Cisco informational playbooks

Introduction

This repository contains various ansible playbooks that could be used to gather information from Cisco IOS & NXOS devices.

High level steps

Clone code from Gitlab
Add admin credentials in group variable file
Secure admin credentials using ansible vault
Running ansible playbook

Prerequisite

Ansible version <2.9.10

1. Repository clone instructions

Clone with SSH

git clone git@github.com:mohitmksgit/cisco_info.git

Clone with HTTPS

git clone https://github.com/mohitmksgit/cisco_info.git

2. Add credentials in group variable file

Cisco device group variables are stored in "group_vars" folder as "cisco_ios.yml" & "nxos.yml".

File	Description
cisco_ios.yml	Stores credentials & other variables for Cisco IOS devices
nxos.yml	Stores credentials & other variables for Cisco NXOS devices

2.1 Navigate to repository clone folder:

cd cisco_info

2.2 Add your admin credentials into "cisco_ios" group variable file:

nano group_vars/cisco_ios.yml

ansible_ssh_user: (user.admin)

ansible_ssh_pass: (admin password)

auth_pass: (admin password)

2.3 Add your admin credentials into "nxos" group variable file:

nano group_vars/nxos.yml

ansible_ssh_user: (user.admin)

ansible_ssh_pass: (admin password)

auth_pass: (admin password)

3. Secure admin credentials using ansible vault

You must use the ansible-vault encryption to secure your admin credentials. Enter command mentioned below & provide a password to secure ansible vault. You will be required to enter this vault password while running a playbook.

ansible-vault encrypt cisco_ios.yml nxos.yml

4. Running ansible playbook

Use ansible-playbook command to run a playbook. You must add "--ask-vault-pass" keyword so that you are prompted to enter ansible-vault credentials.

ansible-playbook -i ntw.devices.host PLAYBOOK_NAME.yml --ask-vault-pass

5. Targeting specific hosts and groups while running a playbook

When you execute Ansible by running a playbook, you must choose which managed nodes or groups you want to execute against. Patterns let you run commands and playbooks against specific hosts and/or groups in your inventory. An Ansible pattern can refer to a single host, an IP address, an inventory group, a set of groups, or all hosts in your inventory.

5.1 Limit to one host

ansible-playbook -i ntw.devices.host PLAYBOOK_NAME.yml --ask-vault-pass--limit "host1"

5.2 Limit to multiple hosts

ansible-playbook -i ntw.devices.host PLAYBOOK_NAME.yml --limit "host1,host2"

5.3 Exclude host/group (Negated limit) from playbook execution

NOTE: Single quotes MUST be used to prevent bash interpolation.

ansible-playbook -i ntw.devices.host PLAYBOOK_NAME.yml --limit 'all:!host1'

5.4 Limit to host group

ansible-playbook -i ntw.devices.host PLAYBOOK_NAME.yml --limit 'group1'

6. Inventory file

Inventory is stored in "hosts" file. Please modify hostname & IP addresses according to your lab.

7. Playbook description

Playbook file	Description
cisco_show_ver_ios.yml	Runs "show version" command on IOS device
cisco_show_ver_nxos.yml	Runs "show version" command on NXOS device
cisco_show_acl_ios.yml	Shows a list of Access-lists (ACL) configured on Cisco IOS device
cisco_show_acl_nxos.yml	Shows a list of Access-lists (ACL) configured on Cisco NXOS device
cisco_show_cpu_ios.yml	Shows CPU usage on Cisco IOS device
cisco_show_cpu_nxos.yml	Shows CPU usage on Cisco NXOS device
cisco_show_inv_ios.yml	Runs "show inventory" command on IOS device
cisco_show_inv_nxos.yml	Runs "show inventory" command on NXOS device
cisco_show_ntp_status_ios.yml	Shows NTP sync status on IOS device
cisco_show_ntp_status_nxos.yml	Shows NTP sync status on NXOS device
cisco_backup_config_ios.yml	Saves running configuration to playbook directory for IOS device
cisco_backup_config_nxos.yml	Saves running configuration to playbook directory for NXOS device
cisco_facts_ios_brief.yml	Shows basic info like Serial number,Model,OS version for IOS device
cisco_facts_nxos_brief.yml	Shows basic info like Serial number,Model,OS version for NXOS device
cisco_os_update_verification_ios.yml	Useful in IOS upgrade task. Playbook runs ping test to defined IP`s, takes backup of running config & Checks CPU, Memory & disk space usage
cisco_ansible_inv_vs_hostname_ios.yml	Compares IOS device hostname with ansible inventory host_alias
cisco_ansible_inv_vs_hostname_nxos.yml	Compares NXOS device hostname with ansible inventory host_alias

8. Additional information about Ansible vault

8.1 Edit ansible vault file

ansible-vault edit "filename"

8.2 Viewing encrypted vault file

ansible-vault view "filename"

9. Updating a local repository with latest changes from a Git repository

git pull is a Git command used to update the local version of a repository from a remote (Gitlab). For example, if the branch you have checked out tracks origin/master, git pull is equivalent to git pull origin master.

Run this command to download latest version of repository on your local machine:

git pull

10. Reference

Here is the list of Ansible modules used in this repository:

ios_ping – Tests reachability using ping from Cisco IOS network devices
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/2.9/modules/ios_ping_module.html#ios-ping-module

ios_facts – Collect facts from remote devices running Cisco IOS
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/2.9/modules/ios_facts_module.html#ios-facts-module

ios_command – Run commands on remote devices running Cisco IOS
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/2.9/modules/ios_command_module.html#ios-command-module

nxos_ping – Tests reachability using ping from Nexus switch
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/2.9/modules/nxos_ping_module.html#nxos-ping-module

nxos_facts – Gets facts about NX-OS switches
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/2.9/modules/nxos_facts_module.html#nxos-facts-module

nxos_command – Run arbitrary command on Cisco NXOS devices
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/2.9/modules/nxos_command_module.html#nxos-command-module

11. Roadmap

More useful informational playbooks will be added into this repository

12. Known issues

None