cisco.nxos.nxos_snapshot module – Manage snapshots of the running states of selected features.

Note

This module is part of the cisco.nxos collection (version 2.9.1).

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 cisco.nxos.

To use it in a playbook, specify: cisco.nxos.nxos_snapshot.

New in version 1.0.0: of cisco.nxos

Synopsis

  • Create snapshots of the running states of selected features, add new show commands for snapshot creation, delete and compare existing snapshots.

Note

This module has a corresponding action plugin.

Parameters

Parameter

Comments

action

string / required

Define what snapshot action the module would perform.

Choices:

  • add

  • compare

  • create

  • delete

  • delete_all

compare_option

string

Snapshot options to be used when action=compare.

Choices:

  • summary

  • ipv4routes

  • ipv6routes

comparison_results_file

string

Name of the file where snapshots comparison will be stored when action=compare.

description

string

Snapshot description to be used when action=create.

element_key1

string

Specify the tags used to distinguish among row entries, to be used when action=add.

element_key2

string

Specify the tags used to distinguish among row entries, to be used when action=add.

path

string

Specify the path of the file where new created snapshot or snapshots comparison will be stored, to be used when action=create and save_snapshot_locally=true or action=compare.

Default: “./”

provider

dictionary

Deprecated

Starting with Ansible 2.5 we recommend using connection: network_cli.

Starting with Ansible 2.6 we recommend using connection: httpapi for NX-API.

This option will be removed in a release after 2022-06-01.

For more information please see the https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/network/user_guide/platform_nxos.html.

A dict object containing connection details.

auth_pass

string

Specifies the password to use if required to enter privileged mode on the remote device. If authorize is false, then this argument does nothing. If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable ANSIBLE_NET_AUTH_PASS will be used instead.

authorize

boolean

Instructs the module to enter privileged mode on the remote device before sending any commands. If not specified, the device will attempt to execute all commands in non-privileged mode. If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable ANSIBLE_NET_AUTHORIZE will be used instead.

Choices:

  • no ← (default)

  • yes

host

string

Specifies the DNS host name or address for connecting to the remote device over the specified transport. The value of host is used as the destination address for the transport.

password

string

Specifies the password to use to authenticate the connection to the remote device. This is a common argument used for either cli or nxapi transports. If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable ANSIBLE_NET_PASSWORD will be used instead.

port

integer

Specifies the port to use when building the connection to the remote device. This value applies to either cli or nxapi. The port value will default to the appropriate transport common port if none is provided in the task. (cli=22, http=80, https=443).

ssh_keyfile

string

Specifies the SSH key to use to authenticate the connection to the remote device. This argument is only used for the cli transport. If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable ANSIBLE_NET_SSH_KEYFILE will be used instead.

timeout

integer

Specifies the timeout in seconds for communicating with the network device for either connecting or sending commands. If the timeout is exceeded before the operation is completed, the module will error. NX-API can be slow to return on long-running commands (sh mac, sh bgp, etc).

transport

string

Configures the transport connection to use when connecting to the remote device. The transport argument supports connectivity to the device over cli (ssh) or nxapi.

Choices:

  • cli ← (default)

  • nxapi

use_proxy

boolean

If no, the environment variables http_proxy and https_proxy will be ignored.

Choices:

  • no

  • yes ← (default)

use_ssl

boolean

Configures the transport to use SSL if set to yes only when the transport=nxapi, otherwise this value is ignored.

Choices:

  • no ← (default)

  • yes

username

string

Configures the username to use to authenticate the connection to the remote device. This value is used to authenticate either the CLI login or the nxapi authentication depending on which transport is used. If the value is not specified in the task, the value of environment variable ANSIBLE_NET_USERNAME will be used instead.

validate_certs

boolean

If no, SSL certificates will not be validated. This should only be used on personally controlled sites using self-signed certificates. If the transport argument is not nxapi, this value is ignored.

Choices:

  • no ← (default)

  • yes

row_id

string

Specifies the tag of each row entry of the show command’s XML output, to be used when action=add.

save_snapshot_locally

boolean

Specify to locally store a new created snapshot, to be used when action=create.

Choices:

  • no ← (default)

  • yes

section

string

Used to name the show command output, to be used when action=add.

show_command

string

Specify a new show command, to be used when action=add.

snapshot1

string

First snapshot to be used when action=compare.

snapshot2

string

Second snapshot to be used when action=compare.

snapshot_name

string

Snapshot name, to be used when action=create or action=delete.

Notes

Note

  • Tested against NXOSv 7.3.(0)D1(1) on VIRL

  • Unsupported for Cisco MDS

  • transport=cli may cause timeout errors.

  • The element_key1 and element_key2 parameter specify the tags used to distinguish among row entries. In most cases, only the element_key1 parameter needs to specified to be able to distinguish among row entries.

  • action=compare will always store a comparison report on a local file.

  • For information on using CLI and NX-API see the NXOS Platform Options guide

  • For more information on using Ansible to manage network devices see the Ansible Network Guide

  • For more information on using Ansible to manage Cisco devices see the Cisco integration page.

Examples

# Create a snapshot and store it locally
- cisco.nxos.nxos_snapshot:
    action: create
    snapshot_name: test_snapshot
    description: Done with Ansible
    save_snapshot_locally: true
    path: /home/user/snapshots/

# Delete a snapshot
- cisco.nxos.nxos_snapshot:
    action: delete
    snapshot_name: test_snapshot

# Delete all existing snapshots
- cisco.nxos.nxos_snapshot:
    action: delete_all

# Add a show command for snapshots creation
- cisco.nxos.nxos_snapshot:
    section: myshow
    show_command: show ip interface brief
    row_id: ROW_intf
    element_key1: intf-name

# Compare two snapshots
- cisco.nxos.nxos_snapshot:
    action: compare
    snapshot1: pre_snapshot
    snapshot2: post_snapshot
    comparison_results_file: compare_snapshots.txt
    compare_option: summary
    path: ../snapshot_reports/

Return Values

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

Key

Description

commands

list / elements=string

commands sent to the device

Returned: verbose mode

Sample: [“snapshot create post_snapshot Post-snapshot”]

Authors

  • Gabriele Gerbino (@GGabriele)