cli_command – Run a cli command on cli-based network devices

New in version 2.7.

Synopsis

• Sends a command to a network device and returns the result read from the device.

Parameters

Parameter	Choices/Defaults	Comments
answer list		The answer to reply with if prompt is matched. The value can be a single answer or a list of answer for multiple prompts. In case the command execution results in multiple prompts the sequence of the prompt and excepted answer should be in same order.
check_all boolean	Choices: no ← yes	By default if any one of the prompts mentioned in prompt option is matched it won't check for other prompts. This boolean flag, that when set to True will check for all the prompts mentioned in prompt option in the given order. If the option is set to True all the prompts should be received from remote host if not it will result in timeout.
command - / required		The command to send to the remote network device. The resulting output from the command is returned, unless sendonly is set.
prompt list		A single regex pattern or a sequence of patterns to evaluate the expected prompt from command.
sendonly boolean	Choices: no ← yes	The boolean value, that when set to true will send command to the device but not wait for a result.

Examples

- name: run show version on remote devices
  cli_command:
    command: show version

- name: run command with json formatted output
  cli_command:
    command: show version | json

- name: run command expecting user confirmation
  cli_command:
    command: commit replace
    prompt: This commit will replace or remove the entire running configuration
    answer: yes

- name: run config mode command and handle prompt/answer
  cli_command:
    command: "{{ item }}"
    prompt:
      - "Exit with uncommitted changes"
    answer: 'y'
  loop:
    - configure
    - set system syslog file test any any
    - exit

- name: multiple prompt, multiple answer (mandatory check for all prompts)
  cli_command:
    command: "copy sftp sftp://user@host//user/test.img"
    check_all: True
    prompt:
      - "Confirm download operation"
      - "Password"
      - "Do you want to change that to the standby image"
    answer:
      - 'y'
      - <password>
      - 'y'

Return Values

Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:

Key	Returned	Description
json dictionary	when the device response is valid JSON	A dictionary representing a JSON-formatted response Sample: { "architecture": "i386", "bootupTimestamp": 1532649700.56, "modelName": "vEOS", "version": "4.15.9M" [...] }
stdout string	when sendonly is false	The response from the command Sample: Version: VyOS 1.1.7[...]

Status

• This module is not guaranteed to have a backwards compatible interface. [preview]
• This module is maintained by the Ansible Network Team. [network]

Red Hat Support

More information about Red Hat’s support of this module is available from this Red Hat Knowledge Base article.

Authors

• Nathaniel Case (@qalthos)

Hint

If you notice any issues in this documentation you can edit this document to improve it.