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NXOS Platform Options

The Cisco NXOS supports multiple connections. This page offers details on how each connection works in Ansible and how to use it.

Connections available
Using CLI in Ansible
- Example CLI group_vars/nxos.yml
- Example CLI task
Using NX-API in Ansible
Cisco Nexus platform support matrix

Connections available 

	CLI	NX-API
Protocol	SSH	HTTP(S)
Credentials	uses SSH keys / SSH-agent if present accepts `-u myuser -k` if using password	uses HTTPS certificates if present
Indirect Access	via a bastion (jump host)	via a web proxy
Connection Settings	`ansible_connection:` `ansible.netcommon.network_cli`	`ansible_connection:` `ansible.netcommon.httpapi`
Enable Mode (Privilege Escalation) supported as of 2.5.3	supported: use `ansible_become: yes` with `ansible_become_method: enable` and `ansible_become_password:`	not supported by NX-API
Returned Data Format	`stdout[0].`	`stdout[0].messages[0].`

The ansible_connection: local has been deprecated. Please use ansible_connection: ansible.netcommon.network_cli or ansible_connection: ansible.netcommon.httpapi instead.

Using CLI in Ansible 

Example CLI `group_vars/nxos.yml`

ansible_connection: ansible.netcommon.network_cli
ansible_network_os: cisco.nxos.nxos
ansible_user: myuser
ansible_password: !vault...
ansible_become: yes
ansible_become_method: enable
ansible_become_password: !vault...
ansible_ssh_common_args: '-o ProxyCommand="ssh -W %h:%p -q bastion01"'

If you are using SSH keys (including an ssh-agent) you can remove the ansible_password configuration.
If you are accessing your host directly (not through a bastion/jump host) you can remove the ansible_ssh_common_args configuration.
If you are accessing your host through a bastion/jump host, you cannot include your SSH password in the ProxyCommand directive. To prevent secrets from leaking out (for example in ps output), SSH does not support providing passwords via environment variables.

Example CLI task 

- name: Backup current switch config (nxos)
  cisco.nxos.nxos_config:
    backup: yes
  register: backup_nxos_location
  when: ansible_network_os == 'cisco.nxos.nxos'

Using NX-API in Ansible 

Enabling NX-API 

Before you can use NX-API to connect to a switch, you must enable NX-API. To enable NX-API on a new switch via Ansible, use the nxos_nxapi module via the CLI connection. Set up group_vars/nxos.yml just like in the CLI example above, then run a playbook task like this:

- name: Enable NX-API
   cisco.nxos.nxos_nxapi:
       enable_http: yes
       enable_https: yes
   when: ansible_network_os == 'cisco.nxos.nxos'

To find out more about the options for enabling HTTP/HTTPS and local http see the nxos_nxapi module documentation.

Once NX-API is enabled, change your group_vars/nxos.yml to use the NX-API connection.

Example NX-API `group_vars/nxos.yml`

ansible_connection: ansible.netcommon.httpapi
ansible_network_os: cisco.nxos.nxos
ansible_user: myuser
ansible_password: !vault...
proxy_env:
  http_proxy: http://proxy.example.com:8080

If you are accessing your host directly (not through a web proxy) you can remove the proxy_env configuration.
If you are accessing your host through a web proxy using https, change http_proxy to https_proxy.

Example NX-API task 

- name: Backup current switch config (nxos)
  cisco.nxos.nxos_config:
    backup: yes
  register: backup_nxos_location
  environment: "{{ proxy_env }}"
  when: ansible_network_os == 'cisco.nxos.nxos'

In this example the proxy_env variable defined in group_vars gets passed to the environment option of the module used in the task.

Warning

Never store passwords in plain text. We recommend using SSH keys to authenticate SSH connections. Ansible supports ssh-agent to manage your SSH keys. If you must use passwords to authenticate SSH connections, we recommend encrypting them with Ansible Vault.

Cisco Nexus platform support matrix 

The following platforms and software versions have been certified by Cisco to work with this version of Ansible.

Platform / Software Minimum Requirements
Supported Platforms	Minimum NX-OS Version
Cisco Nexus N3k	7.0(3)I2(5) and later
Cisco Nexus N9k	7.0(3)I2(5) and later
Cisco Nexus N5k	7.3(0)N1(1) and later
Cisco Nexus N6k	7.3(0)N1(1) and later
Cisco Nexus N7k	7.3(0)D1(1) and later
Cisco Nexus MDS	8.4(1) and later

Platform Models
Platform	Description
N3k	Support includes N30xx, N31xx and N35xx models
N5k	Support includes all N5xxx models
N6k	Support includes all N6xxx models
N7k	Support includes all N7xxx models
N9k	Support includes all N9xxx models
MDS	Support includes all MDS 9xxx models