ansible.netcommon.network_cli connection – Use network_cli to run command on network appliances

Note

This connection plugin is part of the ansible.netcommon collection (version 2.6.1).

You might already have this collection installed if you are using the ansible package. It is not included in ansible-core. To check whether it is installed, run ansible-galaxy collection list.

To install it, use: ansible-galaxy collection install ansible.netcommon.

To use it in a playbook, specify: ansible.netcommon.network_cli.

New in version 1.0.0: of ansible.netcommon

Synopsis

  • This connection plugin provides a connection to remote devices over the SSH and implements a CLI shell. This connection plugin is typically used by network devices for sending and receiving CLi commands to network devices.

Requirements

The below requirements are needed on the local controller node that executes this connection.

  • ansible-pylibssh if using ssh_type=libssh

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

become

boolean

The become option will instruct the CLI session to attempt privilege escalation on platforms that support it. Normally this means transitioning from user mode to enable mode in the CLI session. If become is set to True and the remote device does not support privilege escalation or the privilege has already been elevated, then this option is silently ignored.

Can be configured from the CLI via the --become or -b options.

Choices:

  • no ← (default)

  • yes

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [privilege_escalation]
become = no

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_BECOME

  • Variable: ansible_become

become_errors

string

This option determines how privilege escalation failures are handled when become is enabled.

When set to ignore, the errors are silently ignored. When set to warn, a warning message is displayed. The default option fail, triggers a failure and halts execution.

Choices:

  • ignore

  • warn

  • fail ← (default)

Configuration:

  • Variable: ansible_network_become_errors

become_method

string

This option allows the become method to be specified in for handling privilege escalation. Typically the become_method value is set to enable but could be defined as other values.

Default: “sudo”

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [privilege_escalation]
become_method = sudo

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_BECOME_METHOD

  • Variable: ansible_become_method

host

string

Specifies the remote device FQDN or IP address to establish the SSH connection to.

Default: “inventory_hostname”

Configuration:

  • Variable: ansible_host

host_key_auto_add

boolean

By default, Ansible will prompt the user before adding SSH keys to the known hosts file. Since persistent connections such as network_cli run in background processes, the user will never be prompted. By enabling this option, unknown host keys will automatically be added to the known hosts file.

Be sure to fully understand the security implications of enabling this option on production systems as it could create a security vulnerability.

Choices:

  • no ← (default)

  • yes

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [paramiko_connection]
host_key_auto_add = no

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_HOST_KEY_AUTO_ADD

host_key_checking

boolean

Set this to “False” if you want to avoid host key checking by the underlying tools Ansible uses to connect to the host

Choices:

  • no

  • yes ← (default)

Configuration:

  • INI entries:

    [defaults]
host_key_checking = yes

    [persistent_connection]
host_key_checking = yes

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_HOST_KEY_CHECKING

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_SSH_HOST_KEY_CHECKING

  • Variable: ansible_host_key_checking

  • Variable: ansible_ssh_host_key_checking

import_modules

boolean

Reduce CPU usage and network module execution time by enabling direct execution. Instead of the module being packaged and executed by the shell, it will be directly executed by the Ansible control node using the same python interpreter as the Ansible process. Note- Incompatible with asynchronous mode. Note- Python 3 and Ansible 2.9.16 or greater required. Note- With Ansible 2.9.x fully qualified modules names are required in tasks.

Choices:

  • no ← (default)

  • yes

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [ansible_network]
import_modules = no

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_NETWORK_IMPORT_MODULES

  • Variable: ansible_network_import_modules

network_cli_retries

integer

Number of attempts to connect to remote host. The delay time between the retires increases after every attempt by power of 2 in seconds till either the maximum attempts are exhausted or any of the persistent_command_timeout or persistent_connect_timeout timers are triggered.

Default: 3

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [persistent_connection]
network_cli_retries = 3

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_NETWORK_CLI_RETRIES

  • Variable: ansible_network_cli_retries

network_os

string

Configures the device platform network operating system. This value is used to load the correct terminal and cliconf plugins to communicate with the remote device.

Configuration:

  • Variable: ansible_network_os

password

string

Configures the user password used to authenticate to the remote device when first establishing the SSH connection.

Configuration:

  • Variable: ansible_password

  • Variable: ansible_ssh_pass

  • Variable: ansible_ssh_password

persistent_buffer_read_timeout

float

Configures, in seconds, the amount of time to wait for the data to be read from Paramiko channel after the command prompt is matched. This timeout value ensures that command prompt matched is correct and there is no more data left to be received from remote host.

Default: 0.1

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [persistent_connection]
buffer_read_timeout = 0.1

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_PERSISTENT_BUFFER_READ_TIMEOUT

  • Variable: ansible_buffer_read_timeout

persistent_command_timeout

integer

Configures, in seconds, the amount of time to wait for a command to return from the remote device. If this timer is exceeded before the command returns, the connection plugin will raise an exception and close.

Default: 30

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [persistent_connection]
command_timeout = 30

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_PERSISTENT_COMMAND_TIMEOUT

  • Variable: ansible_command_timeout

persistent_connect_timeout

integer

Configures, in seconds, the amount of time to wait when trying to initially establish a persistent connection. If this value expires before the connection to the remote device is completed, the connection will fail.

Default: 30

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [persistent_connection]
connect_timeout = 30

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_PERSISTENT_CONNECT_TIMEOUT

  • Variable: ansible_connect_timeout

persistent_log_messages

boolean

This flag will enable logging the command executed and response received from target device in the ansible log file. For this option to work ‘log_path’ ansible configuration option is required to be set to a file path with write access.

Be sure to fully understand the security implications of enabling this option as it could create a security vulnerability by logging sensitive information in log file.

Choices:

  • no ← (default)

  • yes

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [persistent_connection]
log_messages = no

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_PERSISTENT_LOG_MESSAGES

  • Variable: ansible_persistent_log_messages

port

integer

Specifies the port on the remote device that listens for connections when establishing the SSH connection.

Default: 22

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [defaults]
remote_port = 22

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_REMOTE_PORT

  • Variable: ansible_port

private_key_file

string

The private SSH key or certificate file used to authenticate to the remote device when first establishing the SSH connection.

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [defaults]
private_key_file = None

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_PRIVATE_KEY_FILE

  • Variable: ansible_private_key_file

remote_user

string

The username used to authenticate to the remote device when the SSH connection is first established. If the remote_user is not specified, the connection will use the username of the logged in user.

Can be configured from the CLI via the --user or -u options.

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [defaults]
remote_user = None

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_REMOTE_USER

  • Variable: ansible_user

single_user_mode

boolean

added in 2.0.0 of ansible.netcommon

This option enables caching of data fetched from the target for re-use. The cache is invalidated when the target device enters configuration mode.

Applicable only for platforms where this has been implemented.

Choices:

  • no ← (default)

  • yes

Configuration:

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_NETWORK_SINGLE_USER_MODE

  • Variable: ansible_network_single_user_mode

ssh_type

string

The type of the transport used by network_cli connection plugin to connection to remote host. Valid value is either paramiko or libssh

In order to use libssh, the ansible-pylibssh package needs to be installed

Default: “paramiko”

Configuration:

  • INI entry:

    [persistent_connection]
ssh_type = paramiko

  • Environment variable: ANSIBLE_NETWORK_CLI_SSH_TYPE

  • Variable: ansible_network_cli_ssh_type

terminal_inital_prompt_newline

boolean

This boolean flag, that when set to True will send newline in the response if any of values in terminal_initial_prompt is matched.

Choices:

  • no

  • yes ← (default)

Configuration:

  • Variable: ansible_terminal_initial_prompt_newline

terminal_initial_answer

list / elements=string

The answer to reply with if the terminal_initial_prompt is matched. The value can be a single answer or a list of answers for multiple terminal_initial_prompt. In case the login menu has multiple prompts the sequence of the prompt and excepted answer should be in same order and the value of terminal_prompt_checkall should be set to True if all the values in terminal_initial_prompt are expected to be matched and set to False if any one login prompt is to be matched.

Configuration:

  • Variable: ansible_terminal_initial_answer

terminal_initial_prompt

list / elements=string

A single regex pattern or a sequence of patterns to evaluate the expected prompt at the time of initial login to the remote host.

Configuration:

  • Variable: ansible_terminal_initial_prompt

terminal_initial_prompt_checkall

boolean

By default the value is set to False and any one of the prompts mentioned in terminal_initial_prompt option is matched it won’t check for other prompts. When set to True it will check for all the prompts mentioned in terminal_initial_prompt option in the given order and all the prompts should be received from remote host if not it will result in timeout.

Choices:

  • no ← (default)

  • yes

Configuration:

  • Variable: ansible_terminal_initial_prompt_checkall

terminal_stderr_re

list / elements=dictionary

This option provides the regex pattern and optional flags to match the error string from the received response chunk. This option accepts pattern and flags keys. The value of pattern is a python regex pattern to match the response and the value of flags is the value accepted by flags argument of re.compile python method to control the way regex is matched with the response, for example ‘re.I’.

Configuration:

  • Variable: ansible_terminal_stderr_re

terminal_stdout_re

list / elements=dictionary

A single regex pattern or a sequence of patterns along with optional flags to match the command prompt from the received response chunk. This option accepts pattern and flags keys. The value of pattern is a python regex pattern to match the response and the value of flags is the value accepted by flags argument of re.compile python method to control the way regex is matched with the response, for example ‘re.I’.

Configuration:

  • Variable: ansible_terminal_stdout_re

Authors

  • Ansible Networking Team (@ansible-network)

Hint

Configuration entries for each entry type have a low to high priority order. For example, a variable that is lower in the list will override a variable that is higher up.