups/ASR/
     copy:
       content: "{{config.stdout[0]}}"
       dest: "/home/administrator/network-programmability/backups/ASR/{{hostvars.localhost.DTG}}/{{inventory_hostname}}-{{hostvars.localhost.DTG}}-showipint.txt"


- hosts: CiscoASR
  gather_facts: false
  connection: network_cli

  tasks:
   - name: Backup Config
     ios_config:
       backup: yes
       backup_options:
         filename: "{{inventory_hostname}}-{{hostvars.localhost.DTG}}-config.txt"
         dir_path: /home/administrator/network-programmability/backups/ASR/{{hostvars.localhost.DTG}}
     become: yes
     become_method: enable

   - name: Show History All
     ios_command:
       commands: show history all
     register: shhistall
     become: yes
     become_method: enable

   - name: Save output to /home/administrator/network-programmability/backups/ASR/
     copy:
       content: "{{shhistall.stdout[0]}}"
       dest: "/home/administrator/network-programmability/backups/ASR/{{hostvars.localhost.DTG}}/{{inventory_hostname}}-{{hostvars.localhost.DTG}}-showhistall.txt"

- hosts: CiscoASR
  gather_facts: false
  connection: local

  vars:
    command_list:
     - show clock
     - sh ip ospf neighbor

  tasks:
   - name: Run the SHOW commands and save output 
     ios_command:
       commands: "{{ command_list }}"
     register: showoutput

   - name: "Put all the files together into one nice text file"
     template: 
       src: template.j2 
       dest: "/home/administrator/network-programmability/backups/ASR/{{hostvars.localhost.DTG}}/{{ inventory_hostname }}-{{hostvars.localhost.DTG}}-showoutput.txt"
 

template.j2

OUTPUT FROM SHOW COMMANDS for: {{ inventory_hostname }}
{% for cmd in command_list %}
############ {{ cmd }} ################
{{ showoutput.stdout[loop.index0] }}
{% endfor %}